Feature
No.44
May 2005
 
    

Post-Berlin Summit Developments in School Physical Education: An Australian Perspective
John E. Saunders, Australia
 

Understanding the Context
Twenty first century Australia is a multi-racial society embedded in a predominantly British and Irish ancestral population of around 20 million in total unevenly distributed but for the most part located in the cities of the coastal fringe. Just as it is impossible to reduce the context of Australian daily life to a single description, so it is an equally fruitless task to identify the typical Australian school. Education is a state responsibility and the state school system is the responsibility of the eight state and territory governments. All of these jurisdictions operate their own curriculum frameworks. Even the starting age and the structures of schooling vary between the states. To add to the diversity, just over a third of Australian secondary students attend non-government schools. Despite the tendency of state systems in particular to jealously guard their autonomy, there have been increasing attempts to co-ordinate schooling within a national framework. Thus the 10th Ministerial Council on Education, Employment, Training and Youth Affairs which brought together the state, territory and federal Ministers of Education, published ‘The Adelaide Declaration on National Goals for Schooling in the Twenty-first Century’ (Department of Education, Science and Training, 1999). This was framed as “an historic commitment to improving Australian Schooling within a framework of national collaboration”.
Confident generalisations about the status of physical education in Australia are virtually impossible to make. In the absence of hard data, individual perceptions become a further source of variability as became evident in the sources consulted for this paper (Boustead, 2004). Yet there is one element about which there would be little dispute and that is the central place of sport in Australian society. Thus one recent social commentator reviewing the last 40 years of the nation concluded:
“…so deeply hardwired in the Australian psyche is sport that these moments have given us far more than mere delightful diversion. When all else around us was falling apart, when we ourselves were becoming fractious and fractured, sport was the glue that bound us back together, When the fighting in Vietnam was at its fiercest and most politically divisive, two fighters Lionel Rose and Johnny Famechon, one black and one white united us as Australian” (Smith, 2004).
The contrast between the confident place of sport in Australian society and the more tentative place of physical education within Australian education provides a deep irony. As reported in the ICSSPE world survey: “…Even in a renowned sporting country such as Australia, physical education has been deemed to be a marginal subject in schools with low status of subject and teachers; this inferior status being partly attributed to its practical nature in educational contexts that favour intellectual activity” (Macdonald, and Brooker, 1997).

