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The philosophy of physical education: A new perspective

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Steven Stolz at University of Adelaide
Steven Stolz
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Abstract

The discipline area of physical education has historically struggled for legitimacy, sometimes being seen as a non-serious pursuit in educational terms compared to other subjects within the school curriculum. This book represents the first attempt in nearly thirty years to offer a coherent philosophical defence and conceptualisation of physical education and sport as subjects of educational value, and to provide a philosophically sound justification for their inclusion in the curriculum. The book argues that rather than relegating the body to “un-thinking” learning, a person’s essential being is not confined to their rationality but involves an embodied dimension. It traces the changing conceptions of the body, in philosophy and theology, that have influenced our understanding of physical education and sport, and investigates the important role that embodiment and movement play in learning about, through and in physical education. Physical education is defended as a vital and necessary part of education because the whole person goes to school, not just the mind, but the thinking, feeling and acting facets of a person. It is argued that physical education has the potential to provide a multitude of experiences and opportunities for students to become aware of their embodiment, explore alternative modes of awareness and to develop insights into and new modes of being not available elsewhere in the curriculum, and to influence moral character through the support of a moral community that is committed to that practice. Representing a sophisticated and spirited defence of the educational significance and philosophical value of physical education and sport, this book will be fascinating reading for any advanced student or researcher with an interest in physical education, the philosophy of sport or the philosophy of education.
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June 2014: 234x156: 212pp
Hb: 978-1-138-79228-9 | £85.00
eBook: 978-1-315-76225-8
TABLE OF CONTENTS:
Chapter 1. On Justifications of Sport and Physical Education:
Are There Good Reasons for the Inclusion of Sport and
Physical Education Within Educational Institutions? Chapter
2. Philosophical and Theological Positions of the Body:
Changing Concepts of the Body and Its Influence Upon Sport
and Physical Education Chapter 3. The Unique Place of
Physical Education Within Education: The Fluid Concept of
Education and the Process of Being "Physically Educated"
Chapter 4. The Phenomenon of Play and Its Educational
Significance in Physical Education: Why Do Philosophers Talk
So Much About Play, Games and Sports? Chapter 5. The
Moral Aspects of Sport and Physical Education: Do Sport and
Physical Education Provide Unique Opportunities to Develop
Moral Character? Chapter 6. MacIntyre, Rival Traditions and
Physical Education
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The Philosophy of
Physical Education
A New Perspective
Steven A. Stolz, La Trobe University, Australia
Series: Routledge Studies in Physical Education and Youth Sport
This book represents the first attempt in nearly 30 years to
offer a coherent philosophical defence and
conceptualisation of physical education and sport as
subjects of educational value, and to provide a
philosophically sound justification for their inclusion in the
curriculum. Representing a sophisticated and spirited
defence of the educational significance and philosophical
value of physical education and sport, this book will be
fascinating reading for any advanced student or researcher
with an interest in physical education, the philosophy of
sport, or the philosophy of education.
20% Discount Available - enter the code FLR40 at
checkout*
Hb: 978-1-138-79228-9 | £68.00
* Offer cannot be used in conjunction with any other offer or discount and only applies to
books purchased directly via our website.
For more details, or to request a copy for review, please contact: jon.bale@tandf.co.uk
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www.routledge.com/9781138792289
... Bodily performance obtained through training and the development of character, have consequently come to dominate knowledge construction within the subject (Evans, Rich and Davies, 2009;Walseth, Aartun and Engelsrud, 2015). This convenient home for physiological and psychological discourses has been legitimated by the prevalence of dualistic understandings of knowledge (Quay, 2014;Stolz, 2014). These place the education of the mind as quantifiably more important than physical exertions in the school hall and playground. ...
... As a result a logical and at first rational, order of stages of physical and psychological milestones is produced and in consequence, the body and mind become separate domains to be trained. However, the many different human meanings derived from participation in sports become reduced into techniques to be mastered and habits of mind to be developed (Stolz, 2014). These reductionist positions, commit what Sicilia-Camacho and Brown (2008) refer to as the 'de-personification and de-subjectification of the learning and teaching process' (p.99). ...
... It implies that meaningfulness obtained through participation in these sports is limited when these physical and psychological skills are not re-enacted proficiently. However, meaningfulness can actually be obtained in many different ways, such as being with friends or experiencing your body in a different way beyond everyday routines (Stolz, 2014). Skilfulness is one aspect of this meaningfulness and develops over a prolonged period of time through ongoing experiences. ...
