‘I don't read fiction’: academic discourse and the relationship between health and physical education

The relationship between health (H) and physical education (PE) has long been the subject of debate. Recently, however, the obesity crisis has raised this relationship to a new level of attention. At the risk of simplifying things, there are two ‘positions’ that seem to characterize the discourse regarding this new relationship. One position considers that the main mission of PE should now be the ‘war on obesity’. Advocates for this instrumental position tend to do research, using interventionist strategies focusing on (H)PE as a site for the promotion of physical activity. The other position argues strongly for the foregrounding of educational purposes for (H)PE and tends to pursue research by means of sociocultural research paradigms such as phenomenology, poststructuralism or critical theory. Importantly, these ‘positions’ draw on different literatures and discourses. Seldom do the advocates of these two positions speak to each other and, if and when they do, they seem to speak different languages. In this paper, I discuss the notion of academic discourse and explore, with some examples from conferences, how the conventions of academic discourse are (mis)understood and accordingly confound the development of more considered responses to the relationship between health and PE.     

我国青少年体质健康政策执行困境研究——基于修正后“模糊—冲突”模型的分析

我国青少年体质健康政策执行困境是学界长期关注的重点。该文以修正后的“模糊—冲突”模型为基础,采用文献资料法、逻辑分析法选取了我国青少年体质健康政策文件中具有代表性的“学生体质健康监测”“每天锻炼一小时”“构建学校、家庭、社区体育一体化”“学业减负保障学生睡眠”四个子政策作为案例分析。根据政策属性的模糊性和冲突性划分出不同的政策执行类别,并对影响四类政策执行的支配性要素进行模型解释,最终归结出导致政策执行困境的深层次原因。在此基础上提出了保障体质健康资源、完善政策监督机制、优化条块管理模式、引领社会舆论导向等提升政策执行效力的建议。     

Exploring the relation between physical activity and health—a salutogenic approach to physical education

This article takes a point of departure in the debate whether physical education should consider a limited or an increased commitment towards public health goals and a public health agenda. The article further discusses the relationship between physical activity and health, and the perspective of health in physical education. This is done through a critique of the dominance of a pathogenic perspective of health, as well as through a salutogenic approach regarding health as a process. A salutogenic approach makes, as suggested in the article, other questions—salutogenic questions—possible. In this sense, physical activity and movement can be regarded as something more than mere protection against disease or overweight, and by posing salutogenic questions we can enrich our understanding of the relation between physical activity and health, and in consequence richness to the perspective of health in physical education. With a salutogenic approach, the pupils’ unique and common experiences of health, movement, body ideals or outdoor-life can meet a wider perspective of health. This would facilitate a health perspective in physical education that draws attention to the qualities, abilities and knowledge that pupils can develop, and, in the name of learning health, point the way to the possible contribution of physical education in pupils’ health development in terms of how physical education can enrich their lives, strengthen them as healthy citizens and contribute to a sustainable (health) development.     

Using discursive strategies,playing policy games and shaping the future of physical education

This paper presents a critical analysis of the representation of physical education (PE) in the 1992 Senate inquiry into ‘Physical and Sport Education’ in Australia. Analysis focuses specifically upon how and why a new professional discourse, fundamental motor skills (FMS), gained a privileged position in the inquiry, the inquiry report and in subsequent PE policy and practice across Australia. This paper examines the complex policy processes and power-relations underpinning the progressive legitimisation of the FMS discourse, and identifies subtleties and variations in the expression of the discourse. Attention is drawn to the strategic appropriation of established professional discourses and utilisation of crisis discourses in establishing and gaining support for the FMS discourse. The analysis reaffirms policy arenas as sites of contestation but highlights that they are simultaneously sites of possibility for PE professionals who are prepared and able to use discursive resources in strategic ways. The contemporary relevance of the discourses privileged in 1992 and lessons to be learned from events surrounding the Senate inquiry are discussed.     

What is PE?

