Gymnastik- och idrottshögskolan, GIH

The 1945 census was the last to record ethnicity in Sweden, and in 1973, registering ethnicity became virtually illegal. Swedish population statistics and official health and social registers therefore do not contain information on the ethnic background of the people registered. Exploring socio-medical and epidemiological research in Sweden from the 1940s to the 1980s, the chapter discusses the tension between ethical and legal constraints on the one hand, and the scientific, administrative, and political need for accurate information on minority and ethnic groups on the other. Three alternative research strategies to substitute for the lack of data on ethnicity are identified: using alternative but related categories such as nationality, country of birth, or immigrant status; “reading ethnicity” from pre-existing data collections; and conducting time-consuming and costly special studies designed to enable researchers to bypass the proscription of ethnic registration. These strategies have produced new epidemiological and socio-medical understandings concerning ethnicity and health/disease. However, as certain groups and categories have been statistically more available or visible in society than others, an uneven body of knowledge has evolved. In effect, some minorities have been spotlighted while others have remained hidden in plain sight.

The overall aim of the article is to present a pragmatic approach for studies of meaning-making used in the articles of this issue. The approach, which is developed within the SMEDgroup (Studies of Meaning-making in Educational Discourses), mainly builds on the writings of John Dewey, Ludwig Wittgenstein and Michel Foucault. A common ambition for the researchers in SMED is to enable studies and discussions on questions concerning how meanings are made in people’s actions. Another ambition is to carry out these studies beyond assumptions of dualism, essentialism, causality and determinism. In this perspective learning and socialization are viewed in a communicative perspective. We argue in the article that our approach makes it possible, and important, to study meaning-making in action in different kinds of educational practices.

En presentation av det didaktiska angreppssättet som ligger till grund för temat Didaktiska undersökningar i Utbildning och demokrati nr 3, 2008.

The overall aim of this paper is to present and discuss a pragmatic approach for studies of meaning-making in different educational practices. The approach – built on a framework developed within the SMED-group (Studies of Meaning-making in Educational Discourses) at the universities of Uppsala and Örebro – is illustrated in a number of empirical studies. The main point of departure in the studies is taken in pragmatic curriculum theory and sociocultural perspectives on learning, and is inspired mainly by John Dewey, Ludwig Wittgenstein and Michel Foucault. A special focus is directed to communication practices and content selection within Physical education, Environmental education and Science education. A common ambition is to offer a language that enables studies and discussions on questions concerning how meanings are made in people’s actions. Another ambition is to make these investigations beyond assumptions of dualisms, essentialism, causality and determinism. In this perspective learning and socialisation is viewed in communicative perspective. Therefore, many of the studies are built on video recorded classroom conversations, but also on analysis of various kinds of written texts. We argue in the paper that this approach makes it possible to study meaning-making – learning and socialisation – in different kinds of educational practices.

I stadslandskapet manifesteras människans makt över naturen. Staden är dynamisk; den skapas och omskapas ständigt i takt med förändrade politiska och kulturella ideal. Dess olika miljöer används – medvetet och omedvetet – för olika typer av lärande. Skolgården och slottsparken kan fungera som budbärare med pedagogiska avsikter för både barn och vuxna, gallerian kan ses som ett klassrum och detaljhandeln som kunskaps- och kulturformande faktorer.           När olika grupper intar det offentliga rummet uppstår nya mötesplatser och samspelsmönster. Ser det sociala samspelet likadant ut i förorten, på handelsgatan och i innerstaden? Hur och när tar exempelvis unga kvinnor staden i besittning?

This paper discusses research about how knowing and teaching is formed as part of the physical activity of skateboarding. Through a four-year project in educations sciences focusing on the cross-roads of mind, body, place and learning, the sensory ethnography approach (Pink 2009) made it possible to explore how knowing was expressed by skateboard coaches in their teaching. The semi-structured character of skateboarding contributed with a setting were the moving body is central, but without the formalized educational framework. To begin with, this methodological approach foregrounded how perception and the senses were involved but also showed the need to go beyond the five-sense sensorium, particularly in relation to understanding the process of teaching and knowing balance and explosiveness, which are both crucial for skateboarding proficiency. Moreover, this research revealed the implications of reflective auto-ethnographic elements in the process of field-work. As a researcher it became apparent how this sensory embeddedness not only informed the research participants’ teaching and knowing, but also my own way of understanding the fleshiness of knowing. In this paper I will explore more deeply the question of the researcher’s route to knowing. To develop this discussion I will build on two existing approaches to defining kinesthetic empathy (Sklar 1998; Parviainen 2003) to suggest how this concept might inform our understandings of how learning is sensory and emplaced (Fors, et al, forthcoming), as well as socio-affective (Tomkins, 1962). In doing so I address related epistemological issues regarding the moving, learning and un/knowing body (e.g. Moyal Sharrock, 2004).

