The social construction of higher grade physical education: the impact on teacher curriculum decision‐making

Abstract

It is important to identify the factors that impinge on teachers in making decisions regarding the teaching of a syllabus in order that such factors can be addressed in the construction and dissemination of a syllabus. Related to this is the centralisation of certain agents in the production of curriculum structure and syllabus and teachers' role in curriculum development. This paper illustrates how Bernstein's [(1990) The Structuring of Pedagogic Discourse, Volume IV: Class, Codes and Control (London, Routledge)] model of the social construction of pedagogic discourse is one way to understand teacher curriculum decision‐making and is concerned with assessing to what extent teachers' interpretation and views of Higher Grade Physical Education (HGPE) influence curriculum decision making. By reporting data from 151 questionnaires returned from a sample of 170 Scottish secondary schools, it is evident that teachers' interpretations of the HGPE course and what it entails are not explicit reasons for curriculum decision‐making. Rather, teachers' reasons for curriculum decision‐making are more likely to be embedded in the context in which individuals work.