Gymnastik- och idrottshögskolan, GIH

The Swedish sports model has traditionally meant that schools are responsible for all children's and young people's physical education, while the sports movement is responsible for the voluntary training and competition in sport. In recent years, this model seems to have changed since schools increasingly offers training in sports during the school day,school sport. This article describes the development of the Swedish school sport system in relation to major school reforms during the last three decades; reforms that have meant that the school system has been decentralized and market-adapted. This article also argues that sport under the period has gained a new meaning for schools. The main conclusions are that societal changes have enabled the sports movement an increased influence on school sport and that the Swedish sports model has changed. In particular, the ideological distinction between school physical education and voluntary competitive sport has been challenged.

Since the late 1980s, the Swedish education system has undergone major changes that resulted in the school system being decentralised, market adjusted, and privatised. This has created local, quasi-markets in which there is a constant struggle for pupils. During the same period, the presence of school sports has increased significantly. The aim of this paper is to elucidate the reasons why schools have chosen to specialise in sports and to determine what makes sports so viable for schools. As an empirical foundation for the study, telephone interviews with principals at 50 selected schools offering school sports were conducted. The results show that the principals experienced increased competition in the local school market, and following Bourdieu's concept of capital, that school sports fill an important need for schools because they bring different forms of important and necessary capital. Furthermore, school sports are valuable due to the diversity and the various meanings and values that society associates with sports. This article shows that a side effect of the market adaptation of the Swedish school system is that school sports have evolved into a marketing product for recruiting pupils.

According to the cultural sociologist Pierre Bourdieu, gaining access to a social space or a position within a social space requires a specific capital. For teachers, this is normally indicated by a valid teaching certificate with relevant subject knowledge. However, when no qualified teachers are available, which is the case for the subject of school sports in Sweden, other assets gain recognition. Drawing on Bourdieu's conceptual framework, this paper examined the conditions for school sports in Sweden, and based on questionnaires answered by 109 teachers, explored the competencies, education and backgrounds teachers in upper secondary school sports possess. The paper address the question: what valuable resources are required to become a teacher of school sports and gain recognition as symbolic capital? The results show that while school sports in Sweden are carried out through a school subject and thus regulated by the government, it is influenced by both the fields of education and sport. Furthermore, the questionnaire results show that a majority of the teachers are employed as coaches instead of teachers and that less than half of them (45%) have a teacher education background, while 95% have a coaching education background. However, the results also show that teachers assessed their competencies for teaching school sports as high, especially with regard to competencies in specific sport skills. In conclusion, this paper shows how coaching education and experience in competitive sports are an important resource required to become a teacher in school sports and is thus recognized as symbolic capital. Therefore, school sports cannot be viewed as a legitimate part of the field of education but can be viewed as a part of the field of sport.