Idrottens landskap förändras. Två tendenser är särskilt tydliga – professionalisering och kommersialisering. I den här boken tar vi upp hur dessa tendenser, tillsammans med andra samhällsprocesser som urbanisering och starkare miljökrav, påverkar idrottens former och dess arenor. Vi beskriver också hur olika tendenser förändrar yrkesroller inom idrotten och hur idrottens kulturella kontexter uppstår i nya skepnader. Inte minst blir vinstinriktade inslag tydligare, ibland parallellt med att värdesystem förändras.

Sport management handlar om att finansiera, planera, organisera, leda, marknadsföra och utvärdera idrott. Sedan femton år tillbaka finns universitetsutbildningar som tar det här kunskaps- och forskningsområdet på största allvar. De flesta författarna i den här boken har varit med och byggt upp dessa utbildningar. De har också forskat och undervisat inom området och på så vis bidragit till fältets expansion och vetenskaplighet såväl i Sverige som internationellt.

Boken är den tredje i en serie om tre böcker om sport management i Sverige. Det är den tredje aktuella boken om sport management på svenska. Det är också den tredje boken som tar utgångspunkt i svenska förhållanden. För professionella inom idrottens administrativa värld och för förtroendevalda inom idrottens organisationer är det här en oumbärlig bok. Den ger bland annat svar på frågorna: Hur hänger medier och marknad ihop inom idrotten? Vad har idrott för betydelse för landskap av olika slag? Hur har idrottens yrken förändrats på senare tid? Hur uppstår nya idrotter och nya konsumtionsmönster? Hur kommer idrotten att ta sig uttryck i framtiden?

[Text från förlaget]

Earlier research proposes that a school’s social environment among staff functions as an important facilitator for physical activity policy/curriculum dissemination, such as support among colleagues, physical activity ideas shared between teachers, as well as having individuals as ‘agents of change’. It is often proclaimed that physical education teachers inhabit these ‘agentic’ roles concerning physical activity and health promotion targeting youth during the school day. Despite this, little seems to have been researched concerning the agentic roles of physical educators and other school staff and their social networks within the school organization. Consequently, this study aims to explore relations among school staff regarding daily physical activity promotion in a Swedish secondary school from a social network perspective.  

This case study applied a convergent mixed method design with an emergent approach, where the qualitative ethnographic data and quantitative survey data were collected around the same time. Data was collected during one full school year from school staff at one secondary school (students aged 12-16 years, grades 7-9) in a larger urban area in Sweden. The sample included all staff within the school that interacts with secondary students, which involves school management, staff and teachers who are responsible for secondary students at some point during the school day, involved in student health or are engaged in physical activity, as well as physical education and health teachers. Our empirical material consists of field notes (180 hours of fieldwork), transcriptions from interviews (12 staff), as well as survey nomination data (23 participants). Qualitative data has been analyzed through a reflexive thematic analysis, and survey data through a social network analysis, and then further combined in an integrated analysis.  

Preliminary results of the current study show that the school staff’s social networks are characterized in different ways within close everyday-discussion colleague networks, peer networks concerning physical activity, and advisory networks regarding physical activity. In the everyday discussions among staff on topics regarding secondary students, physical education teachers are positioned as isolated islands in the networks. While physical education teachers hold a somewhat key role relating to discussions about physical activity, these discussions also go through other, and sometimes more influential, agents. Conflictingly, the physical education teachers still picture themselves as physical activity ambassadors for students’ daily physical activity. This picture is also shared by other school staff. At this school, the results shed light on important issues concerning how the social (network) context among school staff helps promote and inhibit physical activities for the students. 

Syfte och frågeställningar

Denna studie är en ungdomsundersökning genomförd i Longyearbyen på Svalbard, som syftar till att undersöka fritidskulturer hos ungdomar mellan 14-19 år. Ungdomarna ger sin syn på tillvaron i förhållande till sig själva och sin omgivning och beskriver fritidskulturen och de möjligheter till personlig utveckling som finns.

