Vasenkätisten liikunnanopettajien kokemuksia vasenkätisyyden merkityksestä liikunnanopettajan ammatissa

Pöyhtäri, Saana (2015). Left-handed physical education teachers’ experiences on the meaning of left-handedness in the profession of a P.E. teacher. Department of Physical Education, University of Jyväskylä, Master’s thesis, 97 p., 4 appendicies. The purpose of this study was to examine the experiences of left-handed physical education (PE) teachers on the meaning of left-handedness in their profession. The primary goal of the study was to describe and understand how left-handed PE teachers feel their left-handedness affects their work and how this experience has changed over the years. In addition, the study attempted to shed some light on as to how left-handed PE teachers would develop the PE teacher training in order for future teachers to have even greater possibilities to take into account handedness in their teaching. The study was qualitative and based on phenomenology. It consists of 6 semi-structured theme interviews conducted with left-handed PE teachers in different of Finland in October-November of 2009. Three of the interviewees were men and three were women, aged between 31 and 44. They had work experience ranging from three to sixteen years. The interviews were 28 to 60 minutes long and they produced 146 pages of transcribed text in total (font Times New Roman 12, line spacing 1,5). The data were analyzed according to Eskola and Vastamäki (2010) and their phased analysis. The study shows that left-handed PE teachers emphasize the importance of handedness in their profession and their expertise only to a limited amount. All teachers considered their lefthandedness a rather mundane and unnoticeable feature which their colleagues and pupils normally paid no attention to and which needed no paying attention to either. On the other hand, teachers admitted debating their handedness with conflicting emotions and mentioned they had missed the support and acceptance of their community. Moreover, they emphasized that lefthanded pupils must be taken into account if necessary in PE lessons as well as in school life in general. Furthermore, the teachers stated that in the beginning of their careers left-handedness had been more apparent e.g. in situations where they had to show pupils something, plan lessons or order new sports equipment whereas now they were more focused on pupils. Left-handedness reminded them of noticing all pupils and enriching their practices in different sports to develop the entire body and all of its motor functions. On the other hand, a few teachers also pondered upon the exertion of showing the right-handed manner to perform a sport because it was unfamiliar to them based on their left-handedness. This would require further research in the future. PE teachers experienced that they had received little, if any knowledge or abilities on how to pay attention to their own or their pupils’ left-handedness during their PE teacher training. According to the teachers and in the light of current research, there is a need to take handedness into account and to also pay attention to other lateral motor functions already in PE teacher training. PE teachers also stressed the importance of dealing with these issues from the point of view of physical education, not that of competitive sports.