Exploring High School Physical Education Dress Code Policies and Practices
Thomas Karyczak
Co-Presenters: Nicholas Paterno, Tyler Scott, Michael Soluri, Anton Updale
College: College of Education
Major: Physical Education/Teacher Certification
Faculty Research Mentor: Edward Olsen
Abstract:
Title: Exploring High School Physical Education Dress Code Policies and PracticesAuthors: Thomas Karyczak, Nicholas Paterno, Tyler Ryan Scott, Michael Soluri, and Anton UpdaleAbstract:Changing attire for physical education has been a common practice, particularly in secondary schools. This practice aimed to promote proper hygiene, safety, and physical activity. Despite this goal, students have had mixed experiences changing in the locker room for physical education. For example, some students developed friendships, sang, danced, talked, and/or fooled around (Johansen et al., 2017). Other students reported that the locker room facilities were old, ugly, and dirty. For females, the locker room represented a space where they felt their body was surveyed and judged (Fisette, 2011). About 43.7% of students who were lesbian, gay, bisexual, transgender, and queer (LGBTQ) avoided the locker room because they felt uncomfortable and unsafe (National School Climate Survey [NSCS], 2019). The purpose of this study was to examine school administrators’ perceptions and experiences in planning, communicating, implementing, and evaluating high school physical education dress code policies and practices in New Jersey. A secondary aim was to offer recommendations to improve these policies and practices in New Jersey high schools.The research design was a multicase study (Yin, 2018) and the setting occurred in New Jersey. Participants were school administrators (n = 20) who supervise health and physical education at the high school level in New Jersey as well as high school physical education teachers (n = 10) from the same district. The data sources were interviews (n = 30) and policy documents (n = 10). Data were analyzed using a phronetic iterative approach (Tracy, 2019). Seven preliminary themes were identified: (a) general physical education expectations, (b) physical education dress code, (c) physical education challenges, (d) dressing environment, (e) dress code policy implementation, (f) dress code benefits and drawbacks, and (g) dress code recommendations. The findings suggest that high schools are giving students the option to change for physical education class and this option requires management and consistency among the teachers and buy-in from the community.Keywords: Locker Room, Attire, Physical Activity, Guidelines