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How ball games experts legitimate ball games knowledge within Swedish physical education teacher education
Örebro University, School of Health Sciences.ORCID iD: 0000-0001-9694-8100
Örebro University, School of Health Sciences.ORCID iD: 0000-0002-5093-4958
Örebro University, School of Health Sciences.ORCID iD: 0000-0003-4162-9844
2024 (English)In: Physical Education and Sport Pedagogy, ISSN 1740-8989, E-ISSN 1742-5786, Vol. 29, no 6, p. 621-635Article in journal (Refereed) Published
Abstract [en]

Background: Various forms and types of knowledge have enjoyed legitimacy in physical education (PE) since sports techniques became the orienting idea for PE in economically advanced countries in the mid-twentieth century. The forms and types of knowledge granted legitimacy at any one moment are dependent on a range of socio-discursive factors. In this paper, we consider ball games knowledge within the Swedish PE teacher education context in the 2020s.

Purpose: The specific aim of the paper is to generate insights into how ball games experts within PE teacher education define legitimate ball games knowledge. Our proposition is that by examining the ways these experts define ball games knowledge, physical education teacher educators may develop more nuanced understandings of how and why knowledge comes to be seen as legitimate.

Methods: In order to conceptualize experts' knowledge of ball games, Shulman's concepts of content knowledge (CK) and pedagogical content knowledge (PCK) were employed. Semi-structured interviews were conducted with two teacher educators who specialized in ball games education from three different PETE institutions in Sweden (n = 6). The interviews focused on the PETE educators' understandings of ball games and how they prepared preservice teachers to teach ball games.

Findings: The PETE educators defined ball games CK as: (1) understanding of games as a cultural phenomenon, (2) tactical understanding of games, and (3) embodied understanding of how to play ball games. The PETE educators defined ball games PCK as: (1) using ball games to meet different curricular goals, (2) focusing on tactical understanding with a small number of concepts, (3) adapting teaching so that all pupils are included, and (4) managing competition.

Conclusions: Four issues related to the legitimacy of this knowledge are raised. The issues concern the ways in which: (1) a complementary sport discourse is permeated by educational discourse to achieve legitimacy; (2) CK and PCK are designed to achieve legitimacy with different stakeholders; (3) public health discourse is not used to develop legitimacy for ball games knowledge, and (4) historical factors continue to affect experts' understandings of ball games. The central conclusion drawn from the investigation is that ball games experts engage in a complex process of discursive negotiation when defining the knowledge with which they work.

Place, publisher, year, edition, pages
Routledge, 2024. Vol. 29, no 6, p. 621-635
Keywords [en]
Physical education teacher education, ball games, legitimate knowledge, PE curriculum, content knowledge, pedagogical content knowldge
National Category
Pedagogy
Identifiers
URN: urn:nbn:se:oru:diva-102195DOI: 10.1080/17408989.2022.2138305ISI: 000875538000001Scopus ID: 2-s2.0-85141016344OAI: oai:DiVA.org:oru-102195DiVA, id: diva2:1710919
Available from: 2022-11-15 Created: 2022-11-15 Last updated: 2025-01-10Bibliographically approved
In thesis
1. Legitimating ball games: The recontextualisation of ball games knowledge in Swedish physical education and physical education teacher education
Open this publication in new window or tab >>Legitimating ball games: The recontextualisation of ball games knowledge in Swedish physical education and physical education teacher education
2025 (English)Doctoral thesis, comprehensive summary (Other academic)
Abstract [en]

This thesis is about ball games as content within physical education teacher education (PETE) and physical education (PE) in a Swedish context. The focus of the study is on how knowledge related to ball games becomes legitimate in PETE, and how this knowledge is transformed and used in pedagogic practice in PE. This thesis consists of four articles investigating these questions in different educational contexts. In Article I, I examine how PE teacher educators define legitimate ball games knowledge in PETE through the lens of Shulman’s theory on teachers’ knowledge. The findings suggest that PE teacher educators define legitimate knowledge as a combination of content knowledge related to participation in sports and pedagogical content knowledge related to learning for all pupils. In Article II-IV the focus is on how knowledge is recontextualised in transitions from PETE to PE and the analysis is done through Bernstein’s theoretical framework. The findings in Article II show that the pre-service teachers’ pedagogic discourse of ball games involved substantial changes and transformations in the transition from university to school placement. These changes can be explained by recontextualising rules that either constrain or enable the use of knowledge. The findings in Article III indicate that beginning teachers had different aims in their teaching, some aimed to develop pupil’s understanding of games while others used ball games as a means to develop movement or cooperative capabilities. The teachers employed different strategies to handle challenges of the cultural influence from competitive sport. The findings of Article IV suggest that beginning teachers consider knowledge from PETE useful and relevant and were able to reproduce this knowledge in PE practice. They were also missing important knowledge, and their teaching was affected by contextual factors. The thesis contributes to existing scholarship with knowledge about the recontextualisation process in which the pedagogic discourse of ball games is constructed within PETE and transformed and reproduced into PE practice.

Place, publisher, year, edition, pages
Örebro: Örebro University, 2025. p. 114
Series
Örebro Studies in Sport Sciences, ISSN 1654-7535 ; 42
Keywords
Ball games, physical education teacher education, content knowledge, pedagogical content knowledge, Bernstein, recontextualisation, beginning teachers, transitions, PE practice
National Category
Sport and Fitness Sciences
Identifiers
urn:nbn:se:oru:diva-116718 (URN)9789175296197 (ISBN)9789175296203 (ISBN)
Public defence
2025-01-31, Örebro universitet, Gymnastik- och idrottshuset, Hörsal G, Fakultetsgatan 1, Örebro, 13:15 (Swedish)
Opponent
Supervisors
Available from: 2024-10-15 Created: 2024-10-15 Last updated: 2025-01-13Bibliographically approved

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Mustell, JanGeidne, SusannaBarker, Dean

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