Gymnastik- och idrottshögskolan, GIH

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.

Background

The potential use of exergames in Physical Education and Health is surrounded by a growing discussion among practitioners, policy makers and researchers focusing on different expectations about the games. In this discussion there is, however, a need to further include issues about the learning content offered by these games, how the content is expected to be taught and about the potential consequences the use of games may have for learning and socialisation. This study focus on how meanings about health and the human body are offered by the game: What kind of teaching is delegated to the artifact when used in Physical Education and Health?

Focus of inquiry

The aim of this article is to investigate how images of health and the human body and are taught by using exergames.

Analytical framework and Research methods

The empirical study builds on the use of an analytical tool called “Epistemological move analysis”. Studies of teaching and learning have shown how teachers use different kinds of actions (for example instructive, confirming, re-orienting, generative, re-constructive and evaluative moves) in order to try to direct the meaning making in educational settings. In this study, these categories are used, developed and specified in the context of teaching in Physical Education and Health. The empirical material used consists of video recordings from sessions where the games Wii Fit Plus and EA Sports Active were played.

Research findings

The results of the analyses show how the games offer different kinds of epistemological moves: Instructive moves about the fit body and how to play the game, re-orienting moves used in order to help the players to modify their action towards a more relevant and effective way, generative moves used to help the players to think about how to play the game and confirming move about the players’ gaming. In sum, the “teacher” constituted in the game is a teachers who instructs, confirms and encourages the players to move and exercise their bodies. But it is not a teacher who, in contrast to teaching in other contexts, is able to help the learners to make investigations or to participate in argumentation and discussion about for example images of health and the human body. Teaching in these games is constituted as a behavioral modification focused on an idea about a pre-defined and ideal body not expected to be discussed in education.

Skolämnet idrott och hälsa kallas sedan 1994 allt oftare för ett ”kunskapsämne”. Eleverna ska bland annat utveckla allsidiga rörelseförmågor och lära sig plane- ra, genomföra och värdera rörelseaktiviteter ur olika hälsoperspektiv. Samtidigt har kritik mot undervisningens utformning rests i utvärderingar, inspektioner och forskning. Kritiken gäller bland annat en stark betoning på ”att pröva på” olika fysiska aktiviteter och att undervisningen inte ger eleverna möjligheter att ut- veckla kunskaper i någon djupare mening. Samtidigt framhåller lärare omstän- digheter som försvårar sådan kunskapsutveckling. I den här artikeln redovisas resultat från forskningsprojektet ”Idrott och hälsa – ett ämne för lärande?”, vars syfte var att undersöka undervisnings- och lärprocesser i ämnet.

Referenser

Annerstedt, C. & Redelius, K. (2014) Exploring the relationship between rhetoric and reality with regards to assessment in PE. Presentation vid AIESEP-konferensen i Auckland, Nya Zeeland, 2014-02-11.

Barker, D., Annerstedt, C. & Quennerstedt, M. (kommande) Learning through group work in Physical Education: A symbolic interactionistic ap- proach. Manuskript avsett för publicering i tidskriften Sport, Education and Society.

Barker, D., Quennerstedt, M. & Annerstedt, C. (2013) Inter-student in- teractions and student learning in health and physical education: a post-Vygotskian analysis, Physical Education and Sport Pedagogy, DOI: 10.1080/17408989.2013.868875

Bernstein, B. (1977) Class codes and control, towards a theory of educational transmissions. London: Routledge and Keegan Paul.

Karlefors, I. & Larsson, H. (kommande) Teaching Methods in Physical Edu- cation. Manuskript avsett för publicering i vetenskaplig tidskrift.

Kirk, D. (1996). The sociocultural foundations of human movement. Melbourne: Macmillan Education.

Larsson, H. & Karlefors, I. (kommande) Movement Cultures in Physical Education. Manuskript avsett för publicering i tidskriften Sport, Educa- tion and Society.

