The Way They Care: An Ethnography of Social Justice Physical Education Teacher Education

The concept of teacher education (TE) for social justice has limited exploration contexts of historically Black colleges and universities, preservice teachers of color, and physical education teacher education (PETE). To address this gap, I sought to explore how social justice manifested within a historically Black PETE program. Using the ethnographic methods of interviews, observations, and artifact analysis, this article emphasizes one of many major themes that emerged from a larger ethnography—caring. Undergirded by a framework of analysis that viewed teaching and learning as highly contextual and social justice as multifaceted, the results of this study indicated that caring is a form of TE for social justice, and that although teacher educators expressed care individually, it was part of a larger institutional ethos of care.