Physical Educators’ Concerns about Integrating Children with Disabilities: A Cross-Cultural Comparison

The purpose was to conduct a qualitative cross-cultural comparison of the concerns of physical educators in two countries about integration of children with and without disabilities. In-depth interviews were held with 30 regular elementary physical education teachers in Berlin (7 males, 9 females) and in the Dallas-Ft. Worth (DFW) area (2 males, 12 females), and observations were made of school settings. The Concerns-Based Adoption Model (CBAM) of Hall, Wallace, and Dossett (1973) guided the study. Data were analyzed by grounded theory procedures. Many concerns about integration were generalizable across cultures. In both countries, teachers reported concerns at only four of the seven stages of CBAM: personal, management, consequence, and collaboration. Most concerns focused on management. The major cultural difference was that DFW teachers reported more personal concerns (uncertainty about everyday demands and competence to meet these demands) than Berlin teachers. A dynamic systems model was proposed to guide future research.