The Academization of Physical Education Teacher Training a Discourse Analysis Case Study

This article reports a case study of the rhetoric means used to construct and present an "academic" program of teacher training in physical education. It examines the struggle of the physical education teachers in Israel for professional recognition as a discoursive event: The introduction of a new degree, and a new institutional name, together with newly defined goals, entry requirements and curriculum, and the use of new terms, borrowed from the university lexicon, such as "academic", "discipline", "seminar", "methodology", "empirical" "science" etc. - all create a new semantic system which helps to present the physical education teacher training as more academic and more professional.