Physical education and sport in transition

Our Research

"The research focus includes several research projects that are relevant for the development of subject didactics in school physical education and health (PEH), nationally as well as internationally, and for teacher education. In recent years, a central project has been an EU-funded collaboration (Eduhealth) with universities from Norway and New Zealand with a focus on inclusion, equity and social justice pedagogies in PEH. Through observations and interviews with teachers about their teaching practices, different strategies have been identified for inclusion and participation on equal terms in PEH. The Eduhealth project has now been extended and involve new collaborations with the University of the Western Cape in South Africa, Deakin University and Monash University in Melbourne, Australia and the Norwegian School of Sport Sciences, Oslo in order to deepen and broaden our understanding of working with social justice issues in PEH. In the research group, the professional ethical principles are linked to didactic reflections of teaching practice. A professional teaching responsibility is about being able to put the student in the center, maintain professional ethics and take social responsibility. On the theme of ethics and values, we also see it as important to inform municipalities about these social justice issues in their establishment of so-called ‘sports schools’.

We are also doing research on the school subject ‘special sports’ and sports schools that appear in various forms. With regard to the subject of special sports, the department of Sport Science has recently been granted R&D funding from the Swedish Sports Confederation, which means, among other things, conducting a study in close collaboration with schools that conduct special sports on the issue of the selection and admission process to these sports schools. A subject-specific language in sport education activities is another focus. Within the framework of the Swedish National Agency for Education's project ’Language and knowledge development for newly arrived immigrant students’, for example, a module was developed in which two parts are aimed at the subject PEH. In addition, several studies are underway that aim to identify and develop the subject-specific language in sport education practices. The school subject PEH is often the first subject where newly arrived immigrant students are integrated into regular classes.

We also host an ongoing research seminar series that is open partly to staff at the Department of Sports Science, partly to colleagues who are part of the research group ’Education in change’, but also to other interested parties.