Building an inclusive - article- page 14 top of page anchor
Building an Inclusive Mindset in Preservice Health and Physical Education Teachers Strategies from the PETE program at Western Colorado University By Kanae Haneishi
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any K-12 health and physical education (HPE) teachers recognize the importance of promoting inclusion (as well as equity and diversity), but not many of them prioritize the concept in daily physical education lessons. First, teachers face a challenge with time. We often hear comments like “I only have two hours per week with students and don’t have time to teach inclusion. Other subjects’ classes can cover inclusion. I need to get students moving and exercising.” Second, many teachers see the value of inclusion, but they aren’t sure how to get started. It’s common to hear “I want to teach inclusion in my class, but I do not know how to do it.” They may also think they need to develop whole new lesson plans for inclusion. That’s not the case. They can simply begin by making a commitment to embed intentionality into their existing lessons.
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Momentum • Fall 2023
A NEW MINDSET Changing the mindset of HPE teachers is the first step for implementing inclusion in physical education — and building an inclusive mindset with preservice teachers during PETE/ HETE programs is one Hunter Mogren (right), a student at Western Colorado University, of the best ways to shift conducts a physical activity session with Special Olympics athletes in Gunnison, CO. the culture in physical education. At Western Colorado University, discussions about JEDI topics at various our undergraduate students engage in points in our classes. I found that most discussions, reflective practices, and current college students are open to numerous field-based experiences to these ideas and support JEDI concepts. support them in developing an inclusive Many of them, though, have never had mindset. opportunities to examine their privileges The message at our university is clear — and learn unconscious bias. we teach for inclusion. For example, Therefore, in our program we start we apply justice, equity, diversity, and with a self-analyzing process. Students are inclusion (JEDI) concepts throughout often surprised by how unintentionally the PETE curriculum. We have they have been excluding some people