Physical Education Futures

Physical Education Futures 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 decontextualised sport-techniques to large classes of children who possess a range of interests and abilities, where learning rarely moves beyond introductory levels. Meanwhile, the academicisation 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. David Kirk is Professor of Physical Education and Youth Sport at Leeds Metropolitan University, where he has been Dean of the Carnegie Faculty of Sport and Education since 2004. He is editor of the journal Physical Education and Sport Pedagogy. Physical Education Futures David Kirk First published 2010 by Routledge 2 Park Square, Milton Park, Abingdon, Oxon, OX14 4RN Simultaneously published in the USA and Canada by Routledge 270 Madison Avenue, New York, NY 10016 Routledge is an imprint of the Taylor & Francis Group, an informa business This edition published in the Taylor & Francis e-Library, 2009. To purchase your own copy of this or any of Taylor & Francis or Routledge’s collection of thousands of eBooks please go to www.eBookstore.tandf.co.uk. © 2010 David Kirk All rights reserved. No part of this book may be reprinted or reproduced or utilised in any form or by any electronic, mechanical, or other means, now known or hereafter invented, including photocopying and recording, or in any information storage or retrieval system, without permission in writing from the publishers. British Library Cataloguing in Publication Data A catalogue record for this book is available from the British Library Library of Congress Cataloging in Publication Data Kirk, David, 1958Physical education futures / David Kirk. p. cm. Includes bibliographical references. 1. Physical education and training. I. Title. GV341.K565 2010 613.7—dc22 2009003841 ISBN 0-203-87462-5 Master e-book ISBN ISBN13: 978-0-415-54993-6 hbk ISBN13: 978-0-203-87462-2 ebk ISBN10: 0-415-54993-0 hbk ISBN10: 0-203-87462-5 ebk Contents 1 Preface ix The social construction of physical education: Present, past and future 1 2 Defining physical education and the possibility of the id2 10 3