Moving beyond Sport in Primary Physical Education.
Chapter
Full-text available
  • Mar 2017
How can you see sport as subject-matter for learning in Physical Education.
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... Arnold went further to argue 'aspects of education that are not examined should not be squeezed out of existence ' (1968, 7). The QSPES (QCAA 2018) is not alone in seemingly misrepresenting Arnold's work, with the Arnoldian perspective being used to promote the 'academicisation' of PE in other curricula, particularly through an over emphasis of 'about' movement (Brooker and Macdonald 1995;Macdonald, Kirk, and Braiuka 1999;Reid 1996;Stolz 2014). Stolz and Thorburn (2017) highlighted that rather than experiencing integrated curriculum documents, we are left with silos, 'as the "about" dimension tends to disproportionately dominate, particularly in senior schooling and higher education programmes and that the "in" dimension is paid lip-service to' (385). ...
... Stolz and Thorburn (2017) highlighted that rather than experiencing integrated curriculum documents, we are left with silos, 'as the "about" dimension tends to disproportionately dominate, particularly in senior schooling and higher education programmes and that the "in" dimension is paid lip-service to' (385). Stolz (2014) contended that 'about' and 'through' movement have tended to overshadow 'in' movement. In summary, it is unclear why the QSPES (QCAA 2018) writers produced a syllabus claiming to be informed by Arnold's perspective but were selective and reductionist about how it is used. ...
Arnold wanted X but we got Y -the Queensland senior physical education syllabus application of the Arnoldian perspective Arnold wanted X but we got Y -the Queensland senior physical education syllabus application of the Arnoldian perspective
Article
  • Oct 2023
  • Phys Educ Sport Pedagog
The purpose of this paper is to examine the claimed adherence to the Arnoldian perspective in the QSPES (QCAA Citation2018) as stated in its curriculum intention statement (see QCAA Citation2018, 1). The authors suggest that a reinterpretation of Arnold’s intention has occurred in the application of his perspective to the QSPES (QCAA Citation2018) and suggest what may occur as a consequence of this reinterpretation. We conclude by discussing the potential effects of this reoriented view of Arnold’s perspective on students, teachers, and PE in general.
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... Nesse sentido, a integração entre essas duas disciplinas se revela particularmente útil quando buscamos entender sob a ótica de uma abordagem interdisciplinar que alia conceitos teóricos de física ao dinamismo e à prática da educação física. Outrossim, o ensino de ciências, em especial o da física (Stolz, 2014), sofre com diversas barreiras educacionais e sociais, necessitando cada vez mais de intervenções lúdicas, capazes de captar a atenção dos alunos, fazendo com a aprendizagem deles seja efetiva e se conectando com situações diversas (Silva, Alves e Queiroz, 2023). ...
Uma ponte entre a física e a educação física
Conference Paper
Full-text available
  • Nov 2024
A física e a educação física, apesar de parecerem áreas distintas à primeira vista, compartilham aspectos em algo evidenciado pelo estudo do movimento, das forças e da energia (Papaioannou, Milosis e Gotzaridis, 2020). Nesse sentido, a integração entre essas duas disciplinas se revela particularmente útil quando buscamos entender sob a ótica de uma abordagem interdisciplinar que alia conceitos teóricos de física ao dinamismo e à prática da educação física. Outrossim, o ensino de ciências, em especial o da física (Stolz, 2014), sofre com diversas barreiras educacionais e sociais, necessitando cada vez mais de intervenções lúdicas, capazes de captar a atenção dos alunos, fazendo com a aprendizagem deles seja efetiva e se conectando com situações diversas (Silva, Alves e Queiroz, 2023). Nesse contexto, este relato tem como objetivo descrever uma prática pedagógica que integra conceitos de física, enquanto ciência natural que estuda os fenômenos do universo, e da educação física, uma área dedicada ao estudo do corpo e do movimento humano, realizada com alunos no ensino médio com o intuito de estimular a curiosidade deles e integrá-los ao processo de aprendizagem ativa, na qual eles podem ver e sentir os princípios da ciência em ação. No que tange ao ambiente educacional na qual a atividade foi desenvolvida, trata-se da Escola Indígena Chuí (INEP: 23239174), que se apresenta como uma instituição educacional especial presente na comunidade Pitaguary, natural do município de Maracanaú no estado do Ceará. Com relação às aulas, elas foram ministradas em uma disciplina regular de física para o primeiro ano do ensino médio, na qual o conteúdo de cinemática vinha sendo abordado. Com isso, é importante compreender que a cinemática é a parte da física que estuda os movimentos sem levar em conta as forças que os causam (Helerbrock, c2024). Desse modo, a análise cinemática é utilizada em diversas modalidades esportivas para entender os padrões de movimento do corpo humano. Por exemplo, na corrida, é avaliada a trajetória, a amplitude dos movimentos e a velocidade de diferentes segmentos do corpo (Fukuchi e Duarte, 2008). Nesse sentido, o cálculo da velocidade desempenha um papel crucial nesse contexto, uma vez que ajuda a determinar o ritmo e a constância dos movimentos ao 1 Doutorando em Química pela Universidade de São Paulo (USP); Atuou como professor da Escola Indígena Chuí. 2 Graduanda em Direito pelo Centro Universitário Fametro (UNIFAMETRO).
