From Physical Education to Kinanthropology: A Quest for Academic and Professional Identity

This paper traces the origins of the current dissatisfaction with the term physical education. A retrospective–comparative overview is given of the major conceptual trends and structural developments that have arisen since the academic status of physical education has been questioned. This quest starts in the United States in 1964, then moves to the Francophone sphere, on to Germany and Great Britain, and ends in the Low Countries. Four major conceptual trends are identified which are disciplinary, multi- or inter-disciplinary or cross-disciplinary in nature. In an attempt to integrate these divergent approaches, the concept of kinanthropology is presented as an epistemological claim and a common denominator for both the science and the professional applications concerned with humans in movement.