As classrooms in the United States have become increasingly diverse and multicultural, it’s become more important for teachers to have cultural competency skills. Culturally responsive pedagogy in physical education supports engagement and learning among diverse learners (Weinstein, Curran, & Tomlinson-Clarke, 2003; Weinstein, Tomlinson-Clarke, & Curran, (2004).

Culturally competent physical educators acknowledge the cultural background of their students, advocate for ethnic groups, and make connections between students’ homes and school experiences. Moreover, culturally competent physical educators set high expectations for their students and utilize various teaching strategies to support multiple learning styles (Gay, 2000).

In their behaviors and methods” culturally competent physical educators exhibit an underlying “caring moral.” For example, both caring and culturally competent teachers have high expectations for their students despite cultural differences; they recognize students’ needs and are capable of developing close connections with their students. They create warm, encouraging classroom environments that emphasize learning. In this article I’ll explain how a “caring moral” is the underlying force guiding and supporting cultural competencies among physical education teachers.

More and more states are adopting the Common Core State Standards (CCSS) while the student population, in the United States, is rapidly becoming more diverse. The CCSS aim to prepare students for College and Career Readiness (CCR). As the new direction of today’s educational reform, CCR is defined as the preparation of high school graduates to enter college courses and/or workforce-training programs (Mills, 2012) successfully. The CCSS intend to set consistent expectations for all students across states. Individual districts or schools however, are still responsible for designing content, instructional strategies and assessments in order to meet these expectations.

Literacy and mathematical skills are a primary focus of the CCSS and technical subjects -physical education and art – are expected to support and promote such skills. Thus, the CCSS evoke the need for a more cross-disciplinary educational approach requiring more explicit instructions regarding reading, writing, speaking, listening as well as critical thinking and problem solving skills, by all educators. In other words, infusing the above components into physical education programs is no longer a choice but rather a requirement.

Commonly, most high-quality physical education programs do provide opportunities for students to develop motor, cognitive and social skills (Sibley & Etnier 2003; Etnier et al., 1997) along with problem solving, collaboration and communication skills. The expectation implicit in CCSS however, of physical education promoting and supporting mathematics and literacy, puts a greater challenge upon PE programs. Already many physical educators are battling to keep larger size classes of students appropriately engaged in health-enhancing levels of physical activity.

This article points out how a high-quality physical education programs could -if it is not doing so already – promote and support CCR and meet CCSS. With the implementation of commonly used methods and approaches, and the willingness to re-think physical education programs with a multidisciplinary lens, the CCSS could be an attainable challenge.