Larsson, H., Quennerstedt, M. & Öhman, M. (2014) Heterotopias in Physical Education: Towards a Queer Pedagogy? Gender and Education, 26(2), 135- 150.

Quennerstedt, M., Annerstedt, C., Barker, D., Karlefors, I., Larsson, H., Re- delius, K. & Öhman, M. (2014) What did they learn in school today? A method for exploring aspects of learning in physical education. European Physical Education Review, 20(2), 282-302.

Redelius, K., Quennerstedt, M. & Öhman, M. (kommande) Communicating aims and learning outcomes – part of the teaching practice in physical education? Manuskript avsett för publicering i tidskriften Sport, Educa- tion and Society.

Wertsch, J. V. (1998). Mind as action. Oxford: Oxford University Press.

Introduktion: Studier pekar på att stabila könsmönster dominerar undervisningen i idrott och hälsa (se t ex Brown, 2005; Paechter, 2003). Under det senaste decenniet har vidare ett antal studier om heteronormativitet i ämnet presenterats (Clarke, 2006; Hunter, 2004; Larsson, m fl, 2011a). Larsson, m fl (2011b) hävdar att heteronormer bidrar till att reproducera könsmönstren, inte minst genom att låsa fast elevers kroppar och handlingar vid förment heterosexuella identiteter. Detta fastlåsande hänger delvis samman med idrottslärares benägenhet att vilja ”anpassa” undervisningen efter kön (Larsson, m fl 2010). Sådan ”anpassning” sker alltid i förhållande till ett försanthållande (norm) och bidrar på så vis till reproduktionen av könsmönstren. Med utgångspunkt hos den amerikanske pedagogen Kevin Kumashiro (2004) föreslår Larsson, m fl (2011b) att lärare i idrott och hälsa, istället för att ”anpassa” undervisningen efter kön, ska undervisa paradoxalt (teaching paradoxically) för att utmana könsmönstren. Hittills har det emellertid varit svårt att i litteraturen identifiera vad denna paradoxala undervisning skulle kunna bestå i. Inom ramen för projektet ”Idrott och hälsa – ett ämne för lärande?” utspelades emellertid en lektionssekvens som kan betraktas som en så kallad heterotopi, en plats i rummet där dominerande normer utmanas.

Syfte & teoretisk ram: Syftet med presentationen är att visa en analys av denna heterotopi, detta tillfälle i undervisningen där heteronormer utmanas, avseende dess möjlighetsvillkor. I förlängningen är ambitionen att, utifrån analysen, diskutera normkritisk undervisning i idrott och hälsa i termer av hur kan man undervisa paradoxalt i idrott och hälsa?

Den teoretiska referensramen formas i mötet mellan normkritisk pedagogik (att undervisa paradoxalt) och sociokulturell lärandeteori (se t ex Säljö, 2000). Analytiskt riktas fokus mot heterotopins möjlighetsvillkor, framför allt avseende det sociala sammanhang vari den uppstår (inklusive den aktivitet som står på schemat) samt de normkritiska resurser som lärare och elever ger uttryck för.

Metod: Empirin består av videofilmer av lektioner samt intervjuer med lärare och elever där delar av intervjun kretsar kring filmsnuttar av ”didaktiska ögonblick” (Quennerstedt, m fl, pågående; se även Rønholt, 2002). I presentationen används videofilmer av två lektioner som innehåller undervisning i dans (schottis), där samtal mellan elever och mellan elever och lärare hörs. I intervjuerna med läraren och tre elever som deltog på lektionen ägnas särskild uppmärksamhet åt en situation i samband med dansen, där en elev ifrågasätter tvåkönad dans med hänvisning till sexuell läggning: ”Jag kanske är lesbisk”. När läraren blir uppmärksam på sitt försanthållande att man ”ska” dansa schottis i tvåkönade par, utbrister han: ”Det är min heteronormativitet som spökar.”

