Purpose: To (a) present a theoretical framework that describes how learners' movement habits become relevant in the development of movement capability and (b) present data that illustrate how this process occurs in practice. Method: An investigation with preservice physical education teachers was conducted in two phases. The first phase involved examining participants' movement habits, and the second phase involved examining the participants' development of novel capabilities in the context of unicycling. Results: Empirical materials from two participants are presented as case studies. The cases demonstrate how different sets of movement habits interact with novel tasks, making the demand for creative action more or less likely. The cases also demonstrate how subjective and physical elements are interwoven. Finally, the cases provide insights into potentially productive habits for movement learning. Discussion/Conclusion: The paper is concluded with pedagogical implications, including a consideration of how crises might be managed in educational contexts.
Purpose: To describe student learning when physical education teacher and students attempted to develop movement capability. Methods: The study reports on the implementation of a 10-lesson pedagogical sequence. Data were generated using observations, interviews, and student diaries with one grade 9 class (26 students aged approximately 15 years) as they developed juggling capabilities. Data were analyzed using the notion of corporeal thresholds. Results: Results show that (a) a "throw-throw-catch-catch" pattern emerged as a corporeal threshold for juggling within the sequence; (b) most learners had crossed the threshold at the outset and were able to experiment with different forms of juggling during the sequence; (c) some students crossed the threshold during the sequence. These students experienced liminal phases, characterized by frustration and an initial feeling that they were juggling in the "wrong" way; and (d) some learners became stuck, pretended to know what to do, and did not cross the threshold during the 10 lessons. Discussion/Conclusion: Three issues related to the threshold approach are discussed: student identity and group membership, the process of learning, and the emotional dimensions of movement learning. This study is concluded with reflections on the implications of the results for scholarship.
Aim: To provide insight into how physical education teachers use discursive resources related to obesity to create particular professional identities.
Method: Data come from focus group and individual interviews with physical education teachers in Sweden. Discourse theory on teacher identities frame the analysis of the empirical material.
Results: Data suggest that teachers in Sweden make use of six distinct but related discursive contributions to produce three professional identities: the caring practitioner, an identity concerned with ensuring all pupils irrespective of size participate in physical education; the activity luminary, an identity that focuses on inspiring pupils toward activity across the lifespan, and; the body rationalist, an identity concerned with challenging unrealistic media discourses and reassuring pupils that they have “normal” bodies.
Discussion: The identities appear more inclusive, sensitive, and critical than current physical education literature on obesity suggests, however they also contain elements that are fundamentally unsympathetic to overweight individuals.
Purpose: The aim of this study was to critically examine previous studies' claims about the magnitude of gender differences and gender inequality in physical education (PE) in Sweden. Method: The data were based on students' (N = 39,980) perceptions of PE and were gathered from four large research projects in Sweden. Three effect size measures (Cramer's V, r squared, and Cohen's d) were calculated for gender differences. Results: In general, there are small gender differences; and after controlling for students' grade, "sports capital," and parents' "educational capital," the differences are practically irrelevant. Conclusion: This study provides compelling evidence that there are small, or even irrelevant, gender differences in students' perceptions of PE in Sweden. Moreover, given that previous research asserts that large gender differences can be used as an indicator of inequality, this study suggests that gender inequality issues related to students' perceptions of PE are relatively small.
The purpose of this article is to explore physical education (PE) teachers' content knowledge of the emerging concept movement capability. Interviews with eight PE teachers were conducted, partly using a stimulated recall technique which involved watching and commenting on video recorded PE lessons. A phenomenographic analysis was used to outline the different ways of conceptualizing movement capability. Five different ways of conceptualizing movement capability were identified, which indicates the complexity of the concept movement capability. However, the result also provides a structure for developing a systematic and structured way of conceiving movement capability. In this study we have highlighted a multifaceted, nuanced and differentiated picture of movement capability to see moving as educationally valuable. We conclude by emphasizing that movement capability should not be restricted to only its constitutive parts as teachers' plan PE teaching, but should be approached as a whole. ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR
A theoretical framework for analyzing and discussing subject content in physical education that takes both learning content and teaching content into consideration is presented. For this purpose, John Dewey’s transactional approach on meaning making (Altman & Rogoff, 1987; Bentley & Dewey, 1991) as well as a discourse theoretical position (Foucault, 1988, 2002; Wetherell, Taylor & Yates, 2001) are
used. On the one hand, this makes it possible to analyze the institutional content and conditions of meaning making in physical education, and on the other to discuss the content offered as one aspect of pupils’ meaning making. An empirical example of the outlined approach is also given from a previous study of local curriculum documents in Swedish physical education (Quennerstedt, 2006a, 2006b). The example illustrates how we can understand aspects of meaning making in physical education and also the research claims made possible using a transactional approach.