Characteristics of the Purpose and Method of Qualitative Research on Teaching in Physical Education

Qualitative research on teaching in physical education has suddenly increased in the area of physical education teacher education (PETE) over the past decade in U.S.A. Byra and Karp (2000) surveyed the articles published in the Journal of Teaching in Physical Education and Research Quarterly for Exercise and Sport Science (pedagogy section) between 1988 and 1997. Qualitative research articles on teaching in physical education were 113 (43.8%) in data-based research on teaching in physical education.However interpretive and critical articles (qualitative research) on sports sciences in Japanese major and local 6 journals were very small that were 20 articles (2.44%) between 1990 and 1999 (Cavalli and Fujiwara, 2001). It is very important to know how qualitative research was doing if we try to do qualitative research on teaching in physical education.The purpose of this article is two-fold: (a) to compare the purpose of 8 qualitative research inquires on teaching in physical education in one of the most noted journals in U.S.A. in which PETE research is published, and (b) to compare the method of them.Qualitative research on teaching in physical education had a very wide diversity of the purposes, but it had some similar characteristics that was to understand the participants or to describe the perspective of the participants. And qualitative research was applied various techniques to collect data and to enhance validity and reliability.