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... Subsequently, this paper is grounded on the belief that advocating for the pursuit of health and physical literacy alone as the aim of physical education is a significant shortcoming for both schools and universities, is-in my opinion-unlikely to afford young people with the opportunities and experiences they need to pursue a life-long relationship with physical activity, and is a philosophical and visionary obstacle that must be overcome if we are to equip young people with the means to seek out a good life in an increasingly precarious world (Brunsdon, 2024, in press-a;Kirk, 2020). Therefore, in a continuing effort to study the unavoidably philosophical nature of the profession (Brunsdon, 2024, in press-a;Stolz, 2014), the purpose of this paper is to present human flourishing as the aim of physical education. A secondary objective is to invite the reader to explore this alternative philosophy and to question whether it ought to be the field's overarching aim, be among its most primary aims, or be disregarded altogether. ...
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... In the field of physical education, solving physical and mental problems is the fundamental problem supporting theory and practice. [6] Therefore, the philosophical discussion of mind-body relationship can determine the direction of integration problem solving. ...
Physical Masking and Regression: The Direction, Obstruction and Approach of Physical Education Reform
Article
Full-text available
  • Mar 2024
Through an in-depth discussion on the direction of PE reform in the modern era, we carefully examined the dual challenges posed by technological and value rationality. We delved deeper into the philosophical complexities inherent in PE reform. Our analysis uncovered that the exploration of bodily cognition, viewed through the lens of embodied philosophy, holds the key to comprehending school PE, shaping curriculum frameworks, and grasping the deeper educational value of PE. This perspective proves more insightful than merely studying the infuence of societal, cultural, and political factors on PE from a purely physical standpoint.
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... Moreover, while philosophical interpretations linking physical activity to character development remain alive and well (Brunsdon, in press-a;Brunsdon & Walker, 2022;Bredemeier & Shields, 2019;Stolz, 2014). To date, there have been no follow-up empirical case studies that describe, in straightforward terms, how a physical educator interprets and employs character education in schools. ...
“Know Your Kids, Understand Yourself, and Find a Way”: One Elementary School Physical Education Teacher’s Efforts at Employing Character Education
Article
Full-text available
  • Jan 2024
Background : Research concerning the philosophy of character education has been largely inadequate and anticlimactic. Purpose : Informed by a combination of emergent, novel, and nontraditional techniques, the purpose of this study is to describe one elementary school physical education teacher’s efforts at employing character education. Method : The participant was Paris, a White, abled-bodied female with 41 years’ experience. Utilizing an exploratory case study design, data were collected with eight interpretive techniques and analyzed using thematic methods. Findings : Paris employed a “content-based approach” to teaching character education and taught the moral content of human flourishing, virtue, and practical wisdom via jump rope, rock climbing, and parachute-based physical education content. Her character pedagogies of affect were explicit and implicit in nature and shaped around the skills themes, multiskill, and multiactivity pedagogical models. The factors influencing Paris’ efforts were identified. Conclusion : This study contributes to the affective literature from a theoretical, methodological, and practical perspective.
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... From an investigative point of view, the Philosophy of Sport is guided by systematic argumentation, questioning and dialogue through critical analysis and/or speculative synthesis. The broadest question found in this subdiscipline of philosophy concerns the nature and purposes of sport and its related areas (Codea et al. 2005;Edgar 2015;Stolz 2014). Torres and Campos (2010) point out that the first incursions into the Philosophy of Sport were predominantly in Anglo-Saxon countries. ...