Specific Australian Issues Identified by Hardman and Marshall (1999)
Hardman and Marshall’s report identified some specific Australian issues and it may be worth recalling some of these before going on to consider the progress made since the Berlin Summit. They included:
  • Problems in initial teacher training
  • Concerns over the ways in which Physical Education was being redefined in emerging curriculum frameworks
  • The balance between elite competitive sport and basic physical education programmes
  • The pace of movement towards a more inclusive system for the disabled
An example from the state of Victoria was taken to illustrate concern over teacher training:
“In Victoria, Australia, the ACHPER Teacher Training Working Party looked at requirements of the Standards Council of the Teaching Profession (SCTP) and PETE in Victorian universities. The Working Party concluded that the inadequacies in physical education practical/theoretical content knowledge, insufficient practical knowledge components in degree structures, insufficient exposure and practice at teaching across the secondary school curriculum and insufficient exposure and practice at teaching primary PE suggest that some programmes’ graduates would be ineligible to teach within DOE schools” (ACHPER Victorian Branch Inc., 1997).
ACHPER as the professional body has continued to lobby within that state. The essential problem is that the move from physical education (professional) based programmes to human movement/exercise science (discipline) based degrees, which began in the 1970s has seen the knowledge base move away from education faculties into science and health science faculties. Although there are arguably some positives to this process, from the perspective of preparing physical education teachers, one important negative has been the demise of physical activity centred knowledge (Dodd, 2004). Exercise Science departments have in general seen this as being the responsibility of curriculum specialists who reside in Education faculties. The curriculum specialists on the other hand say they are now receiving specialists with an inadequate knowledge base for them to prepare as teachers. To add to the problem, there are few incentives for academics in either faculty to pick up low status activity programmes that can contribute little to their own academic knowledge, development and hence their careers and promotion. On the positive side, one university with a highly rated Exercise and Nutrition Sciences School has reintroduced the notion of a Bachelor of Physical Education through its Education Faculty and this may lead to others following suit. But in many universities, as they grapple with reform in the sector and major issues of resourcing and competition, the issue has quite simply become too difficult and insufficiently significant.
Over successive years in various systems’ curriculum frameworks, physical education has been redefined in terms of personal development and health, leisure and lifestyle education etc. Such redefinitions have challenged the profession who have generally expressed the view that such conceptualisations fail to encapsulate important dimensions of physical education. The fear is that in such frameworks physical activity can simply slip off the agenda. Consequently in the State of Victoria, ACHPER currently feels the need to lobby energetically on the issue of a clear identity of physical education as a mandated component of the core curriculum.
If we consider The Adelaide Declaration on National Goals for Schooling in the Twenty-first Century as a major national policy statement, this has identified Health and Physical Education as one of eight agreed key learning areas. Further the Declaration’s eighth goal is that when students leave school they will “have the knowledge, skills and attitudes necessary to establish and maintain a healthy lifestyle, and for the creative and satisfying use of leisure time”. Yet it would be surprising if physical educators agreed that such an objective totally encapsulated the role of health and physical education as a key learning area, or that the other seven broad objectives between them made good that broad omission. In essence it is an ongoing debate which continues to take place, too often it seems without significant physical education voices at the table.
Hardman and Marshall (1999) drew attention to the observations of critics of the current balance between the funding of elite competitive sport and basic physical education programmes. However, the assertion that a fortune is spent "on a handful of elite athletes through the AIS and a pittance on the physical health and fitness of most Australian children..." (Williams, 1995) only stands up if some sort of individual to individual comparison is made that attempts to equate the per person expenditure on a handful of young Institute of Sport athletes with the per person expenditure on physical education for all other children their age around the country. The national policy is quite clearly expressed through the Australian Sports Commission, the Australian Government body that co-ordinates the Government’s commitment and contribution to sport. It is charged with providing national leadership in all facets of sport from the elite level through to the wider sporting community. Clearly it will be the elite programme that attracts a disproportionate amount of attention and public interest. Yet the claim that “…We promote an effective national sports system that offers improved participation in quality sports activities by all Australians and helps those who are talented and motivated to reach their potential excellence in sports performance” is supported both by stated policy and by initiatives such as the Active Australia Schools Network and the Active After School Communities’ Programme. Unfortunately it appears that, just as between those who work as exercise scientists and those who work as physical educators, there is a divide emerging between those who work in the different areas of delivery of sport and physical activity services. This can only ultimately be to the detriment of both ends of the continuum.
With regard to the pace of movement towards a more inclusive system for the disabled, observation suggests that there is a more positive message to report. The positive attitudes originally identified by Hardman and Marshall have supported some steady improvements in this area (Boustead, 2004). This is not to say that the limitation of resources, both physical and human, have not continued to restrict development from the optimum. However any such problems identified here, more closely approximate the problems of attitude and priority found throughout the system. Indeed paradoxically, values of participation and involvement for the disabled are sometimes more highly regarded than for children in the mainstream.

