Purpose: The purpose of this study was to explore how urban physical educators’ experiences influence their motivations toward vocational persistence emphasizing health and fitness. Methods: Participants included 16 urban physical educators who participated in semistructured interviews about their experiences teaching in urban settings. For minority youths, who predominantly attend urban public schools, fitness rates are lower than the national average. Physical education has been discussed as a potential solution to combating this public health trend; however, considering Common Core reforms in public education by which health and physical education has been de-emphasized as a curricular requirement, scholars are pursuing knowledge of how the experiences of urban physical educators are evolving. Using occupational socialization as the operating theoretical framework, this study seeks to explore how 16 urban physical educators’ experiences are evolving with the changes in public education, including administrative support and other indicators of marginalization and attrition. Results: Qualitative data analysis resulted in the construction of six themes which suggest that teaching students to develop and maintain a healthy lifestyle remains a powerful motivator for urban physical educators’ persistence despite feelings of marginalization and burnout. Conclusions: The authors provide practical suggestions for practitioners and scholars to overcome feelings of marginalization and lack of resources.

目的： 本研究的目的是探讨城市体育教育者的经历如何影响他们坚持强调健康和健身的职业动机。方法： 参与者包括 16 名城市体育教育工作者，他们参加了半结构化访谈，了解他们在城市环境中的教学经历。对于主要在城市公立学校就读的少数民族青少年来说，健康率低于全国平均水平。体育教育已被视为对抗这一公共卫生趋势的潜在解决方案；然而，考虑到公共教育的共同核心改革不再强调健康和体育教育作为课程要求，学者们正在寻求了解城市体育教育者的经验是如何演变的。本研究以职业社会化为操作理论框架，旨在探讨 16 名城市体育教育工作者的经验如何随着公共教育的变化而演变，包括行政支持和其他边缘化和自然减员指标。 结果：定性数据分析得出了六个主题，这些主题表明，尽管存在边缘化和倦怠感，但教导学生发展和保持健康的生活方式仍然是城市体育教育者坚持不懈的强大动力。结论： 作者为从业者和学者克服边缘化和缺乏资源的感觉提供了实用的建议。