Sport as social formation and specialist education: discursive and ritualistic aspects of physical education

Abstract

This article is based on ethnographic fieldwork carried out at two Danish sports colleges that aim to educate voluntary leaders and elite coaches respectively. Methodologically, a model of analysis is built through supplementing Foucault's concept ‘orders of discourse’ with Robert Wuthnow's studies of not only written and spoken but also ritualistic contributions to discourses. Using this model, the analysis of the formally written purposes and daily words used at the colleges shows two orders of discourse about sport as social formation and sport as specialist education, which are based in historically and ideologically different traditions. Moreover, the analysis shows that the present-day students contribute to the different discourses but also ignore or resist them as active individuals. This makes it relevant to inquire into the participants’ practices and experiences with the help of ethnographic studies of rituals. The analysis of the courses as rituals contributes to our understanding of physical education by pointing at an interesting duality. On the one hand, different traditions (and discourses) are reproduced through the education of leaders and coaches to Danish sports clubs, and on the other hand, both groups of students form social relations and go through a transformative process. To Conclude, concepts such as ‘formative education’ will be suggested to bridge rather than ideologically polarize our understanding of formative and educational potentials of physical education today.

Keywords:

• Physical education
• Formation
• Youth
• Discourse
• Ritual

Notes

1. The two sports colleges cannot be considered representatives in the light of a statistic generalization of institutions in the field of Danish sports and gymnastics. However, through analytic generalization in the comparison of the two colleges, a presentation will be made of central differences and similarities between approaches to physical education in Denmark. The distinction between statistic and analytic generalization is borrowed from the director of the centre for development of qualitative methods, University of Aarhus, Steinar Kvale. Statistic generalization is formal and explicit and often used in quantitative research, while analytic generalization is developed through qualitative analysis of selected cases (Kvale, 1996, p. 228).

2. According to Knorr-Cetina, studies of micro-social situations can contribute to an understanding of macro-phenomena (Knorr-Cetina, 1981, p. 26). In this case fieldwork has been carried out at two sports colleges in order to understand major socio-cultural traditions and pedagogical processes (with educative and formative aspects).

3. There is a range of differences between the two courses, since the Gym and Folk High School and the Sports Coaching College have different economic resources, different course durations (i.e. four to ten months) and different requirements for admission. The Gym and Folk High School requires that the students must be more than 17½ years old before they can start a course. At the Sports Coaching College, the students must have competences as athletes and/or instructors in a specific sports discipline.

4. In her inaugural lecture as professor of anthropology at the University of Copenhagen, Whyte defines problems as ambiguities that need methodical exploration: ‘They are a way of orienting ourselves in order to proceed’ (Whyte, 1998, p. 8).

5. Wuthnow considers discourses as ideologies, whereas Foucault has formulated the concept of discourse in reaction to a Marxist understanding of ideology, where individuals are passive victims or rebel against ideology (Mills, 2004, p. 30). With the concept of discourse, Foucault has tried to shift the attention away from the subject (Mills, 2004, p. 34).

6. The growing focus on competence as a potential buzzword in pedagogical discourse is described in Wichmann-Hansen (2004) for the Danish and Nordic context. For the British context, see Evans (1998).

7. In Bourdieu's words, capital can be accumulated in different forms as economic, cultural and social capital (Bourdieu, 1986). The general point is that the acquisition of capital provides the institution not only with material goods but also with symbolic acknowledgement in a social field.

8. In the essay ‘Programme for a Sociology of Sport’, Bourdieu recommends that in order to understand different sports disciplines (or institutions of physical education), one must recognize their position in the space of sport (Bourdieu, 1990, p. 157).

9. Throughout the article the concepts ‘teachers’ and ‘students’ are used for the groups involved at both sports colleges so as not to constantly differentiate between pupils and students and between teachers and lecturers. Even though the two groups of teachers participate in the verbalization of the two orders of discourse, these groups have not been the focus of the fieldwork. In short, the teachers at the Gym and Folk High School are educated primarily from a teachers’ college, and while some have a university degree or no education, they all have experience in sports and in fulfilling the many pedagogical tasks at a folk high school. The Sports Coaching College emphasises that their teachers have experiences as coaches and/or athletes in national or international sports competitions. To be employed full-time at the coaching college, the teachers must also have a university degree.

10. This structure and transformation is described in the classic work The Rites of Passage (van Gennep, 1909/1969). Van Gennep defines rites of passages as rituals, which accompany every change in place, status, position and age for people who shift from one social situation to another (van Gennep, 1909/1969, pp. 10–11).

11. One year after the fieldwork was conducted, the twenty informants were contacted anew. It is not possible to draw a conclusion on the way in which the courses affect the two groups of students in the long run. However, an indication of the long-lasting effect on the students is given by observing and talking to former students.

12. The personal dimension of educating as a leader or coach is also mentioned in the following quotations from interviews with students at the Gym and Folk High School and Sports Coaching College, respectively. ‘The education is about engaging people. If you are involved in something you are the one that stands forward instead of retreating. It is like taking responsibility in everyday life’ (Bob). ‘A coach is the one that helps athletes to get better in their sports discipline. That means planning, setting goals and motivating the involved persons. The heart of the coach must also be involved in what he or she is doing. It is not just a question of money’ (Mary).