The philosophy of sport in Brazil: in search of the construction of a field of research
Article
  • Feb 2024
  • J PHILOS SPORT
The field of Philosophy of Sport has been developing in Anglo-Saxon scholarship since the 1960s and since then has achieved considerable consolidation. However, this is a progressing field in Latin American countries like Brazil. This paper aims to analyse the trajectory of the Philosophy of Sport in Brazil, presenting an overview of its development since the 1980s and some prospects that have been generated since the turn of the century. In conclusion, the article points out that the field of Philosophy of Sport in Brazil is in the process of disciplinary consolidation, presenting a plurality of agents, institutions and theoretical approaches in its structure.
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... From Skovbjerg and Sand's (2022) viewpoint, this is representative of the students playing a rule-based game with play-based formulas. It also shows how the concepts of play and games are overlapping and highly fluid (Skovbjerg, 2021;Stolz, 2014). ...
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Impact of occupational socialization on how physical education teachers employ character education in schools
Article
Full-text available
  • Jun 2024
  • SPORT EDUC SOC
Arguments relating moral and character education to the field of physical education are not novel. Despite this, there are few studies dedicated to studying how and why physical education teachers use character education in schools. The purpose of this study, therefore, was to address this literature gap by studying how seven teachers employed character education and the extent to which their upbringing, experiences in teacher education, and formal teaching career impacted their enthusiasm for, and use of, character and virtue pedagogies in physical education. Data were collected with three techniques (formal interviews, documents, and artifacts) and were analyzed through thematic methods. Guided by either a multi-sport or health/ physical literacy curriculum, data revealed that the teachers employed a range of character concepts and strategies to promote character development. Moreover, the acculturation phase, especially the impact of one’s family and religious upbringing, appeared to have the most influence on teachers’ motivation for becoming a moral and character educationalist, while the organizational phase had the most impact on how they embodied this role and practice. In addition, while the professional socialization phase, or lack thereof, appeared to impact the type of curricula being promoted in schools, this phase had relatively little impact on how the participants employed character education with young people. In conclusion, the search for a physical education program and a group of physical educators espousing a well-informed and theoretically robust curriculum for teaching character education in schools, remains. Finally, future research concerned with providing and studying the impact of school and university-based professional development programs on department-wide initiatives and (moral) curriculum development would be helpful.
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Challenging pre-service teacher habitus: A self-study of unit design in teacher education
Article
Full-text available
  • Mar 2024
The purpose of our paper was to examine how John, the lead author, attempted to bridge the reality-congruence gap between how his Health and Physical Education (HPE) pre-service teachers (PSTs) knew HPE, before commencing the undergraduate unit (subject) central to this paper and how we know contemporary HPE as teacher educators. Here we use reality congruence according to its figurational sociology meaning as “the knowledge of it that is possible” (Giovannini, 2015, n.p.). The “it that is possible,” is the broad disciplinary knowledge necessary for teaching HPE contemporarily, that both authors have acquired over many years. A self-study approach was adopted, using Norbert Elias’s figurational sociology to deductively analyse John’s practice in teaching the reported unit. We used a two-phase approach, with phase one being an exploration of John’s experience of unit design and phase 2 examining John’s assumptions about his practice and his students. We found that John’s approaches were effective in influencing his students to learn and value reality-congruent HPE. Supporting qualitative student satisfaction data suggested many HPE-PSTs valued the teaching approaches John used, which also aligned with their learning preferences. Through planning teacher education curriculum content that challenges traditional notions of PE in particular, it is possible for teacher educators to influence HPE-PSTs towards learning and embracing more reality congruent HPE.
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Practical reasoning and knowing how
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  • Jan 1978
  • J Hum Mov Stud
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The Relationship between Children’s Legitimacy Judgments and Their Moral Reasoning, Aggression Tendencies, and Sport Involvement
Article
  • Mar 1987
The purpose of this study was to investigate (a) the relationship between children’s judgments regarding the legitimacy of potentially injurious sport acts for adults and for children, (b) the relationships between children’s legitimacy judgments and their moral reasoning, aggression tendencies, and sport involvement, and (c) the relative ability of the latter three variables to predict legitimacy judgments. Analyses were based on 78 girls and boys in grades 4 through 7 who participated in a moral interview, completed aggression ten dency and sport involvement questionnaires, and evaluated the legitimacy of potentially injurious sport acts depicted in a series of slides. Analyses revealed that children accepted more acts as legitimate for adults than for children. Boys’ legitimacy judgments were significantly related to their moral reasoning, aggression tendencies, and involvement in high-contact sports, but girls’ legitimacy judgments were correlated only with their life aggression tendencies. Children’s...
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