Risk and Safety Management in Physical Education: Teachers’ Perceptions

Abstract

Bodily movement is a central component in students’ educational experiences in school-based physical education (PE) programs. PE unavoidably involves physical risk. In some respects, the risk of play, sports and adventure is portrayed as necessary and healthy for children’s development. However, concerns about students’ safety and teachers’ liability might generate risk aversion among teachers. This article explores teachers’ perceptions of risk and safety management (RSM) in PE. Designed as a mixed methods study, the data include an online survey questionnaire (n = 698) and semi-structured interviews (n = 17) among primary and lower secondary PE teachers in Norway. A majority of the survey respondents report that their students only experience minor injuries in their PE classes. The interview data coincide with these results and indicate that minor injuries are rather common. While the survey results show that teachers mostly perceive RSM to be important in PE, the interview data suggest that the teachers’ perceptions of risk are characterized by uncertainty, which restricts the teachers’ control by means of RSM. Teachers also accept risk for enhancing students’ educative experiences in PE. Consequently, this study contributes to the knowledge of the complexity of risk and teachers’ perceptions of RSM in PE.

Uaktsomhet i kroppsøving: En kritisk diskursanalyse av rettsavgjørelser

“…Dette involverer blant annet instruksjon, tilsyn, regler og rutiner (Porsanger & Magnussen, 2021). Det kan vaere en grunn til at alvorlige skader forekommer relativt sjelden (Porsanger & Sandseter, 2021). Likevel foreligger det flere rettsavgjørelser knyttet til elevskader hvor laereres handlinger har blitt vurdert til å vaere uforsvarlige av domstoler.…”

Management Strategy of Large Class of Pe in Primary School

“…Although the survey results show that most teachers believe that risk and safety management are important in PE teaching, the interview data shows that teachers' view of risk is uncertain, which limits teachers' control through risk and safety management. (Porsanger & Sandseter, 2021) Multiple risk causes make PE classroom management a hot topic. In elementary school PE, the lower grade students are lively and active by nature, and their self-management ability is poor.…”