The Berlin Agenda for Action
As a means of reflecting on progress on the Berlin World Summit’s Agenda for Action the following observations are offered.
Agenda Item 1: Implement policies for Physical Education as a human right for all children;
The initial development of such policies is not really an issue within Australia. This is not to say that there are not a number of policy issues which require careful monitoring – such as the previous debate concerning the way in which physical education should be identified within the curriculum framework. As elsewhere, it is in the implementation of policy that the profession and its voices really needs to apply itself. In comparison with some other professional voices, such as those of our colleagues in law and medicine, it is fair to say that the chorus has proved less inspirational than we would wish.
Agenda Item2: Recognise the distinctive role of Physical Education in physical health, overall development and safe, supportive communities
There remains a problem here because of the poor ‘branding’ of physical education. There is far greater recognition of the contribution of sport throughout the community from the prime minister down. Sport inspires powerful emotions and loyalties. Physical Education is generally recognised as being something to do with ‘keeping fit’, perhaps generally recognised as being something of a good thing, but certainly not something to get passionate about.
Agenda Item 3: Recognise that quality Physical Education depends on well qualified educators and curriculum time, which are possible to provide even where other resources like equipment are in short supply;
For many years now Australian universities have been producing a good supply of talented graduates in exercise science. This talent however does not seem to have found its way naturally into the school education system. Those that do enter the teaching profession, tend to have a higher than average attrition rate. They report discouragement with their perceived status in the schools and frustration with the support received (Dodd, 2004). The attrition rate may not necessarily of itself, be a bad thing, if it reflects the fact that graduates in this discipline are more ambitious and have broader options than those in some other subject areas. However if it reflects either a lack of access to training courses or a perceived lack of attraction in the career itself, then this is indeed a problem that can and needs to be addressed.
Agenda Item 4: Invest in initial and in-service professional training and development for educators
Following on from the above item, there has been some concern expressed in recent years about the lack of ability of the teaching profession in general to attract and retain new talent. In particular it has been noted that the profession is failing to attract young men. Steps such as increased funding for universities for their teaching education programmes and more targeted scholarships, are currently being implemented. The challenge for the physical education profession is to ensure that it retains an adequate proportion of this new investment.
Agenda Item 5: Recognise that failure to provide Physical Education costs more in health care than the investment needed for Physical Education;
There is widespread recognition of the cost of declining levels of physical activity for the burden of disease. There is particular recognition of the price paid by children for society’s hypo kinetic disorder. Yet at all levels of the community there remains an enormous gap between recognising the cause and actually implementing the cure. There is not the space here to assess the suggested reasons for this breakdown, but it is an area where we as a physical education profession must be prepared to look long and hard at ourselves to identify our own share of the responsibility.
Agenda Item 6: Support research to improve the effectiveness and quality of Physical Education;
One of the ironies of the growth in Exercise Science and related disciplines in Australian Universities over the last two to three decades has been the comparative decline in the number of physical education staff. Isolated pockets of scholars in the pedagogy of sport and exercise appear to contrast with ubiquitous exercise physiologists, sport psychologists and the ilk. A comparison of the number of journals in the exercise sciences and the research productivity which they reflect, with the number of journals devoted to the scholarship of physical education provides sobering grounds for reflection. The positive side of these developments is that we know a lot more about the effects of exercise and effective dosages etc than we did. However it seems we still know little about how to embed the exercise message in school communities and engender school graduates with a commitment to and excitement in regular play, sport and exercise. It is however difficult to envisage where the push and drive for such research is going to come from given the limited profile of and support for our university based physical education staff.
Agenda Item 7: Work with international financial institutions to ensure Physical Education is part of the definition of education.
This agenda item reflects the need to build key partnerships in spreading the message of physical education. Despite the fact that ACHPER has embraced a strategy of making partnerships to deliver services, only limited progress appears to have been made in the commercial domain and particularly ‘at the high end’. One of the more successful was in the 1980s link between Nabisco breakfast foods and the Daily Physical Education programme. This is again an issue of ‘branding’. The sport brand has attained a great deal of success, in recent years, but this has not translated into success for physical education. We need to ask ourselves why these opportunities are not able to be grasped.

The Report Card
The report card for Australian Physical Education then for its progress on the issues relevant to the Berlin agenda since the ICSSPE world-wide survey, might read something like this
  • Tries hard and is not without talent.

  • Can be a little complacent at times.

  • Does not set high enough goals and avoids the challenge of engaging the higher achievers in the class.

