Our society is influencing schools and education in different ways and the school subject physical education is no exception (Welch et al., 2021). In the past decades has environmental sustainability appeared as an important part that influences most sectors in our society. Environmental sustainability is nothing new to education, environmental education builds on work and thoughts from known philosophers such as Jean-Jacques Rousseau, John Dewey, and Maria Montessori, who have integrated environmental issues with school and education. More lately have organization’s such as UN´s and UNESCO contributed to made environmental sustainability obligatory in schools within European Union (Faville et al., 2014). How physical education is progressing towards environmental sustainability and what curriculums in physical education that include environmental sustainability might look like, have only started to be investigated (Dingle & Mallen, 2021). There is a lack of research with regards to environmental sustainability in pedagogy, especially within the school subject physical education and physical education teacher education (PETE) (Taylor et al., 2016, 2019; Welch et al., 2021; Dingle & Mallen, 2020).

Environmental sustainability is often included in general school curriculums and in the overarching educational statements for many different school subjects. However, this is rarely expressed in the curriculum for the subject of physical education. Based on a study of the Swedish educational context, therefore, we have investigated the impact formulations regarding environmental sustainability in general school curriculums can have for the implementation of teaching practice in physical education. More specifically, the purpose was to analyse the relationship between the representation of environmental sustainability in Swedish school policy documents and Swedish physical education teachers’ perceptions of the relevance of implementing environmental sustainability in a physical education context.

Data taken from a questionnaire conducted with 143 Swedish physical education teachers has been analysed. The quantitative and qualitative analysis we carried out on this data followed a version of a mixed method approach called the explanatory sequential approach (Creswell, 2003). And by using Bernstein’s (2000) concept of classification, the data was discussed in relation to how environmental sustainability is formulated and included in the Swedish school system, particularly in the physical education context. This will enable us to contribute to the discussion of how physical education teachers enact the requirements of governing school documents concerning environmental sustainability.

The result of this study shows that environmental sustainability has the potential to gain a stronger classification in physical education in the future. Of the different educational stakeholders who are involved in the process of reproducing knowledge in one way or another (Bertram, 2020), such as physical education teachers, policy writers, textbook writers, teacher educators, producers of research, and politicians, some have more power and interpretive precedence than others and are therefore more able to influence what environmental sustainability becomes when it is enacted in physical education.

Can we expect environmental sustainability to be taught in physical education if it does not exist in the students' PETE studies? Research shows that teacher education in environmental sustainability is often given in general courses or in independent courses without a direct connection to physical education (Isgren Karlsson & Backman, in press). PETE can therefore be seen as gatekeepers for what is being done and what should be done in physical education.

This study is part of a larger research project that aims to explore physical education teachers’ perceptions and attitudes towards digital tools and environmental sustainability (see Isgren Karlsson, et al., 2022). The data collection included the distribution of a questionnaire to a conference for physical education teachers in Stockholm in October 2019, which resulted in 73 participants, and two weeks later an online group for Swedish physical education teachers, which resulted in 78 participants. This study analysed 143 questionnaires in total. Participants, all being physical education teachers, demonstrated a wide range of professional experience and teaching level with a large part having more than 10 years of teaching experience. To achieve the aim of our physical education study, we adopted a version of a mixed methods approach called exploratory sequential design which includes both quantitative and qualitative analysis. In this approach, qualitative and quantitative materials are combined and integrated in order to strengthen and give nuance to the analysis (Creswell, 2013). The purpose of this approach was to gain a more in-depth understanding of environmental sustainability in school physical education (Creswell, 2013). The quantitative analyses were performed in IBM SPSS version 26 and Microsoft Excel using frequency analyses, cross tabulations, means comparisons and one-way independent analysis of variance (ANOVA) with post-hoc tests of Games-Howell (to manage the different sample sizes). The thematic content analysis of the qualitative data (answers from open questions in the questionnaire) was designed to promote an understanding of the participants’ statements about what environmental sustainability is and why it is relevant (or not). It was also intended to enable us to analyse the factors that seem to regulate teachers’ perceptions and attitudes towards environmental sustainability. For this analysis we used the six-phase model defined by Smith and Sparkes (2019) of familiarisation, coding, theme development, refinement, naming and editing. More detailed information about the method underlying this study can be found in Isgren Karlsson et al. (2022). In the forthcoming study about environmental sustainability in PETE, observations of lessons at PETE have been made, also an analysis of governing documents has been carried out. The analysis will help us to see where and why environmental sustainability is considered important (or not) in PETE and physical education.

The limited extent of the teaching in Swedish physical education around environmental sustainability, which is well illustrated in our study and also emphasised in the international research (Welch et al., 2021), reflects the undeveloped potential of environmental sustainability as a component of physical education. Inspired by Bernstein’s (1975) concept of classification we have tried to illustrate this relationship between the references to environmental sustainability in school policy documents and the extent to which sustainability is implemented in different subjects. In subjects such as geography, natural sciences and biology, environmental sustainability is explicitly mentioned as a content area in the curriculum (Molin, 2006; Sund, 2008). Its clear presentation in these policy documents means that teachers probably conceive it as a stronger mandatory task than those teaching in physical education. In both the general curriculum, and the subject specific curriculums for geography, biology and the natural sciences, environmental sustainability has a stronger classification compared to physical education (Molin, 2006; SNAE, 2001; Sund, 2008), where the classification is relatively weak (Ekberg, 2021; Lundvall & Meckbach, 2008). Environmental sustainability is not stated in a clear way in the physical education curriculum and a majority of the physical education teachers do not include it in their teaching. Our results raise questions about whether or not policy documents (either general and subject specific) are the best way to support and encourage environmental sustainability so that it is reflected in everyday teaching practice. The forthcoming study about PETE and environmental sustainability can contribute to a discussion about physical education teacher education's role in the field and its significance for what becomes of the education in or about environmental sustainability in physical education.

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