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Abstract
As in a number of other countries, the educational systems of Denmark, Norway and Sweden are experiencing expansion and change. These reforms have meant many changes and new challenges for the teachers, especially with reference to their work outside the classroom (or the gym). In Sweden, for example, teachers are expected to collaborate in order to give national syllabi a more concrete and local form, which in turn demands a common professional language. In this essay, our aim is to cast a pedagogic and somewhat didactic light on the subject by 1) giving a short and descriptive picture of some aspects of PE in Scandinavia's nine-year compulsory schools, with a main focus on Sweden, and by 2) identifying and discussing some of the educational challenges facing the subject today, also mainly from a Swedish perspective.
Notes
1 See for example CitationJørgensen and Vogensen, ‘Introduction’; CitationLindroth, Ling; CitationLundquist Wanneberg, ‘Kroppens medborgarfostran’; CitationTrangbaek, ‘Gymnastik bliver skolefag’. For a more comprehensive view of women's Danish PE history, see CitationTrangbaek, Kvindernes idræt.
2 This institute is still situated in Stockholm and the current name is Swedish School of Sport and Health Sciences.
3 Lindroth, Ling.
4 Jørgensen and Vogensen, ‘Introduction’.
5 Lundquist Wanneberg, ‘Kroppens medborgarfostran’.
6 CitationAnnerstedt, ‘Physical Education in Sweden’.
7 CitationAnnerstedt, ‘Från fysisk fostran till hälsoarbete’; CitationHardman and Marshall, ‘The State and Status’.
8 Jørgensen and Vogensen, ‘Introduction’.
9 See http://www.utdanningsdirektoratet.no. For current reforms in Denmark see, for example, the Folskskole Consolidation Act, available in English at http://eng.uvm.dk/publications or the information database on education in Europe, http://194.78.211.243/Eurybase.
10 See http://www.skolverket.se/
11 Skolverket (The Swedish National Agency of Education), ‘Nationella utvärderingen av grundskolan 2003’.
12 CitationCarlgren and Marton, Lärare av i morgon, 92.
13 CitationCarlgren and Marton, Lärare av i morgon, 77.
14 CitationAnnerstedt, ‘Idrottslärarna och idrottsämnet’.
15 No dissertation on PE matters has been produced at the Norwegian School of Sports since 1998 when CitationFiona Dowling presented her thesis ‘Tales of Norwegian Physical Education Teachers: A Life History Analysis’. Doctorial student Kjersti Mordal Moen is undertaking an ongoing project called ‘Teacher Educators in Physical Education: a Key to Understanding Norwegian Physical Education's Cultures, Values and Ideologies’. In Denmark CitationMette Krogh Christensen published a thesis about the consciousness of age in the working life of physical education teachers in Danish upper secondary schools in 2001: ‘Når aldermen indhenter én’.
16 CitationSkolverket, ‘Nationella utvärderingen av grundskolan 2003’; CitationDanmarks Evalueringsinstitut, ‘Idræt i folkeskolen’; CitationJacobsen et al., L97 og kroppsøvningsfaget.
17 Several reports have been published about the project, e.g. CitationLarsson and Redelius, Mellan nytta och nöje.
18 Annerstedt, ‘Physical Education in Sweden’; Rønholt, ‘Physical Education in Denmark’.
19 The National Syllabus for PE. For an English translation, see http://www.skolverket.se/sb/d/493.
20 CitationRedelius, Fagrell and Larsson, Symbolic capital in physical education.
21 Danmarks Evalueringsinstitut, ‘Idræt i folkeskolen’.
22 Danmarks Evalueringsinstitut, ‘Idræt i folkeskolen’
23 CitationRedelius, ‘Bäst och pest!’, 158.
24 CitationLundvall, Meckbach and Thedin Jakobsson, ‘The School Project 2001’.
25 Skolverket, ‘Nationella utvärderingen av grundskolan 2003’; Jacobsen et al., L97 og kroppsøvningsfaget; Danmarks Evalueringsinstitut, ‘Idræt i folkeskolen’.
26 Danmarks Evalueringsinstitut, ‘Idræt i folkeskolen’, Skolverket, ‘Nationella utvärderingen av grundskolan 2003’.
27 Redelius, ‘Bäst och pest!’, 162 and earlier unpublished material.
28 Redelius, ‘Bäst och pest!’, 162 and earlier unpublished material, 168.
29 Redelius, ‘Bäst och pest!’, 162 and earlier unpublished material
30 CitationLundvall, ‘Bilder av ämnet idrott och hälsa, 36.
31 CitationRønholt, ‘Physical Education in Denmark, 217.
32 CitationLarsson, ‘Vad lär man sig på gympan?'
33 CitationCarli, ‘The Making and Breaking of a Female Culture'.