Physical education is a socially constructed activity that forms one component of a wider physical culture that includes sport and health/physical activity . The terms sport and physical education are often used interchangeably in school contexts, where sport and health continue to shape what is understood by the term physical education. This study explores discourses shaping pre-service primary teachers' understandings of the nature and purposes of physical education within an Irish context and the relationship between these understandings. A 10-minute writing task prompted by the question ‘what is physical education?’ was completed by a sample of pre-service teachers (n=544, age range 18–46, 8.8% male) from two colleges of education, prior to the physical education component of their teacher education programme. Content analysis involved an initial text frequency search to create categories which were collapsed into three broad areas of students' understandings of physical education—sport, health and physical education. The research design allowed access to pre-service teachers' understandings of physical education. Participants' understandings reflected their own school experiences and were framed within health and sport ideologies of physical education. Although acknowledged as an important part of school life physical education was perceived as a break from academic subjects where the purpose of learning was to learn sports and activities to stay fit and healthy. While the overwhelmingly positive nature of participants' experiences and the changing discourses around competition and team games are encouraging the dominant discourses of physical education continue to reflect the dominant aspects of wider physical culture in Ireland. The capacity of physical education to move beyond reproducing dominant sport and health ideologies provides a significant challenge to teacher education contexts, to challenge dominant discourses and recreate understandings of physical education for future action.     

21世纪普通高校体育教育前景展望

本文通过对 2 1世纪普通高校体育教育前景的研究分析 ,发现在新世纪高校体育教育面临着多种挑战 ,高校体育教育要发展就必须紧跟时代发展的步伐 ,高校体育健康教育改革必须是全方位的进行。     

高校大学体育课程改革之学生体质健康干预的研究

针对高等学校学生体质健康的状况,建立科学的大学体育课程体系,实施学生体质健康干预机制,以遏制学生体质下滑。结果显示：＂三自主、一干预＂的＂俱乐部＂模式教学形式,＂月月有大赛,周周有小赛,天天有安排＂的课外体育活动,＂课内外一体化＂教学干预模式,针对性强,激发了＂体弱＂学生锻炼的兴趣和动机,保证了其体质健康水平呈上升趋势。     

Fitness testing: how do students make sense of the gender disparities?

The ways in which students make sense of the gendered fitness expectations found in a norm-referenced fitness testing program (i.e. President's challenge physical fitness test) were the focus of this study. Participants were 18 fifth grade students who completed fitness tests in their physical education classes. They were interviewed using a standardized, open-ended protocol designed to elicit their perceptions of the fitness test. Three salient themes emerged from the data: (1) students used notions of essentialism and social construction to explain gender differences; (2) students observed their peers’ performances through gendered lenses; and (3) students provided suggestions for change. Based on the findings from this study, researchers and practitioners may begin to recognize the ways in which fitness testing affects how students socially construct ideologies about fitness, ability and their bodies.     

Teacher or coach? How logics from the field of sports contribute to the construction of knowledge in physical education teacher education pedagogical discourse through educational texts

The main purpose of this paper is to focus attention on educational texts as central conveyers of discourses of sport into physical education teacher education (PETE) and by extension into physical education (PE). A considerable volume of research suggests that sport and games continue to be dominant elements of curriculum and practice in contemporary PE. Given the issues of masculinity, physicality and performativity resulting from such continuing sport-focused PE practice, it is relevant to question how such practices are discursively produced or reproduced. In this regard, one area has received only scant attention, namely the potential influence of educational texts used in PETE. Using the theoretical frameworks provided by Michel Foucault, Basil Bernstein and Norman Fairclough, this paper considers educational texts as important contributors to the discursive construction of knowledge in PETE, and thus also as a central resource for studying—and challenging—those discourses that influence on the PE teachers' perceptions of PE and their choices when it comes to the organisation of the PE class. This paper is based on a thorough examination of Danish PETE course documents listing educational texts prescribed by teacher educators for PETE programmes in Denmark. Several of the prescribed educational texts are published by private organisations with sporting interests, such as Team DK and The Sports Confederation of Denmark. This paper conducts a discourse analysis of these texts in order to illuminate how specific social rules regulate their content and involve specific constructions of the learner, the teacher and the relation between them. The paper's findings underline the need for an increased awareness among those who engage in PE practices of the ways in which discourses shape our thinking, and of the potential dangers that lie in the transfer of particular meanings and values as they are constructed in educational texts.     

浅谈中小学的健康教育

对我国中小学校进行健康教育的意义、范畴进行了研究,探讨了健康教育与体育教学的结合及实施健康教育的必要性与可行性。