Resultat: Av den preliminära analysen framgår att danslektionen erbjuder tillfällen av tydlig heteronormativitet (dans pojke-flicka) som eleverna kan utmana. För att utmana normerna använder sig flickan i exemplet av en argumentationsteknik som ingått i undervisningen i ett annat av skolans ämnen (SO) samt uppmaningar från lärare på utvecklingssamtal att hon ska ”ta för sig mer” i diskussioner i skolan. Läraren förstår situationen utifrån ett begrepp – heteronormativitet – som han tillsammans med klassen har fördjupat sig i under lektioner i ytterligare ett annat ämne (NO).

Diskussion: Vi menar att fallet pekar ut en väg som kan utvecklas mot en normkritisk pedagogik i idrott och hälsa. Se till att skapa situationer där heteronormerna är så tydliga att de blir lättillgängliga för eleverna, utrusta eleverna med redskap för att utmana normerna, utrusta lärarna med redskap för att skapa potentiellt queera situationer samt för att förvalta elevernas utmaningar av heteronormativiteten. Detta kan vara att undervisa paradoxalt.

The aim of this study was to explore Swedish junior high school students meaning-making of participating in exergaming in school based on their aesthetic judgments during game play. A transactional approach, drawing on the work of John Dewey, was used in the study and the data consisted of video- and audio recordings of ongoing video gaming. A practical epistemology analysis (PEA) was used in order to explore the students’ meaning-making in depth. When analyzing the data, the importance of performing well in relation to the challenges the game offers; developing techniques suitable for the game; and interacting socially with one’s peers emerged as main themes in the students’ meaning-making and learning. It was clear that the students’ taste for gaming played a crucial role in how they proceeded in the activity and that meaningful gaming included an intrinsic combination of pleasure and displeasure. 

Recently, scholars in physical education have begun to explore how young people experience exergames. The research is often undertaken in the light of increasing public health problem among young people. The purpose of this study was to investigate students’ experiences when playing the exergame Wii in an educational context. Questions that have guided the analysis were: (1) Which meanings do the students make when playing Wii exergames? (2) How are aesthetic experiences in terms of likes and dislikes used in this meaning-making process?

Drawing on the work of John Dewey, the later works of Ludwig Wittgenstein and socio-cultural approaches, a practical epistemology analysis (PEA) with focus on aesthetic judgments was used as approach in order to investigate situated learning.

The empirical data consists of video recordings of two groups of 15 year olds (3 boys and 3 girls) playing different exergames once a week for ten weeks.

When analyzing the data three themes emerged as essential to students’ meaning-making. The major theme was to interact socially with their peers, and the two minor themes were to participate in a struggle and to develop technical skills suitable for the game. By analyzing the aesthetic judgments used by the students during gaming it was clear that participating could not be reduced as just being “fun”, instead the students showed feelings ranging from enjoyment, engagement, isolation to frustration. Conclusions: To understand the healthy aspects of exergaming we must broaden the definition of health, not to only interpret health in terms of physiological benefit, but as psychological and sociological benefit as well. It is also clear that the understanding of “fun” must be problematized. It is not appropriated to only understand young people’s gaming in terms of enjoyment, but as a complex social interaction were young people form their identity in relation to the social situation as well as the game. 

Forskning framhåller ofta att ungdomar blir fysiskt inaktiva och överviktiga av att de spelar för mycket dator- och TV-spel. Samtidigt är datorer en viktig källa till kunskap, och IT-kompetens ses som en nödvändig kunskap i framtiden. Mitt i denna paradox introduceras ett nytt sorts datorspel där fysisk aktivitet utgör det centrala inslaget, och inte enbart stillasittande framför en skärm. Dessa spel, så kallade ’exergames’ är spel där kroppsrörelse ingår genom användandet av balansplattor, ’step-up bänkar’, motionscyklar, dansmattor eller att en fjärrkontrollen används som racket vid exempelvis tennisspelande.

