Phenomenology and Physical Education

Abstract

Physical education is often justified within the curriculum as academic study, as a worthwhile activity on a par with other academic subjects on offer and easy to assess. Part of the problem has been that movement studies in physical education are looked upon as disembodied and disconnected from its central concerns which are associated with employing physical means to develop the whole person. But this, Merleau-Ponty would say, is to ignore the nature of experience and to consider the cognitive aspects of our perceptual experience in isolation from the personal meaning gained when looked at from the ‘inside’ or participatory perspective of the moving agent. In this sense, physical education has lost meaning for some students because our embodied relationship with the world is not an external or contemplative one. Phenomenology, according to Merleau-Ponty, is significant for physical education because it highlights what it is like to be embodied and recognises the role corporeal movement and embodiment plays in learning, in, by and through physical education. What makes this account educationally significant for physical education is that the whole person should benefit by the experience, as it includes an emphasis on all three educational domains (the psychomotor, the cognitive and the affective), rather than as separate physical and mental qualities that bear no relation to each other.     

R. S. Peters and J. H. Newman on the Aims of Education

Abstract

R. S. Peters never explicitly talks about wisdom as being an aim of education. He does, however, in numerous places, emphasize that education is of the whole person and that, whatever else it might be about, it involves the development of knowledge and understanding. Being educated, he claims, is incompatible with being narrowly specialized. Moreover, he argues, education enables a person to have a different perspective on things, ‘to travel with a different view’ [Peters, R. S. (1967). What is an educational process? In R. S. Peters (Ed.), The concept of education (pp. 1–23). Routledge and Kegan Paul]. In asserting this about education, Peters has more in common with another great English educator, John Henry, Cardinal Newman, than one might expect, given they are separated by about a century and start from different philosophical perspectives, namely Kant to a significant degree in the former and Aristotle in the latter. Both nevertheless acknowledge the importance of reason and its development in any education worthy of the name. I will argue that in describing the ‘educated person’ Peters is not far from the view of Newman, who saw education as being about the ‘enlargement of mind’. Although Newman hesitates to call ‘enlargement of mind’ wisdom, and Peters does not use either term, there are good grounds for proposing that in distinguishing between education and training, and in asserting education is moral education because it is concerned to improve persons, Peters acknowledges the higher purposes of education and hence, we can add, its connection with wisdom. Significantly, what such a reading of Peters emphasizes is his insistence on the intrinsic value of education, a view seemingly lost in modern market-driven conceptions of education.     

The ‘Physically Educated’ Person: Physical education in the philosophy of Reid,Peters and Aristotle

Abstract

This article will derive a definition and account of the physically educated person, through an examination of the philosophy of Andrew Reid, Richard Peters and Aristotle. Initially, Reid’s interpretation of Peters’ views about the educational significance of practical knowledge (and physical education) will be considered. While it will be acknowledged that Peters was rather disparaging about the educational merit of some practical activities in Ethics and Education, it will be argued that he elsewhere suggests that such practical activities could be educationally worthwhile in and of themselves. In Education and the educated man he specified that practical activities should be regarded as educationally important if they are either transformed by theoretical understanding and/or pursued to the point of excellence. In suggesting that education involves the cultivation of both theoretical and practical human excellences it is argued that Peters’ philosophy of education begins to take on a more Aristotelian bent. After exploring Aristotle’s notion of virtue (human excellence) and his discussion of physical training in The politics, it is claimed that physical education activities might be most worthwhile when they extend the moral habits and/or modes of thought of pupils, towards excellence. It is concluded that physically educated persons should be defined as those who have learned to arrange their lives in such a way that the physical activities they freely engage in make a distinctive contribution to their long-term flourishing.     

MacIntyre,rival traditions and education

This paper critically discusses MacIntyre's thesis that education is essentially a contested concept. In order to contextualise my discussion, I discuss both whether rival educational traditions of education found in MacIntyre's work – which I refer to as instrumental and non-instrumental justifications of education – can be rationally resolved using MacIntyre's framework, and whether a shared meaning of education is possible as a result. I conclude that MacIntyre's synthesis account is problematic because the whole notion that there are rationally negotiable ways in which to compromise or harmonise opposing justifications of education found in instrumental and non-instrumental forms of education is troubling – the reason being that these are cultural disagreements about human flourishing that are not neutral-free, and due to a lack of care distinguishing between the common uses of the term ‘education’, and its looser usages to mean something like school learning that embraces a range of aims and goals that are often incompatible. In this light, it is argued that the contestability card has been unnecessarily overemphasised, and brings to our attention the complex ways in which we interpret education and what it means to be educated.     

