APE Professional’s Journey: Words of Wisdom and Insight with Dr. Ron French

This podcast episode featured two APE professionals interviewing Dr. French, who has been a professor in APE for many years. Dr. French credits the beginning of his journey with APE to his parent’s philosophy on diversity and inclusion, which led him to UCLA where he studied what is now called adapted physical education. Dr. French has co-authored many textbooks used in the APE space on subjects like behavior management and physical education. Some of his mentors included his wife, Dr. Lisa Silliman-French, and his fifth grade teacher who ran a local YMCA club that included him as part of the team. After discussing working in research during his time at UCLA with professors who focused on motor development and APE, Dr. French reflected on how the APENS exam most strongly impacted his adapted PE career as it developed a standard in the APE field. When reviewing how he became interested in behavior management, Dr. French stated that it came from a place of survival, of dealing with students in a PE classroom setting and trying to control the classroom. His advice to young professionals was to go beyond professional collaboration and make positive connections with other professionals in the field. Strengths of APE professionals that were listed include specialization in more in depth physical education information, excellent communication skills, and the ability for collaboration between professionals. Challenges for the profession according to Dr. French include a lack of time spent with family and the need for a good statistician to help with professional research. Upon reflecting on his career, Dr. French expressed that he should have collaborated more with his chair, and dived deeper into different types of inclusion research.