ORIGINAL RESEARCH article
Front. Psychol.
Sec. Educational Psychology
Volume 16 - 2025 | doi: 10.3389/fpsyg.2025.1601026
This article is part of the Research TopicPhysical Education for Holistic Educational DevelopmentView all 7 articles
Preservice Physical Education Teachers’ Professional Action Competence in Education for Sustainability: A Mixed Method Research
Provisionally accepted
- 1Haute École Pédagogique du Canton de Vaud, Lausanne, Switzerland
- 2UMR7287 Institut des Sciences du Mouvement Etienne-Jules Marey (ISM), Marseille, Provence-Alpes-Côte d'Azur, France
- 3UR 4671 ADEF - Apprentissage, Didactique, Evaluation, Formation, Faculté des Arts, Lettres, Langues, Sciences humaines, Aix-Marseille Université, Marseille, Provence-Alpes-Côte d'Azur, France
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With the growing emphasis on sustainability, physical education (PE) teachers are expected to incorporate education for sustainability (EfS) into their teaching. Based on a mixed method, this study aimed to assess preservice PE teachers' professional action competence in EfS (PACesd) and identify PACesd profiles. A total of 412 French preservice PE teachers completed a questionnaire measuring PACesd, along with open-ended questions enabling an external assessment of pedagogical content knowledge. Descriptive statistics, correlation analysis, and latent profile analysis were conducted to identify PAC profiles. Thematic analysis based on both qualitative and quantitative approaches was used on open-ended responses, allowing chi-square tests to identify differences across PAC profiles. The results revealed moderate-high perceived pedagogical content knowledge and self-efficacy but low willingness to teach EfS. Four competence profiles emerged, with external assessment revealing key similarities and differences. These results highlight the need for targeted professional development to support EfS integration in PE.
Keywords: Preservice Physical Education Teachers' Professional Action Competence in education for sustainability, Preservice physical education teacher, professional action competence, latent profile analysis, mixed methods research
Received: 27 Mar 2025; Accepted: 05 Jun 2025.
Copyright: © 2025 Royet, Cece, Lentillon-Kaestner, Castéra and Vors. This is an open-access article distributed under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution License (CC BY). The use, distribution or reproduction in other forums is permitted, provided the original author(s) or licensor are credited and that the original publication in this journal is cited, in accordance with accepted academic practice. No use, distribution or reproduction is permitted which does not comply with these terms.
* Correspondence: Thomas Royet, Haute École Pédagogique du Canton de Vaud, Lausanne, Switzerland
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