"Activity Choice" and Physical Education in England and Wales

Autor/inn/en	Smith, Andy; Green, Ken; Thurston, Miranda
Titel	"Activity Choice" and Physical Education in England and Wales
Quelle	In: Sport, Education and Society, 14 (2009) 2, S.203-222 (20 Seiten)Infoseite zur Zeitschrift PDF als Volltext Verfügbarkeit
Sprache	englisch
Dokumenttyp	gedruckt; online; Zeitschriftenaufsatz
ISSN	1357-3322
Schlagwörter	National Curriculum; Physical Education; Social Class; Team Sports; Physical Activities; Focus Groups; Adolescents; Foreign Countries; Public Policy; Public Officials; Athletics; Secondary School Students; Leisure Time; Gender Differences; Social Differences; Physical Education Teachers; Student Participation; Social Environment; Student Surveys; Curriculum Design; United Kingdom (England); United Kingdom (Wales) + Suchen Sie Ihr Suchwort? Körpererziehung; Sportunterricht; Social classes; Soziale Klasse; Mannschaftssport; Adolescent; Adolescence; Adoleszenz; Jugend; Jugendalter; Jugendlicher; Ausland; Öffentliche Ordnung; Leichtathletik; Sekundarschüler; Freizeit; Geschlechterkonflikt; Sozialer Unterschied; Physical education; Physical training; Teacher; Teachers; Sportlehrer; Schülermitarbeit; Schülermitwirkung; Studentische Mitbestimmung; Soziales Umfeld; Schülerbefragung; Lehrplangestaltung
Abstract	This paper draws on data from a broader study, the central object of which was to explore the place of sport and physical activity in young people's lives. More particularly, the paper reports the findings of 24 focus groups conducted with 153 15-16 year olds in north-west England and north-east Wales in order to examine young people's views towards activity choice in physical education (PE). In this regard, it is suggested that despite their deep-seated preferences for "traditional", games-dominated PE curricula and the constraints imposed upon them from the existence of a national curriculum for PE and government policy over the past two decades, PE teachers continue to provide young people with a degree of activity choice in the later secondary school years. The 15-16 year olds in this study considered activity choice to be a very positive feature of their experience of PE at key stage 4 and viewed it as a vehicle for greater enjoyment of and engagement with PE. It was also the case that the 15-16 year olds appeared to attach a great deal of importance to the ways in which the activities provided them with the opportunity to engage in activities within PE that they also do in their leisure-time, and which they are likely to do in the future. At the same time, however, many young people expressed dissatisfaction with what they perceived as unnecessary and undesirable limitations on the number and range of activities made available to them. Restrictions on choice were particularly felt among girls and those from lower social class backgrounds who were evidently dissatisfied with what they saw as the over-representation of a small number of traditional team sports and activities in PE. It is concluded that if PE teachers and policy-makers want to increase their impact upon young people's participation in PE and "modernise" further the curricula provided for pupils, then they need to appreciate more adequately the significance of the twin processes of democratisation and informalisation, since both processes help explain young people's growing preference for choice in PE and in other social contexts. (Contains 1 table and 1 note.) (As Provided).
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Erfasst von	ERIC (Education Resources Information Center), Washington, DC
Update	2017/4/10