Transcultural impact of learning to teach sport education on preservice teachers’ perceived teaching competence, autonomy, and academic motivation

Purpose: To compare the impact of the experience of learning to teach sport education on preservice teachers’ (from Spain, Chile, and Mexico) perceived professional competence, autonomy, and academic motivation and to explore participants’ perceptions of their country’s sociocultural and curricular aspects that may influence sport education implementation. Method: Framed by the “pedagogy of dialogue” and a “living the curriculum” approach, three consecutive miniseasons on alternative invasion games were enacted (n = 30 lessons). A quasi-experimental pre- and posttest mixed-methods design was followed, with a total of 163 preservice teachers. The quantitative data on preservice teachers’ teaching competence, autonomy, and academic motivation were collected through three validated questionnaires. Focus group interviews and field notes were used to gather qualitative information. Results: The main quantitative analysis exposed no relevant differences among the transcultural sample of preservice teachers related to the analyzed variables. Qualitative analysis showed the power of contextual factors to filter preservice teachers’ understanding of the model. Conclusions: The dialogical nature of the approach and the miniseason structure allowed the preservice teachers to achieve a better understanding of the pedagogy of sport education and to optimize their motivation to use it in the future. The rigidity of the national curriculum and the custodial nature of school reality, however, present strong barriers to this end.