  • Needs to work more effectively on advocacy
Comments
The more extended comments on that same report card might further focus on three observations:
  1. During this period we have witnessed a further separation between the school physical education community and the community of sport and exercise science. In universities this separation is reflected in the different faculties in which staff in the two areas finds themselves. The major impact has been that physical education staff has cut themselves off from the dynamic roots of their academic discipline. It is the knowledge about exercise and performance that seems to enthuse young students entering university. In comparison, the pedagogy of sport –though of relevance to those who seek a career in physical education - fails to capture and fire their imagination. What students still tend to seek are survival tips, the distillation of practical experience – a different sort of knowledge to understanding the essentials of human performance. Thus rather than the excitement of learning and entry into a useful and valuable career finding a fusion of expression, we seem to have moved to a culture shared with other disciplines where those that can do – they get in there and become exercise scientists, whereas those who can’t simply fall back on teaching. This divide parallels the division between sport practice for the pursuit of excellence and physical education. It has already been identified how sport invokes passion and enthusiasm whereas in contrast the activities of physical education are too often bland and trivial and fail to capture the imagination.
  2. The lack of clear ‘branding’ to which I have referred, reflects a failure to clearly ‘operationalise’ physical education, in a way which is instantly recognisable and commonly shared. Sport in contrast is instantly recognisable and people know how to respond to it – sometimes negatively but mostly positively. It is almost as if we are in a late stage of the product lifecycle. In our fast changing world products that fail to meet customers’ wants and needs are doomed – this is the marketing message and it can be extended to many dimensions of the world we grew up with – to all aspects of school and schooling. Clearly there is a need for developing our product and developing it in a way that will capture the imagination of our market. Cricket, tennis, squash are all examples of individual sports that have had to or are having to examine and re-create their product in order to survive.
  3. It is necessary to reflect on how education systems have already re-defined themselves – and this is a process that will surely only continue. In Australia over the last decade we have seen a change of focus in school systems from initiation into academic learning to a more vocational and social orientation. A switch from academic and personal development to vocational training is also clearly evident in the new mass higher education system that is emerging. Such wholesale changes provide threats and offers opportunities to those working within it. Exercise Science and Leisure Studies at the tertiary level have done far better than physical education at the primary and secondary levels in capitalising on the opportunities offered by these changes. Despite the growing support from health departments, epidemiologists and government spokespeople for the critical role of physical activity in delaying the onset of morbidity for an ageing population, physical education has simply not capitalised on this opportunity (Department of Health and Family Services, 1998). We need to ask serious questions of ourselves as a profession as to the reasons for this failure.
Conclusion
The conclusion then is a somewhat melancholy one not in terms of the immediate state of Australian Physical Education, which as indicated, is relatively comfortable, perhaps even complacent. The problem is a long term one for the physical education profession as currently constituted. In facing the problem of inactivity among children, to whom did the Australian Government turn? It was not to the physical education profession but to the sporting community. The ASC and the sporting bodies are to provide the expertise for The Active after School Communities ’ Programme. This is simply another reflection of a trend that has emerged for schools to sub-contract the delivery of their physical activity programmes to commercial suppliers. This reflects further movement of the subject matter away from the core of the curriculum to the status of an ‘add on’. My fear is that beneath the complacency, even in Australia there are growing signs consistent with Hardman and Marshall’s (1999) concern that “school physical education is in a perilous position in all continental regions of the world”. In summary, unless the physical education profession can find a more relevant and strident voice, the delivery of activity in the schools will grow without them and they will be condemned to “Persistent marginalisation in a world of change and opportunity”.

References
ACHPER Victorian Branch Inc., (1997). Physical education, teacher education in Victorian universities 1997. Report of ACHPER Teacher Training Working Party. Melbourne: ACHPER (Victorian Branch)
Australian Sports Commission (2004) Active After-school Communities’ Program http://www.ausport.gov.au/aasc/about_aasc/about_program.asp
Boustead, J. (2004) Personal discussion. July
Department of Education, Science and Training (1999) The Adelaide Declaration on National Goals for Schooling in the Twenty-first Century.
http://www.dest.gov.au/schools/adelaide/adelaide.htm
Department of Health and Family Services (1998) Developing an Active Australia; A framework for action for Physical Activity and Health. Canberra: AGPS
Dodds, G. (2004) Personal discussion. July
Hardman, K. & Marshall, J. (1999) World-wide Survey of the State and Status of School Physical Education. Preliminary Report. Manchester, Campus Print Ltd.
Jupp, B. (2004) The Australian Forty Years Series Part1 . June.
Macdonald, D., and Brooker, R., 1997. Moving beyond the crises in secondary physical education: an Australian initiative. Journal of Teaching Physical Education, 16. pp.155-175.
Smith, W.(2004) Dreaming of Gold in Forty Years Part 8 Sport. June
Williams, G., (1996). "Let's get more physical". The Sydney Morning Herald, Wednesday, 10 January. p.4.


Assoc. Prof. John E. Saunders
Centre of Physical Activity Across the Lifespan
Australian Catholic University, Vic 3065, Australia
Email: J.Saunders@patrick.acu.edu




http://www.icsspe.org/portal/bulletin-may2005.htm