Purpose
In the Knowledge Promotion Reform 2020 (LK20), play is described as central in physical education, both as content and as a working method. However, there is little research on play in the context of physical education, particularly concerning lower secondary and upper secondary education. The purpose of this project is therefore to investigate how play in the physical education curriculum is concretized in pedagogical practice.
Project Description
Method and Sample
For this project, it was essential to investigate how play is addressed in the curriculum texts for physical education and simultaneously examine how play is operationalized in teaching. Therefore, the project is "twofold." A document analysis of the current curriculum texts in physical education from 1922 through LK20 has been conducted. Additionally, observational studies of physical education classes focusing on play in lower secondary school and the first year of upper secondary education have been carried out, followed by interviews with the physical education teachers responsible for the teaching. Simplified, the project examines play within the formal, perceived, and operationalized curriculum levels based on Goodlad's (1979) terminology.
Read more
Based on historical conceptualization (Koselleck, 1985), a rhetorical analysis of the curriculum texts in physical education has been conducted, focusing on examining what kind of expectations the curriculum texts in physical education create around play in pedagogical practice. The data covers from the Normal Plan 1922/1925 to the new curricula in the Knowledge Promotion Reform (LK20), in the curricula that have been applicable to the physical education subject in compulsory education during this period, and are assumed to have significance for how play is included in the subject today. The data covers the following curricula:
- Normal Plan for Rural Folk Schools 1922
- Normal Plan for Urban Folk Schools 1925
- Normal Plan for Urban Folk Schools 1939
- Normal Plan for Rural Folk Schools 1939
- Curriculum for the Trial of a 9-year School 1960
- Pattern Plan for Primary Schools 1974 (M74)
- Curriculum for Upper Secondary School – Common General Subjects 1976
- Pattern Plan 1987 (M87)
- Curriculum Framework for Upper Secondary Education 1994
- Curriculum Framework for the 10-year Primary School 1997 (L97)
- Knowledge Promotion 06 (KRO1-01), (KRO1-02), (KRO1-03), and (KRO1-04)
- Knowledge Promotion 2020 (KRO01-05)
Curriculum texts do not specify concrete pedagogical practices in physical education. The project has further focused on observing physical education teaching with an emphasis on play. The data material is based on individual semi-structured interviews with four teachers and participatory observation of the teaching by the same teachers. In total, eight physical education lessons have been observed; two school hours per teacher. In this project, four teachers who teach physical education have been recruited, two teachers who teach grades 8-10 and two teachers who teach in the first year of upper secondary education.
Results
The project is part of an article-based doctoral dissertation. The results are therefore presented through three articles and the dissertation text.
Article 1: Sæther, S., Spord Borgen, J., & Leirhaug, P. E. (2022). Play in the Physical Education Curriculum - Historical Conceptualization. Acta Didactica Norden, 16(3). https://doi.org/10.5617/adno.8977 (in Norwegian)
Article 2: Sæther, S., Borgen, J. S., & Leirhaug, P. E. (2023). Structuring Play in Physical Education. Sport, Education and Society, 1–13. https://doi.org/10.1080/13573322.2023.2283782
