In the last decade there has been an increasing international interest in the concept of physical literacy as a way to articulate the objectives of physical education and as a way to verbalize the idea of being physically educated throughout life. In general, research on the concept of physical literacy has built on a broad and holistic comprehension of physicality – based on existentialistic and phenomenological consideration of body and mind as a whole (Whitehead, 2001). Physical literacy focuses on the lived body, the embodied dimension of human existence and not only physical fitness of the body as a machine. In recent years initiative have also been taking in order to measure physical literacy – following the logic that if physical literacy should become as prominent as other types of literacy it should be measurable (Tremblay & Lloyd 2010).

In Denmark researchers and PE teachers haven’t paid much attention to the international development of the concept of physical literacy. It may not have been found necessary or productive in a Danish context – maybe the objectives of PE are considered as well described and maybe the recent years increasing focus on learning goals have saturated the demand of verbalization. Anyway, a new school law was implemented in the Danish primary and secondary school system in August 2014. The main purposes of the law is to challenge every pupil to become as skilled as possible, lower the consequences of social background in order to achieve better results and strengthen the confidence to and the wellbeing in the school. Since research have indicated that there is a correlation between physical activity and intellectual capital (e.g. educational attainment and academic performance), physical capital (e.g. physical fitness and reduction of the risk for diseases and risk factors) and emotional capital (e.g. fun, enjoyment and self-esteem) (Bailey et al. 2013) it was decided to introduce physical activities and movements in the everyday life in schools. In order to improve the pupils’ health, cognitive learning and wellbeing all pupils from grade 1-9 must have at least 45 minutes of physical activity and movements in average every day.

Next to the well-known PE-teaching the physical activities and movements should be integrated in the academic subjects as active teaching and brain breaks etc. or as organized activities during the extended school day. Since these movement activities is a new assignment for the schools and the ends of the movement activities are external the activities, the schools are facing some pedagogical challenges (Jensen 2015). There seems to be a lack of common language and understanding of what physical activities and movements could be.

This research project investigates whether the physical activities and movements taking place in the school are supporting the idea of making the children physical literacy and whether physical literacy, offering a holistic perspective of body and mind, could be a productive concept to make a theoretical clarification but also to make guidelines for practice in order to support the didactic choices in everyday practice.

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