Teaching Physical Education: The Challenge for Further Education and Training Life Orientation Teachers in a Rural Area

Abstract The purpose of this inquiry was to explore and describe the implementation of the Physical Education (PE) outcome by Life Orientation teachers in the Further Education and Training (FET)1 phase in rural schools in the Mpumalanga Province. The researchers adopted a qualitative approach in order to explore and describe each of the contexts in which the PE outcome was taught. The paper included a case study of three schools, as well as a survey of all 25 schools in the district, which is the focus of this paper. The findings discovered a non-alignment of the implementation of the PE outcome to the National Curriculum Statement (NCS). As a result, implementing the PE outcome was extremely difficult for these Life Orientation teachers. While conducting the study, the researchers were able to identify the numerous problems facing the Life Orientation teachers implementing the PE outcome in these rural schools.