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Abstract
The purpose of this study was to examine in-service physical education teachers knowledge and practice in teaching culturally diverse students in elementary schools. The theoretical perspectives that guided this research include symbolic interactionism and situated cognition. This study was a qualitative case study, which examined a purposefully selected three in-service teachers at different schools. Data were collected through interviews, participant observations, and document analysis. Two major research questions guided the examination of this study: The first question focused on the types of knowledge and practices that the in-service teachers used in teaching to diversity in the schools, and the second question concerned types of curriculum and teaching that were culturally relevant in teaching diverse student populations.The grounded theory method guided the data analysis. The findings of the study revealed the participants to be well aware of the different attitudes and behaviors of students from different cultural backgrounds, and they had positive attitude towards cultural diversity. The participants thought the following five aspects were important in successful teaching culturally diverse students: (1) sport as universal language, (2) promotion of positive student identity development through sports, (3) passion for physical education, (4) patience in teaching diverse students, and (5) building a good relationship with students. Furthermore, the participants perceived discipline to be an important consideration in teaching culturally diverse students. However, the curriculum followed by each participant in the current study seemed to be based on the traditional physical education curriculum, which did not reflect any ethnic and cultural values and traditions. Three conclusions were drawn related to in-service physical education teachers teaching culturally diverse students: (1) in-service physical education teachers showed knowledge and practices that are appropriate for teaching culturally diverse students, (2) curriculum of in-service physical education teachers showed lack of multicultural content in their curriculum, and (3) the curriculum guide that the in-service physical education teachers used had physical education standards that disregarded multiculturalism.