Inclusion Illusion: Questioning the Inclusiveness of Integrated Physical Education

ABSTRACT

Globally, integrated school placements as well as inclusion as an education philosophy have emerged as influential trends in education over the past 30 years. Although used interchangeably at times, inclusion and integration are distinct. Confusion about inclusion and integration can lead to mixed messages, which oftentimes affect the education of students with disabilities in school-based physical education. The purposes of this article are twofold. First, the author will provide a brief narrative to clarify the distinction between inclusion as a philosophy and integration as a placement. Second, the author will examine whether empirical data support integrated physical education placements as being inclusive. Existing literature examining the embodied perspectives of students with disabilities, as well as previously unpublished non-fiction reflections from one man with a visual impairment, are utilized to guide the conversation about whether integrated physical education settings are providing inclusive experiences.     

Policies,Agendas, and Practices Influencing Doctoral Education in Physical Education Teacher Education

ABSTRACT

If teaching physical education is a moral activity, it follows that there is a moral component to the preparation of teachers of physical education and thus a moral component to the preparation of teacher educators. In this article, I examine the major policies, agendas, and practices that influence doctoral preparation in physical education teacher education. I argue from both a utilitarian and realist perspective that we can best serve children and youth in schools by being knowledgeable of the contexts and effects of these policies, agendas, and practices in educating future professors of physical education teacher education.     

Physical Education as ‘Means without Ends’: Towards a new concept of physical education

Abstract

This article is concerned with the educational value of raising the human body at school. Drawing inspiration from the work of Giorgio Agamben, I develop a new perspective that explores the possibility of taking the concept of physical education in a literal sense. This is to say that the specific educational content of physical education (in contradistinction to organized sporting life outside school) resides in its concentration on the physical ‘as such’. This is not an obvious path to explore, because defenders of physical education as a rule have to compete against the (dualist) prejudice that this discipline is merely an instrument to train the body or to keep it fit, and that it therefore should not be considered as a serious endeavour. Therefore, more often than not, apologists try to justify the relevance of physical education on the very ground that it is a practice that is concerned with something ‘beyond’ the merely physical that is at stake in movement activity. I argue, however, that this line of thought excludes the possibility of conceiving an alternative approach that relates the concentration on ‘entirely physical’ activities (as opposed to ‘merely physical’ activities) to an experience of potentiality. I develop this idea on the basis of an analysis of repetitive, rhythmical and collective body-exercise (e.g. running in a group or basic callisthenics).     

Filmmaking education and enterprise culture: an ethnographic exploration of two filmmaking education contexts and their relation to bedroom culture and the creative workplace

ABSTRACT

Filmmaking education has never been firmly integrated into schooling and in past years has suffered from cuts to funding for formal and non-formal arts education and youth work. It continues to exist only by drawing on creative industry and cultural consumption practices as well as state funding. In this paper, we explore the filmmaking education contexts we encountered while doing our own pieces of year-long ethnographic research. These contexts import ‘enterprising’ ways of thinking, doing and being from the creative workplace and ‘bedroom culture’. Located across life’s domains, they address enterprising subjects who take pleasure in work, make use of leisure and are always learning. We argue that these filmmaking education contexts support young people to develop their private creative practice and introduce them to the possibility of work in the creative industries but, because of the enterprise culture in which they are entangled, uncritically address these young people as enterprising subjects.     

Development of Adolescents’ Values and Jewish Identities via Experiential Philanthropy Education

ABSTRACT

The values that begin to solidify during adolescence can be steered by experiential education programs designed to inculcate a set of attitudes and behaviors in their participants. One such program, Jewish Youth Philanthropy, socializes adolescents into recognizing the importance of donating both to Jewish causes and within a Jewish framework. This paper examines the relationship between these programs and the development of Jewish and donor identities during adolescence. It suggests that surveyed Jewish youth philanthropy participants are more likely than non-participants to perceive themselves as donors, but that their Jewish identities are viewed as justifications for prosocial behavior, not drivers of it.     

Integrated or inclusive education versus interactive education: the need for a new model

ABSTRACT

In an attempt to stimulate informed and critical debate, the nature and pedagogical implications of ‘integrated education’ and the more recently proposed ‘inclusive education’ are examined, and an alternative model, described as ‘interactional education’, is proposed and evaluated. Because of the political and economic implications of these three approaches, it is suggested that the appropriate forum for discussion is one which is Pan‐European.     

