A shortage of athletic trainers as healthcare providers in the collegiate and secondary school settings has placed a spotlight on higher education graduate programs to graduate competent professionals. Through the analysis of program data collected from athletic training education program directors across the United States, this retrospective study examined whether specific clinical education and faculty characteristics impact outcomes on the Board of Certification (BOC) examination. Current studies in athletic training are limited, and this study addresses a gap in research. Findings suggest the number of maximum clinical hours per week and number of dual-appointed faculty (those that serve as academic instructors and practice clinically) were predictive of BOC three-year aggregate first-time exam pass rates for athletic training education programs.
Physical education teacher education faculty members navigate complex and often competing expectations related to their roles which can contribute to sustained emotional exhaustion and burnout. Recently, further attention has been given to the ways in which employees recalibrate their engagement with work in response to ongoing strain; however, little is known about how this phenomenon manifests within physical education teacher education. This qualitative study explored how faculty members in the US experience and respond to the strain they experience as part of their professional responsibilities. Findings indicate that faculty members experienced cumulative emotional exhaustion associated with role overload, blurred work-life boundaries, and sociopolitical pressures within academic environments. Participants described engaging in adaptive and maladaptive coping strategies, including boundary setting, selective disengagement from non-evaluative labor, and a recalibration of professional priorities.
Scientific practice is not a purely objective, value-free enterprise but one shaped by historical and sociocultural conditions. Existing scholarship shows kinesiology's scientific practices have historically been shaped by anti-black assumptions about physiological capacity, yet little is known about how anti-blackness persists today. Employing Afro-pessimist and Black feminist theory, this article explores how 10 Black women doctoral scholars perceive the operation of anti-blackness kinesiology. Semi-structured interviews and thematic analysis revealed three themes: anti-black participant recruitment, resisting and reifying obesity discourse, and the consequences of monocultural complicity. Findings show anti-blackness manifests through misogynoir in the exclusion of Black women from exercise research, monocultural language around obesity, and graduate training that fails to address culture and racial injustice - revealing a need and desire for epistemological expansion. These findings call for kinesiology to move beyond simply acknowledging its exclusionary past and toward rebuilding its scientific tools and standards with equity at the center.
Physical literacy provides the competencies to engage in health-enhancing physical activity. Physical literacy is inclusive of all, yet there is a scarcity of data on physical literacy in those experiencing disability. Participants were 3,964 post-primary students. Disability type, age, gender, and family affluence were recorded. Physical literacy was measured via self-report. Differences in physical literacy by disability type were analyzed using one-way MANOVA. Age, gender, and family affluence effects on physical literacy were analyzed using three-way MANOVA. Disability type had an effect on cognitive, affective, and physical domains of physical literacy (effect sizes; eta 2 = .036, .033, .073 respectively). Those with motoric disabilities and multiple disabilities were consistently in the lowest groups across all domains. Being female and/or of low family affluence negatively impacted physical literacy. Interventions should focus on improving physical literacy in adolescents experiencing disabilities, particularly those with motoric or multiple disabilities, and those from low family affluence.