Exergames lyfts nu i allt större utsträckning fram i flera länder som ett potentiellt läromedel i skolan, bl a för att i utbildning stimulera barns och ungas vilja att vara fysiskt aktiva, samt för att tackla överviktsfrågor. Inte minst har de lyfts fram som intressant i framtidens skolämne idrott och hälsa.

De problem som lyfts fram i debatten med användandet av exergames i skolan är främst av teknisk eller ekonomisk art, dvs att det är dyrt att köpa in eller att teknik lätt går sönder. På intet sätt syns en diskussion om vad införande av exergames i skolan innebär för elevers kunskaper och lärande, utan de framhålls istället som ett modernt sätt att motionera. Frågan om hur och till vad exergaming kan användas i undervisningen görs därmed främst till en fysiologisk fråga om energiförbrukning snarare än en fråga om utbildning, kunskaper och lärande.

Projektet LEXIS – Learning and EXergames In School – består av flera delstudier som undersöker användandet av exergames som läromedel i skolan. I projektet riktas blicken mot vad ungdomarna lär sig när de spelar TV-spelen samt hur detta lärande sker. I projektet studerar vi därmed samspelet mellan ungdomars erfarenheter, de sociala relationerna mellan deltagarna samt mellan deltagarna och det innehåll som spelet erbjuder.

Vid presentationen på konferensen kommer vi att presentera, diskutera och problematisera det lärande avseende kropp, rörelse, fysisk aktivitet och hälsa som sker i ungdomars spelande av exergames i olika undervisningssituationer. Vi kommer också presentera en processtudie från en skola där dansspel har använts som läromedel och där skapandet av danser i grupp samt användandet av olika rörelsekvaliteter i dans står i fokus.

The purpose of this article is to develop a method of approach that can be used to explore the meaning and use of artifacts in education by applying a sociocultural perspective to learning and artifacts. An empirical material of video recorded physical education lessons in Sweden is used to illustrate the approach in terms of how artifacts in different ways can play a part in meaning making processes in physical education. The illustration from the video recordings shows 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, it also illustrates 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 “artifacts-in-use” using visual methodologies are both important and valuable, challenging physical education teachers’ reflections about the role of artifacts in their teaching.

The purpose of this paper is to suggest and describe a methodological approach for studies of learning within school physical education (PE) in order to investigate and clarify issues of learning in an embodied practice. Drawing on John Dewey’s work, and especially his use of the concept transaction, a transactional approach is suggested as a way of developing an action-orientated method necessary for investigating learning in PE. The approach is illustrated by extracts from a video analysis of a PE lesson in Sweden, and shows how an analytical focus on meaning making, actions, events and participators in meaning-making processes can help to overcome methodological challenges related to dualist and cognitivist approaches and reach a deeper knowledge of student learning issues in PE.

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.

One important challenge ahead for sport pedagogy researchers is to consider afresh challenging questions about learning. Learning in the fields of sport, physical activity and physical education is a particularly complex business, since most existing theories of learning are defined cognitively. Learning in sport is, however (to a large extent) practical and embodied, and it is not just an individual affair but is closely linked to the wider cultural contexts of sport and related areas such as health. This paper will critically review notions of learning process, direction and content as key concerns for sport pedagogy researchers.

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.

One important challenge ahead for sport and exercise pedagogy (SEP) researchers is to consider a fresh questions about learning. Learning in the fields of sport, physical activity and physical education (PE) is a particularly complex business. Most existing theories of learning are defined cognitively, yet learning in sport and physical activity contexts is also practical and embodied, and is linked to the powerful wider cultural contexts of sport and related areas such as health. Yet, even though learning in these contexts is particularly complex, practitioners rarely draw upon specific learning theories to ask questions about practice, and researchers in SEP have tended to focus on content and issues of teaching and coaching instead of using learning theories as a way to explore learning or investigate learning. This paper draws on data from a project in Sweden on learning in PE to illustrate the ways in which a learning theory framework can be used to guide research questions, offer important insights into the learning process and make a contribution to the wider literature on learning theory. We also argue that research design grounded in learning theories has the potential to result in greater coherence across studies, thereby offering a more valuable service to practitioners.

