학술논문

Physical Education, Citizenship, and Social Justice: A Position Statement
Document Type
Journal Articles
Opinion Papers
Reports - Evaluative
Source
Quest. 2019 71(2):188-201.
Subject
United Kingdom (England)
United Kingdom (Wales)
Language
English
ISSN
0033-6297
Abstract
This article examines the complex but seldom articulated relationship of primary physical education, citizenship, and social justice. We argue that to conflate physical "activity" and sport with physical "education" in unacknowledged ways may serve to perpetuate the status quo. More significantly, the current emphasis on "activity" through competitive sport in the teaching of physical "education" in primary schools is both reductive and educationally limiting, affecting not only teachers' professionalism but the wider educational experience of young people. The trend towards competitive sport at the expense of a broader educational experience further represents a potentially serious omission: an abrogation of responsibility on the part of schools in England and Wales to meet the statutory requirements of the Education Reform Act (1988). On the thirtieth anniversary of the Act, we adopt a novel approach, utilizing Foucauldian ideas, to examine movements in the development of policy and understand the contemporary context as a means to suggest more propitious ways forward.