Autoethnography of a Novice Teacher’s Assessment Literacy in Elementary Physical Education

Abstract

Purpose: The purpose of this study was to examine how a novice teacher (researcher) has developed his assessment literacy in elementary physical education (PE), and thereby investigating what cultural, micropolitical and sociological factors have impacted on his enactment of assessment literacy. Method: Adopting autoethnography, this study investigated theresearcher as a subject and an object of research in the pursuit of extending the personal to the social. The 4 years of narrative data collected from the researcher’s reflective journals, self-recalling, and artefacts on PE assessment were analysed using structural narrative analysis and reiterative process. Findings and discussion: The findings revealed that thenovice teacher developed his assessment literacy in a chronological order: (a) assessment illiterate, (b) assessment literate, and (c) assessment aliterate. The cultural, micropolitical and sociological factors that have impacted on the teachers’ enactment of assessment literacy were discussed: (a) rampant complacency in elementary teaching culture: a bad judge or a good bystander?, (b) uniform culture of grade-level teams, and (c) distorted PE professionalism focusing on “hows”, not “whys”. Conclusion: The novice teacher’s enactment of assessment literacy in elementary PE was not only related to himself but also to the school culture, grade level team, and PE professionalism where he belonged.

Keywords

• physical education assessment
• elementary physical education
• assessment literacy
• autoethnography
• novice teacher