学校体育思想与素质教育

学校体育是全面发展教育的组成部分之一，是发展学生综合素质的保证，我国学校体育思想在长期历史进程中不断丰富进步，但长期的文化积淀及特殊的历史变迁，使得学校体育思想远离时代发展步伐，导致体育实践远离教育目标，使人的培养与素质教育相悖，认真反思学校体育缺失的负面影响，确立先进的学校体育思想是素质教育的不可或缺的前提。     

The social construction of pedagogic discourse in physical education teacher education in Australia

Abstract

Once the exclusive domain of teacher education, physical education in Australian tertiary institutions has during the last twenty years evolved into a series of discipline‐based fields concerned with human movement studies, leisure studies and sport science that have begun to feed new vocational opportunities in the sport, exercise and leisure industries. Concomitant with these changes in the social organization of knowledge in tertiary physical education has been a realignment of school physical education programmes, particularly in the senior school curriculum. Inevitably, the once sole focus of physical education in tertiary institutions on teacher education is now being forced to reinvent itself in light of these dynamic changes in the social organization of school and university knowledge. Following the work of Bernstein, Goodson and others, this article analyses current policy and practice in physical education teacher education and identifies several future scenarios. The first part of the article provides an historical overview of the emergence of new forms of tertiary knowledge in physical education from the mid‐1970s until the present. The second part provides a similar overview of developments in school physical education with a focus on senior school and matriculation physical education during the same period. The third part analyses the current state of affairs in the social organization of knowledge for physical education teacher education. In the fourth part, a series of questions is raised concerning relationships between knowledge in physical education teacher education, school physical education and university forms of the field through the presentation of several future scenarios. The article concludes with several proposals for policy development concerned with physical education teacher education programmes.     

On the margins or at the center? Distance education in higher education

Abstract

This reflection focuses on the position of distance education in today’s global higher education. Firstly, it identifies three types of convergence of distance and campus-based education – dual mode, add-on/blended, and full convergence – arguing that the last type has yet to be fully realized due to the complexities involved. It then critiques the interplay between the two, concluding that despite being influenced by campus-based instructional delivery in its early days, distance education is now influencing campus-based education. Implications of convergence are also discussed. Arguably, distance education universities should be proud of the increasing presence of distance education in campus-based universities and have confidence in maintaining their advantages. As for campus-based universities, a systems approach is needed if they intend to take advantage of this ‘unorthodox’ mode of education. Finally, it is suggested that both campus-based education and distance education are at the center of higher education because they are now equally conventional.     

Putting Children at the Centre: Making policy as if children mattered

Abstract

What do we mean when we say we want to put children at the centre of policy? What are the moral justifications for this approach? Has it become harder for us to understand this concept, when in practice paid work has been at the centre? In part confusion arises because the unpaid work of caring for children is invisible until it is marketized. In turn, the underlying problem is that we have forgotten our traditions of egalitarianism and adopted a powerful mindset that is proving to be paralyzing. Exploring New Zealand family policies such as paid parental leave (PPL), early childhood education, child tax credits (CTC) suggests that there is much room for improvement if the needs of children are to come first. But first and foremost we must have a very different, child-centric, colour-blind, non-judgmental change of heart.     

A framework to foster problem-solving in STEM and computing education

ABSTRACT

Background: Recent developments in STEM and computer science education put a strong emphasis on twenty-first-century skills, such as solving authentic problems. These skills typically transcend single disciplines. Thus, problem-solving must be seen as a multidisciplinary challenge, and the corresponding practices and processes need to be described using an integrated framework.

Purpose: We present a fine-grained, integrated, and interdisciplinary framework of problem-solving for education in STEM and computer science by cumulatively including ways of problem-solving from all of these domains. Thus, the framework serves as a tool box with a variety of options that are described by steps and processes for students to choose from. The framework can be used to develop competences in problem-solving.

Sources of evidence: The framework was developed on the basis of a literature review. We included all prominent ways of domain-specific problem-solving in STEM and computer science, consisting mainly of empirically orientated approaches, such as inquiry in science, and solely theory-orientated approaches, such as proofs in mathematics.

Main argument: Since there is an increasing demand for integrated STEM and computer science education when working on natural phenomena and authentic problems, a problem-solving framework exclusively covering the natural sciences or other single domains falls short.

Conclusions: Our framework can support both practice and research by providing a common background that relates the ways, steps, processes, and activities of problem-solving in the different domains to one single common reference. In doing so, it can support teachers in explaining the multiple ways in which science problems can be solved and in constructing problems that reflect these numerous ways. STEM and computer science educational research can use the framework to develop competences of problem-solving at a fine-grained level, to construct corresponding assessment tools, and to investigate under what conditions learning progressions can be achieved.     