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 recent years scholars interested in teaching and learning in social studies in schools have showed how learning in social studies classrooms can be understood through instruction, dialogue, cognition, reflection, concepts, thinking, writing, reading and awareness (cf. Bickmore & Parker, 2014; Brooks, 2011; Hess; 2002; Journell, Walker Beeson & Ayers, 2015; King, 2009; Nokes, 2014; Savenije, van Boxtel & Grever, 2014). Despite these important contributions, learning risks being limited to explorations of cognitive, verbal and/or written aspects of the educational situation. 

Learning is, however, very much also embodied, including the embodied interactions with the environment (cf. Shilling, 2000, Zembylas 2007), and research also reveals that secondary social studies is facing a crisis since a majority of students still are made to memorize and reproduce socioscientific knowledge instead of being prepared to use knowledge meaningfully and participating in public discussions (Sandahl 2015; Ljunggren et al. 2015; King 2009). Social studies have accordingly, as many other school subjects, often been handled as dis-embodied (Almqvist & Quennerstedt, 2015; Evans, Davies & Rich 2009), and this gives us a quite limited view of the learning going on in classrooms. The consequences of this gap in research as well as practice are that we miss out on important aspects of what Armour et al. (2015) argues to be “the dazzling complexity of the learning process” (p. 11).

In this presentation we aim to ‘transgress’ the separation of mind and body and explore embodied aspects of learning in the social studies classroom. With a point of departure in John Dewey’s transactional view of learning and Sharon Todd’s discussion on the liminality of pedagogical relationships, the ambition with the papers is not to explore ‘The Learning’ going on, or what every student learn in the explored situations. Instead, we argue that students always enter pedagogical encounters as some-body, and that it correspondingly is fruitful to explore students’ embodied engagements as an important but often overlooked aspect of the social studies classroom. The risk that remains is otherwise that social studies is treated as dis-embodied and that we as a consequence do not fully understand or embrace the potential of social studies.

Hence, the purpose of the study is to explore embodied engagements in a social sciences classroom. The focus in the study is on expected and potential pedagogical encounters and how students’ actions obtain a certain function in the classroom. As a conclusion we will discuss the results of our analysis in terms of the liminality of pedagogical encounters in classroom practice.

Our intent in this study is not to resolve tensions produced by theontological divide between representational and non-representational approachesor the epistemological separation of mind and body. Instead, by turning topragmatism and Dewey’s transactional perspective, we intend to approach socialstudies as embodied rather than dis-embodied. 