Frågeställningar

1. Hur ser fritidskulturen ut i Longyearbyen enligt ungdomarna? 
2. Vilka resurser och lokaler finns till förfogande och vad prioriteras hos myndigheter? 
3. Är unga tillfredställda med fritidsutbudet och vad som prioriteras? 
4. Finns förutsättningarna till att skapa sig den identiteten man önskar i Longyearbyen?

Metod

Undersökningen är baserad på kvalitativa intervjuer av 9 ungdomar som alla studerade i olika årskurser vid Longyearbyen Skole och har bott i byn under olika lång tid. Intervjuerna har sedan sammanställts och analyserats enligt ett antal teoretiska begrepp och satts i perspektiv till tidigare forskning på området ungdomskulturer.

Resultat

Resultatet visar en ungdomskultur som skiljer sig mot fastlandet och som rör sig som en stor enhet. Identitet och status tar också helt olika utryck i byn som präglas av nära vänskap, närheten till natur och snöskoterkultur. Beroende på hur länge ungdomarna har bott på ön så förändras deras syn på skapandet av en egen identitet, personlig utveckling och vilka aktiviteter som finns att göra i det speciella klimatet.

Slutsats

I stort är ungdomarna nöjda med tillvaron och de möjligheter till utveckling som de har på ön, även om det är mycket som saknas i form av aktiviteter och utvecklandet av en identitet. Personer som har bott länge på ön uppvisar en högre tolerans mot de begränsningar och den isolation som råder på Svalbard än personer som har bott en kortare tid.

Vi är idag ständigt värderade och bedömda: som hyresvärdar på Airbnb, som arbetstagare under utvecklingssamtal och som potentiella partners på Tinder. Detta gäller också för barn i deras vardag. Bedömningar blir ett kvitto på en position i gruppen och i samhället i stort. Med hjälp av olika bedömningsverktyg positionerar vi inte bara oss själva och andra, utan vi blir också positionerade av förväntningar och normsystem. Ingen behöver påpeka att vi bör hålla oss i form, laga mat från grunden eller låta våra barn idrotta och konsumera teaterkultur hellre än att spela Fortnite. I detta självdisciplinerande samhälle kan vi alla se vårt värde i relation till samhälleliga ideal – men det kan också alla andra. Att utvärdera, bedöma och välja den bäst lämpade individen passar väl in i dagens idé om meritokrati. 

Health or not – is that the question? In relation to an international debate as well as an upcoming revision of the syllabi of Physical Education in Sweden, this article discusses the question, whether physical education should consider a limited or an increased commitment towards the goals of public health and a health agenda. With a point of departure in a salutogenic approach the article hopefully adds richness to the perspective of health in physical education. In this way the article contributes to the discussion about health issues in physical education, and whether physical education can be a part of a sustainable health development.

Denna samtalsguide i Idrott och hälsa erbjuder lärare i ämneslag och arbetslag ett konkret verktyg för att reflektera över och samtala om undervisningens innehåll, arbetssätt och bedömning. Den innehåller viktiga slutsatser från Nationella utvärderingen av grundskolan 2003 (NU 03) med en efterföljande reflekterande ansats och diskussionsfrågor att lyfta i skolans olika samtalarenor eller för egen kompetensutveckling.

 In this article, a way to study subject content through analysis of practice near texts (for example local curriculum documents) is presented. With a point of departure in Dewey’s transactional perspective on meaning making as well as a discourse theoretical position, the article suggests that results of pragmatic analysis’ can be considered as investigations of the institutional content and conditions of meaning making. The results of an analysed text content can consequently be discussed as part of meaning making processes. As an example of the approach, results from a study of health in physical education is presented. 

The overall objective of this article is to discuss and problematize the meaning and use of artefacts in physical education by applying a sociocultural perspective to learning and artefacts. An empirical material of video recorded physical education lessons in Sweden is used to illustrate how artefacts in different ways can play a part in meaning making processes in physical education. The results of the study illustrate that a ball can be constituted as a “great toy” and that in the practice of physical education being physically active and an active participant in a certain game is regarded as reasonable. However, the results also illustrate that the ball can be constituted as a “lethal projectile” and a pupil positioned as lazy and unwilling. In the article we argue that empirical studies of “artefacts-in-use” are both important and valuable, as are physical education teachers’ reflections about the role of artefacts in their teaching.

This article does not have an abstract.

