The Voices of Year 6 Children: Their Views on Physical Education and the Implications for Policy Pedagogy and Research.
Author(s):
Barry Paraskevas Costas (presenting / submitting)
Conference:
ECER 2012
Network:
18. Research in Sports Pedagogy
Format:
Paper

Session Information

18 SES 08, Parallel Paper Session

Parallel Paper Session

Time:
2012-09-20
09:00-10:30
Room:
FFL - Salón de Grados
Chair:
Karin Redelius

Contribution

The data identified what the children thought about Physical Education, with a view to illuminating and informing current policy, practice and research in relation to the the aims which underpin the national curriculum in England. The children's voices conspicuously absent from discussions about their physical education over the last twenty years, gave a view of the curriculum from the recipient's perspective. Through the vibrancy of their voices, the current staus quo in primary PE is examined, and ways forward are offered as as recurring themes by the childre. In addition to valuing children's voices the research shows that through including the children and democratising the discussion, the children were more than just 'empty vessels', and were able to offer informed views.

Method

Taking a constructivist-interpretivist stance, the research gave a voice to 236 children from east London between 2007 and 2010 through the use of questionnaires and interviews.

Expected Outcomes

The children largely enjoyed Physical Education, valued their health and had ideas on curriculum content, timetabling, fundraising, and asked for a greater range of physical activities to be made available to them

References

Fielding, M. (2008), Interrogating Student Voice: Pre-occupying, purposes and possibilities. Critical perspectives in Education. London: Institute of Education, University of London. White,J.(2004), Rethinking the School Curriculum: Values, Aims and Purposes: London: RoutledgeFalmer White, J. (2007), 'What Achools are For and Why'. Philosophy of Education Society of Great Britain, 13 (14), 5-49

Author Information

Barry Paraskevas Costas (presenting / submitting)
University of Hertfordshire
School of Education
Hatfield Hertfordshire

Update Modus of this Database

The current conference programme can be browsed in the conference management system (conftool) and, closer to the conference, in the conference app.
This database will be updated with the conference data after ECER. 

Search the ECER Programme

  • Search for keywords and phrases in "Text Search"
  • Restrict in which part of the abstracts to search in "Where to search"
  • Search for authors and in the respective field.
  • For planning your conference attendance, please use the conference app, which will be issued some weeks before the conference and the conference agenda provided in conftool.
  • If you are a session chair, best look up your chairing duties in the conference system (Conftool) or the app.