Physical Education Futures (Routledge Studies in Physical Education and Youth Sport)

The social construction of physical education : present, past and future -- Defining physical education and the possibility of the Id2 -- Futures talk in physical education -- The Id2 of physical education-as-sport-techniques -- Continuity and discontinuity : the residue of the past in the present -- Four relational issues and the bigger picture -- Physical education futures? -- Securing the conditions for radical reform Can we imagine a future in which physical education in schools no longer exists?In this controversial and powerful meditation on physical education, David Kirk argues that a number of different futures are possible. Kirk argues that multi-activity, sport-based forms of physical education have been dominant in schools since the mid-twentieth century and that they have been highly resistant to change. The practice of physical education has focused on the transmission of de-contextualised sport-techniques to large classes of children who possess a range of interests and abilities, where learning rarely moves beyond introductory levels. Meanwhile, the academicization of physical education teacher education since the 1970s has left teachers less well prepared to teach this programme than they were previously, suggesting that the futures of school physical education and physical education teacher education are intertwined. Kirk explores three future scenarios for physical education, arguing that the most likely short-term future is ‘more of the same'. He makes an impassioned call for radical reform in the longer-term, arguing that without it physical education faces extinction. No other book makes such bold use of history to interrogate the present and future configurations of the discipline, nor offers such a wide-ranging critique of physical culture and school physical education. This book is essential reading for all serious students and scholars of physical education and the history and theory of education. Book Cover......Page 1 Title......Page 4 Copyright......Page 5 Contents......Page 6 Preface......Page 10 1 The social construction of physical education: Present, past and future......Page 14 2 Defining physical education and the possibility of the id......Page 23 3 Futures talk in physical education......Page 37 4 The id of physical education-assport- techniques......Page 54 5 Continuity and discontinuity: The residue of the past in the present......Page 79 6 Four relational issues and the bigger picture......Page 110 7 Physical education futures?......Page 134 8 Securing the conditions for radical reform......Page 153 Notes......Page 159 Bibliography......Page 163 Index......Page 176 This book traces the dominant shift over the last century from an idea of physical education-as-gymnastics to an idea of physical education-as-sport-techniques, and outlines the contemporary processes of commodification and commercialisation of physical culture and academicization of teaching that have already begun to make this emphasis on sport-related skills problematic This book traces the dominant shift over the last century from an idea of physical education-as-gymnastics to an idea of physical-education-as-sport-technique, and outlines the contemporary processes of commodification and commercialiZation of physical culture and academicization of teaching that have already begun to make this emphasis on sport-related skills problematic. This text traces the dominant shift over the last century from an idea of physical education as gymnastics to an idea of physical education as sport techniques