The overall objective of this article is to discuss and problematize the meaning and use of artefacts in physical education by applying a sociocultural perspective to learning and artefacts. An empirical material of video recorded physical education lessons in Sweden is used to illustrate how artefacts in different ways can play a part in meaning making processes in physical education. The results of the study illustrate that a ball can be constituted as a “great toy” and that in the practice of physical education being physically active and an active participant in a certain game is regarded as reasonable. However, the results also illustrate that the ball can be constituted as a “lethal projectile” and a pupil positioned as lazy and unwilling. In the article we argue that empirical studies of “artefacts-in-use” are both important and valuable, as are physical education teachers’ reflections about the role of artefacts in their teaching.

A national evaluation of Swedish compulsory schools was undertaken in 2003. This evaluation covers 16 compulsory school subjects in Year 9, including physical education (PE). The PE study includes a sample of 6,788 pupils and 1,688 teachers in Year 9 for background data and school subject comparisons. A questionnaire was also sent to the parents of the 6,788 pupils, and register data was collected on pupils’ final grades and parents’ educational levels. A smaller sample of 2,407 pupils and 82 PE teachers has been used in order to analyse pupils’ and teachers’ attitudes towards PE. The main focus of this article is the subject content in PE, with a particular focus on the teaching, the learning, and the teachers’ and pupils’ attitudes towards the subject. The results of the study show that PE is valued highly by both pupils and parents. Pupils active in sports enjoy PE the most, and the subject content is characterised by enjoyment in movement. The majority of the pupils are physically active during the lessons (85.2 percent), although at the same time a significant minority of the girls are present but inactive during PE. Of all the school subjects in Sweden, PE is the only ‘boyish’ subject and boys attain higher grades, enjoy it more and are more involved in and able to influence the content. The most important determining factors affecting grades in PE are leisure sport activity, parents’ educational levels, gender and cultural capital.

In physical education, bodies are not only moved but made. There are perceived expectations for bodies in physical education to be ‘healthy bodies’*for teachers to be ‘appropriate’ physical, fit, healthy and skilful ‘role models’ and for students to display a slim body that is equated with fitness and health. In teachers’ monitoring of students with the intention of regulating health behaviour, however, the surveillance of students’ bodies and associated assumptions about health practices are implicated in the (re)production of the ‘cult of the body’. In this paper, we consider issues of embodiment and power in a subject area where the visual and active body is central and we use data from Australian and Swedish schools to analyse the discourses of health and embodiment in physical education. In both Swedish and Australian physical education there were discourses related to a fit healthy body and an at risk healthy body. These discourses also acted through a range of techniques of power, particularly regulation and normalisation.

Background: In this paper a study of both subject content and governing processes in Swedish physical education is presented. The reason why an analysis of both content and processes is of special interest is that it makes it possible to understand the encounter between the institutional level and the practice of education.

Purpose: The purpose of the paper is threefold: (1) to analyse the subject content in physical education through identifying discourses embedded in its practice; (2) to illustrate how the subject content is created/re-created in physical education practice through various governing processes; and (3) to discuss how governing processes also become content through the

socialization of students in terms of becoming a certain type of social citizen.

Research design and data collection: The empirical material used is collected in connection with a national evaluation of physical education in Sweden, commissioned by the Swedish Government and the Swedish National Agency for Education. This paper uses local curriculum documents from 72 schools and 15 video-recorded physical education lessons from five schools. A starting point for the methodological framework is discourse theory and the governing perspective developed by Michel Foucault (1978/1991, 1980, 1982/2002). The governing perspective is used as a methodological tool, and we work with two overarching analysis themes: one oriented towards what pupils are governed, in terms of discourses embedded in physical education, and the other how the identified discourses are created/re-created in the practice of physical education. We also use the methodological framework as a tool to discuss how the governing processes also become content—a content of socialization.

Findings: The results show that physical exertion and active participation are the main threads that run though the analysed material. In connection with physical exertion and active participation, pupils are also encouraged to cooperate with others and to compete. The content of socialization is primarily directed towards different components of willingness, for example a will to do one’s best and a will to try, where the pupils are expected to be participatory, take responsibility and govern their own actions in the direction of that which is most reasonable.

Conclusions: A clear message is communicated in physical education in Sweden—be active and work up a sweat. This is also concerned with fostering good character, i.e. creating correct attitudes and approaches through physical activity—be an active and willing person. Physical education is consequently a place where both political volition and the creation of today’s citizens are staged. It is thus not only physical exertion—the physiological effects of exercise and involvement in sports and physical education—that is in the foreground of the activities we study in physical education. It is also about becoming a certain type of social citizen.