Feature
No.44
May 2005
 
    

A Post-Berlin Summit Update on School Physical Education: A European Union Perspective1
J. Joe Marshall, United Kingdom
 

Introduction
Across the European Union a number of positive political commitments have been made to physical education since the Berlin Summit in 1999 but surveys suggest that concerns are still being raised over the actual provision and delivery taking place in schools. This paper draws upon findings from a survey carried out in the European Union (EU) (as a follow-up to the world-wide survey (Hardman and Marshall, 2000), which sought to examine how both the statutory provisions for, and the actual delivery of, physical education in schools across the EU complied with the principles of the UNESCO International Charter of Physical Education and Sport (1978). Concentrating specifically on a smaller continental region such as Europe allowed for a more in-depth investigation to be carried out.

Access to Physical Education
The UNESCO International Charter makes a clear and unambiguous commitment that access to physical education and sport should be: “…assured and guaranteed for all human beings” (UNESCO, 1978, p.1). All EU member states either have legal provision for obligatory lessons of physical education or the subject is taught as a matter of general practice throughout the compulsory education years. Nevertheless, despite official statements assuring guaranteed access to physical education, in some countries (for example, Scotland and Spain) a small number of schools surveyed indicated that in the final school years compulsory lessons are replaced by optional lessons in physical education. Within Scandinavia, concerns were raised in both Finland (Heikinaro-Johannsson, 1998) and Sweden (Ericsson, 2001) that devolving responsibility to the school level has meant widespread inconsistencies in the amount of time being given to physical education. Guaranteed access does not equate to equal amounts of access. Officially, a pupil in the first year of school in Denmark should receive a single lesson of physical education, compared with five lessons theoretically in France in the same school year. With the exception of Belgium, all EU countries vary the number of lessons allocated to physical education according to school year. In most instances the number of lessons of physical education per week reaches a peak in the middle school years, a finding replicated globally in the Hardman and Marshall (2000) world-wide survey.

Resource Provision – Facilities
UNESCO Charter policy principles require that physical education and sport should be provided with adequate and sufficient material resources in schools. At a statutory level, commitments made within EU member states range from formalised requirements for each school through to the responsibility being left with individual schools to establish appropriate facility standards. There are no consistent policies across the EU for the provision of facilities. However, political commitments to improve resource provision have recently been made in Ireland and Britain. In Ireland €183.7 million was invested in 2002 (Woods, 2002) and a £686 million in England has been allocated to improving facilities in schools in 2004 (DCMS/DfES, 2003).
In practice, mixed messages were uncovered from schools. Encouragingly, most schools across surveyed countries had an indoor space dedicated solely to physical education. However, approximately half of the schools surveyed in Scotland and Spain indicated problems with the reliance on the use of general hall space in the school in order to deliver physical education. In Germany, Italy and Sweden close to half of the teachers surveyed indicated disappointment at the inadequacies of facility provision for physical education in their school.

Curriculum Design and Content
The UNESCO Charter calls for pupils’ exposure to as broad, balanced and diverse range of activities through physical education programmes. Expressions made in curricula across all EU countries would suggest there are official commitments to physical education offering a diverse and broad range of activities. However, in practice the content of physical education programmes appeared in most countries to be dominated by competitive sport/games-based activities. Most schools surveyed in all countries did indicate that a range of activities were being offered but the most commonly occurring were games and team games in particular. The limited range of areas of activity was most apparent in Italy, where a number of schools did not offer outdoor adventure-based activities or swimming and in all of the schools surveyed in Spain swimming was not offered.

Subject Status
A clear message articulated in the world-wide survey was the perceived marginalized and undervalued position physical education held in schools. Findings from the EU survey highlight a discrepancy between the legal and academic status given to physical education. Despite the majority of teachers indicating that at a legal level, at least, physical education had equal status to that of other subjects, this contrasts with the perceived academic status in which teachers were less convinced their subject had equal status. In Scotland, for example, close to three-quarters of the teachers in the survey perceived that physical education was awarded lower academic status than other curriculum subjects. This perception was mirrored in other countries such as Finland, Germany and Luxembourg.
Underpinning the discrepancy between the legal and the academic status of physical education appears to be a greater commitment to more obviously academic subjects as well as a general disregard for physical education. Comments made by teachers as part of the investigation reaffirmed the view that academic subjects hold the prime position in the curriculum pecking order. A teacher from Luxembourg commented that: “…Our academic programme is so heavy that all other lessons (gym, music, painting) are considered secondary”.
In addition to the higher priority given to academic subjects, (mis)conceptions and attitudes towards physical education also appear to place the subject in a disadvantaged position relative to other subjects. Views are expressed that because it is a practical subject, it is subservient to academic traditions. From such a perspective, physical education is regarded as being more concerned with the improvement of mere practical performance skills. One Italian teacher commented: “…PE is [considered] as recreation, no school time or wasted time…”. In Belgium, a teacher observed: “…Physical education could be seen as pursing only recreational objectives by pupils, parents and sometimes by school authorities.”

Concluding Comments
Positive messages continue to emanate from government sources. The assessment of information or policies from EU countries showed a high degree of compliance with the principles of the UNESCO Charter. Encouraging commitments have been made in a number of countries to reverse the negative trends in the provision and delivery of physical education. However, it remains to be seen whether these commitments have much impact in practice especially as findings from the EU survey suggest that a credibility gap exists between the rhetoric of policy and the actualities of practice. Unlike the examination of policy statements, findings from the practice investigation into the realities of provision and delivery revealed that compliance with the principles of the UNESCO was less assured.

Note
1. The survey was carried out between January 2000 and December 2002 when there were fifteen member states of the European Union.

References
DCMS/DfES, (2003). Learning through PE and Sport. London, The Department for Culture, Media and Sport with the Department for Education and Skills.
Ericsson, S. (2001). Finnish national report submitted to EUPEA board meeting, 11-13 May, Madrid, Spain.
Hardman, K. and Marshall, J.J. (2002). World-wide Survey of the State and Status of School Physical Education. Final Report. University of Manchester, Campus Print Ltd.
Heikinaro-Johansson, P. (1998). Curriculum Reform and Secondary School Physical Education in Finland. Education for Life. pp. 188-96
UNESCO (1978). The International Charter for Physical Education and Sport. The General Conference, 20th Session, Paris: UNESCO
Woods, M. (2002). Speech by Minister of Education and Science at the launch of the Template Architectural Design for Physical Education Halls in Secondary Schools on 15th May. Department of Education and Science, Dublin.


Dr Joe Marshall
Liverpool Hope University College, Liverpool, UK
Email: marshaj@hope.ac.uk




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