Method

By focusing on embodiment in a transactional perspective the attention is turned from bodies as a pre-determined metaphysical entity separated from the mind to what bodies do and become in and through transactions with the environment (Biesta & Tedder 2006; Garrison 2015). Taking a transactional approach, the study puts into focus the ‘lived’, embodied engagements with others (teachers, student peers) and the environment (classroom practice, classroom materiality) they engage in. The analysis is conducted in three steps; (i) distinguishing pedagogical encounters, (ii) identifying embodied engagements, and (iii) categorising embodied engagements by the function of actions-in-context. In this study we focus on situations where the body is foregrounded and the action is connected to subject matter. Accordingly, we are interested in both the pedagogical relation between teacher and students and the didactic relation between subject matter, instructional activities and teachers and students involved. This is described by Hudson (2015) as the didactic triadic that recognises the complex set of relations between teacher, student and content (Cf. Klette 2007). The study has no generalizing ambition since the data comes from a small sample, however, we hope that the insights that can be drawn from this case can be helpful in re-understanding social studies as embodied rather than dis-embodied. The empirical material consists of video recorded lessons from two different subject areas (Criminology and Sociology) in an upper secondary school in Sweden. The content of the lessons is small group activities, whole class lectures and student presentations. The class consisted of 31 students in their final year of the Business Management and Economics Programme. In exploring embodied engagements in a social sciences classroom several challenges arise. As Estola and Elbaz-Luwisch (2003) state “attention to the body is a challenge to both the researchers and the methods used” (p. 715). These challenges can be summarised as the difficulty in exploring the dazzling complexity of any educational situation involving verbal and non-verbal actions and communication, teachers and students, teaching aids, the materiality of the classroom as well as the context as a whole (Cf. Quennerstedt, Öhman & Öhman 2011). In order to handle this complexity the question that guided us in our analysis of our video recorded data was how aspects of embodied engagements manifest themselves in the social studies classroom. As a conclusion we will also discuss the results of our analysis in terms of the liminality of pedagogical encounters in classroom practice.

Expected Outcomes

In the analysis we have identified three embodied engagements in the social studies classroom: (i) disengaged encounters, (ii) screened encounters, (iii) collective inquiry. These embodied engagements describe functions that different actions-in-context have in transaction in the classroom. Each category describes different functional roles that teachers, students, classroom settings, tasks, etc. have in embodied engagements and the direction this takes in the pedagogical encounter. The categories are not mutually exclusive, but instead intertwined with each other in real situations.Disengaged encounters is about how students are made disengaged in transaction with others and the environment in terms of teacher led lessons, peer presentations or disengaging tasks.Screened encounters refer to embodied engagements being both focused towards screens (computers, smart-boards etc) and screened off in terms of how student interaction occurs.Collective inquiry is events when students actively (as some-body) engage in a collective, communicative process guided by conditions of uncertainty and change.These results will be clarified and discussed further in terms of the liminality of embodied engagements in classroom practice with reference to Todd (2014). Todd uses the metaphor of liminality, or the threshold, as a way of discussing that pedagogical relationships in education are “played out materially, between bodies in the present, unpredictably against a future that is always unknown” (p. 243) thus these pedagogical encounters have the potential to be transformative. The paper aims to contribute to earlier research on embodied aspects of learning in Sweden and Europe and to extend the methodological approaches currently in use within the field of subject didactics.

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Zembylas, M. (2007). The specters of bodies and affects in the classroom: a rhizo‐ethological approach, Pedagogy, Culture & Society, 15(1), pp.19-35.

Social studies have often been explored as dis-embodied which results in a limited view of what happens in the classroom. Based in Dewey’s transactional view of embodied relationality, Todd’s discussion on the liminality of pedagogical relationships and recent theoretical contributions into embodied learning and body pedagogics, the purpose is to explore students’ embodied engagement as an important but often overlooked aspect of social studies in school. The focus is on pedagogical encounters in terms of how students’ actions acquire a certain function in the classroom. Three embodied engagements— (i) disengaged encounters, (ii) screened encounters, and (iii) educative encounters—are identified and discussed in terms of the liminality of pedagogical encounters.

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.

Health in school has since the development of the welfare state in Sweden been considered as an important forum for health work, and schools still assume a central role when it comes to health promotion of the coming generation. In the Swedish context, health has also been regarded as an important part of the democratic project in that it is the ‘good society’ that is formulated in societal public health goals. The school subject Physical Education and Health has been considered as an important forum for public health work. In this paper we deal with Aaron Antonovsky´s pathogenic and salutogenic approaches to health. We began by exploring pathogenic views of health, and the consequences of the individual view of the learner and the instrumental view of education that follows. Further, the paper critically examines how salutogenic approaches can provide an alternative philosophical starting point for discussions about health within health education practices. We also point to some of the potential risks of a salutogenic approach in health education in relation to the neoliberal society.

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.