The physical education and sport interface

Abstract

Within many school contexts physical education and sport have historically been positioned as polemic, and while there has been plenty of rhetoric about physical education as well as sport within education, there has seldom been engaged debate or discussion about the relationship between physical education and sport in school settings. This article revisits Elizabeth Murdoch's heuristic of five conceptualizations for the physical education and sport interface (Murdoch, 1990), reflecting that two decades have passed and neither physical education nor sport are what they used to be. Murdoch's interface invites teachers and coaches to apply policy, practices and pedagogies that have influenced the relationship of physical education and sport at a local level. While focusing on the policy and pedagogy of sport and physical education in a New Zealand context, this article draws on similar trends and issues at an international level to reaffirm the global relevance of the issues and challenges being raised. Attention is drawn to the need to keep pace with and satisfy the ever-increasing needs and wants of the next generation of young people. It behoves teachers and coaches to present young people with sport experiences that are full and enriching, based on sound maxims that help students understand how sport can strengthen a culture.

Knowing in primary physical education in the UK: negotiating movement culture

“…This will continue to apply pressure on the need to balance working towards cooperative busy looking ends-in-view, with the re-actualisation of knowledge of competitive sports outside of the school gates. Utilising pedagogical models to deliver PE curricula and help navigate the difficult terrain created by competition, inclusion and cooperation may be a way forward (Pope, 2011). However, this solution is out of reach to the majority of non-specialist teachers, particularly when set in the context of limited teacher training and continuous professional development in addition to low self-confidence to deliver PE (DeCorby, Halas, Dixon, Wintrup, & Janzen, 2005;Harris, Cale, & Musson, 2012;Morgan & Bourke 2008;2008).…”

Revisiting the National Physical Education Content Standards: What Do We Really Know About Our Achievement of the Physically Educated/Literate Person?

“…More recently, Pope (2011) has echoed this notion when he comments that "physical education has attempted to do so much that it has diluted both its meaning and purpose" (p. 278). By consequence, as an alternative to the conglomerate of outcomes that serve to identify the physically educated/literate person, we might be better served to seek a more global notion that is easier to define, and ultimately, easier to measure.…”

Learning movement culture: mapping the landscape between physical education and school sport

“…Pope (2011) believes the future of the relationship between Physical Education and Sport lies not in retreating to educational definitions of the subject but in an examination of how its interface with Sport can help produce mutually supportive pedagogic relationships. By embracing Physical Education and Sport within Movement Culture, Crum (1993) proposes a rationale for Physical Education which retains the subject's educational creditability through the provision of meaningful subject matter and contextualised learning that connects to contemporary shifts in Sport participation.…”

“…This leads to an analysis of Pope's (2011) suggestion for the use of Murdoch's (1990) Integration Model as a route to secure more cohesive relationships at the Physical Education and Sport interface. Crum's (1993) conception of Movement Culture is proposed as a more cohesive and inclusive alternative to the Integration Model.…”

“…Discourse exploring the multiple points of interface between Physical Education and Sport is thus a contested space in which ambiguity and hostility are common (Pope, 2011). Pope (2011) believes the future of the relationship between Physical Education and Sport lies not in retreating to educational definitions of the subject but in an examination of how its interface with Sport can help produce mutually supportive pedagogic relationships.…”