Att samverka eller..? : Om idrottslärare och idrottsämnet i den svenska grundskolan

• Main Author: Karlefors, Inger
• Format: Doctoral Thesis
• Language: Swedish
• Published: Umeå universitet, Pedagogiska institutionen 2002
• Subjects: Compulsary school; physical education; physical education teachers; collaboration; interdisciplinarity; Subject didactics; Ämnesdidaktik
• Online Access: http://urn.kb.se/resolve?urn=urn:nbn:se:umu:diva-16564; http://nbn-resolving.de/urn:isbn:91-7305-230-2

The subject of physical education is viewed as being in a crisis, since the pace given for it in the schedule of classes for the compulsary school has been reduced with introduction of the most recent curriculum, Lpo 94. Researchers believe that collaboration would strengthen the position of the subject and of the in the physical education teachers in school and lead to a solution of the crisis. The purpose of this dissertation is to describe, analyze, and understand against this background experiences reported by physical education teachers of collaboration between the subject of physical education and other subjects in the compulsary school in order to be able to discuss the question as to whether collaboration can strengthen the position of the subject of physical education in the school and be asolution to what is called a crisis of the subject of physical education. The approach to the research includes a number of constituent studies, where an interview study of 30 teachers in the subject of physical education constitutes the main body of the dissertation. Basil Bernstein's concept of classification defines whether collaboration between subjects and teachers occurs or not. The concept of integrated code has defined the prevailing development in the school that includes collaboration among both subjects and teachers. The result shows that collaboration is not a general solution to the crisis in the subject of physical education. One type of collaboration can make more difficult another type of collaboration. Six different categories of collaboration in working groups involving physical education teachers have been defined. The different categories emerge as a result of the culture of the school, and the professional identity of the physical education teacher at the individual schools. Most teachers in the study work under the collection code. A group of teachers of several subjects are on their way toward integrated code but the subject of physical education is not part of the collaboration in any of the categories. Collaboration in itself has no great significance according to the results for the position of the subject of physical education in the schools as the subject mainly works under collection code. And even if the physical education teachers who collaborate in working groups have a strong position, it is rather an expression of the fact that they participate in the prevailing development in the school, where collaboration is one part, than collaboration by itself. The question is also whether there is a crisis during development in the schools toward integrated code. The physical education teachers need to discuss the content of the integrated code and its application to teaching in order to avoid future crises.