Building bridges in teacher education to enhance teachers for students’ diversity in physical education

Following the UNESCO guidelines for Quality Physical Education, this participatory action research study aimed to explore the potential of a Community of Practice (CoP) to empower both schoolteacher educators and preservice teachers (PSTs) to become practitioners–researchers in order to achieve inclusive practices in Physical Education (PE). This study involved a partnership between a university in North Portugal and four cooperating schools. CoP participants were six teacher educators and four cooperating teachers (CTs) who work with twelve PSTs in the schools where they developed their teaching practices. Data collection included focus groups with CoP members and PSTs, CoP meetings, and school placement meetings. A thematic inductive–deductive analysis revealed that CTs were actively engaged in the CoP, achieving mutual involvement and a shared repertoire, and making friendships beyond the CoP. Becoming practitioners–researchers made CTs more critical of their teaching and supervisory roles. Supporting PSTs to be practitioners–researchers was challenging, mostly due to PSTs’ lack of content knowledge, which made it difficult to identify the students’ problems in engaging with the proposed activities and how to solve them. Both CTs and PSTs highlighted the value of the CoP in gaining confidence and knowledge to improve their teaching to become more inclusive.