PEDAGOGICAL PRAXIS OF MILLENNIAL TEACHERS IN MAINSTREAMED PHYSICAL EDUCATION

Whereas the motto of the United Nations? 2030 Agenda for Sustainable Development is ?Leave no one behind?, it serves as a guiding principle for all to work towards an inclusive society.As Physical Education (PE) serves as a fertile ground for expressions of supportive milieu, the new generation of PE teachers should seize this opportunity to become advocates of mainstreaming students with additional needs in order to achieve substantive equality for all in schools. Pursuing this endeavor, understanding the meaning of their experiences in mainstreaming may give a glimpse of the current perspectives and viewpoints that are vital in the formulation of appropriate intervention for improved inclusive instruction in the 21st century. This Heideggerian phenomenological study using one-on-one unstructured interviews was used to explore the meaning of the lived experience of the seventeen (17) purposively selected millennial teachers in mainstreamed PE classrooms in Cebu City and Cebu Province, Philippines. Using hermeneutical analysis, it was deduced that while they see mainstreaming as a wonderful concept, their experiences on it had apparently captured A Reflection of a Wider Problem on Inclusion in Academia as an overarching theme that encapsulated how PE teachers today subsisted the multifaceted issues and challenges on mainstreaming. This journey was specified through the subthemes: A Test of Pedagogical Competence, Multifaceted Contextual Inclusion Challenges, Fete of Teacher?s Complex Support Roles and Risk of Curriculum Infidelity. The findings implicate that pedagogies that ?fit all? do not guarantee the best possible learning outcomes and, teachers who represent only as ?teacher? do not foster inclusive ethos to their students. Achieving these expectations can be daunting, thus, it is recommended that education administrators to conduct capacity building opportunities to the faculty and staff for in-depth theoretical knowledge and practical understanding on the concept and application of inclusive education.