Going Dutch! A perspective on the Dutch system of special education

Abstract

The comparative study of education systems and processes is a greatly undervalued science. This report argues that there is much to be learned from the study of the Dutch system of special education in informing proposed developments in its UK counterpart. Despite inevitable cultural and evolutionary differences between the systems, careful study can potentially prevent the failings in one being replicated in the other. This is nowhere more relevant than in relation to the integration versus segregation debate. Though it is argued that Dutch constitutional law has severely handicapped developments in Dutch special education, particular practices such as the systematic approach to planning, the extensive use of negotiated contracts, the development of integrated support systems and the close association between research and provision seem to be most worthy of serious consideration within the context of a rapidly changing system of UK special education.     

Sharing a place-based indigenous methodology and learnings

Abstract

Building on a methodology of Cooperative Inquiry, the outcomes of five interconnected place-based learning projects from Australia are synthesised and elaborated in this paper. The methodology can facilitate the everyday living and sharing of an Earth-based consciousness: one that enriches Transformative Sustainability Education (TSE) through recognising meanings and stories in landscape, and celebrates Indigenous ways of knowing, being and doing. Indigenous-led environmental education is shown to link with one of the longest continuous environmental education systems in the world and it is contended that because of its ongoing history, environmental education carries a cultural obligation. In Australia, every landscape is Indigenous and storied, and all Australians have an inherent right to learn that joy in place, along with the responsibility to care for it. Teaching and learning a relationship with place as family, is one way that environmental education can lead that campaign. This place-based methodology is a lifetime commitment involving everyday actions for change, a whole-of-education dedication.     

Physical education and sport and special needs in Germany

Abstract

Historically, in Germany individuals with special needs have been offered participation in physical education (PE) both in segregated and increasingly in integrated settings. Specific curricula for children with disabilities (physical disabilities, hearing, and visual impairments, speech and behaviour disorders as well as intellectual disabilities) were developed in the 1960s and 1970s. They all emphasized the specific importance of physical activities for people with a disability focusing not only on motor competencies but also on the psychological and social benefits of physical education. During the 1970s so‐called model schools started to include children with disabilities in mainstream schools. Unlike developments in the United States, for example, where integrated or mainstream schooling was based on legal requirements, in Germany improved integration or inclusion was not based on federal law, but on parents’ or teachers’ initiatives in different Bundesländer (states of Germany). Parallel to these developments, new approaches to PE have accentuated a positive orientation towards ‘ability’ rather than ‘disability’. Professionals in PE in universities and in schools have been challenged to develop better diagnostic skills and more individualized programmes. On the initiative of nine European universities, a European Master's degree of Adapted Physical Activity has been developed to offer advanced training on a European scale. However, despite these positive and innovative developments serious concerns remain concerning the situation of children with disabilities in the school system. This article argues that there is still a significant lack of specially trained professionals and support staff and that the ongoing process of reducing the amount of PE in schools for all children, including those with a disability, does not contribute to improved physical and social skills or increased participation in recreational and sport activities outside schools.     

Why Have Policies on Private Education Been Slow to Make Progress? Observations from the Perspective of Organizational Behavior and Decision Making

Abstract

Private education in our country is a novelty that has grown up outside the public education system, and the formulation and implementation of policies on private education often involves several government departments, in an act of cooperative decision making between multiple government departments. As a result, the effectiveness of the formulation and implementation of policies on private education is, in a certain sense, dependent on the degree of coordination between various government departments, while also being subject to the impact of whether timely adjustments have been made to existing regulations. This characteristic of policies on private education is suited to analysis from the perspective of organizational behavior and decision-making models. The slow progress on the three private education policies related to reasonable returns, independent colleges, and categorized management is a typical example of organizational behavior and decision-making models.     

Should education be transformative?

ABSTRACT

It has become commonplace within the educational research community to invoke the transformative power of education. The call to adopt a ‘transformative’ approach to teaching and learning can be heard in fields as different as adult education and school leadership and as estranged as social justice education and educational psychology. While there is undoubtedly great promise in the idea of transformative education, the fact that it involves deep psychological restructuring on the part of the student requires ethical justification. In this article, I analyze the three most pressing ethical problems that arise within a transformative educational environment: the problems of transformative consent, controversial direction and transformative trauma. In the concluding section, I argue that this ethical analysis urges us to adopt an approach to transformative education as a process of initiation.