Global discourses about innovation and modernization influence education policy fields and educational practices worldwide, as they translate to generalized trends in Curriculum restructuring. In Greece we have, repeatedly, witnessed attempts to reform Curricula either according to principles of interdisciplinarity (IEF Curriculum, 2003) or recently according to performativity requirements (Curricula for New School, 2010). Presently, 179 schools of compulsory (primary and lower secondary) education implement New Curricula for Physical Education (C.P.E.), as part of the restructuring attempt of the 2009’s government: “New School”. The implementation of the Programme continues, despite governmental changes and apparent politico-ideological differing inclinations of the current government; testifying, that ideas, principles and practices shaping educational policies are emanating from wider discourses, formed by supranational networks and international organisations, controlling the direction of national policies (Ball, 2012).
This paper explores the Greek Ministry of Education’s efforts to design and apply Physical Education (P.E.) curricular policies, responding to global discourses on P.E., Health Education and Sports Sciences (S.Sc.). These discourses are expressed in texts like E.U. reports on the role of Sports in Education (2007/2086(INI)) or in programmes like AEHESIS for the regulation of the education of the professionals of the body and physical activity, realized by Networks for S.Sc and P.E., such as ENSSEE. We study, specifically, how 2010 C.P.E.s promote ideas, choices and practices for self-regulated learning processes, development of skills and competences for pupils and Teachers of P. E. and the assessment of learning outcomes (C.P.E., 2011). We focus on changes in the Pedagogic Discourse, which transforms the field of P.E. and the modes for regulating subjects within this field (Bernstein, 2000, Ball, 2009) through procedures, tactics, and statements inscribed in the C.P.E.s. The later, operating as truth transmitters, do not simply endow subjects with aptitudes but modify their mode of being (Gordon, 2009).
This presentation as part of on-going research, ventures a productive dialogue of Bernstein and Foucault’s theories (Chouliaraki & Fairclough, 1999, Evans & Davis, 2004), in order to link P.E. school practices with national policies concerning the integration of P.E. in the school Curriculum, and with national and transnational discourses in the Field of P.E. and S.Sc. Investigating the transformations of Pedagogic Discourse and practices, inscribed in the policies for the body and physical activity in education, we trace the shift from the “docile”, body disciplined by bureaucratized educational systems (Foucault, 1993, Kirk 2004), with strongly classified Curricula, to the “agile” body (Gillies, 2010) of open and performative Curricula. We trace the re-positioning of the field’s agents and the discipline throughout the whole spectrum of education (Higher Education Curricula for body and physical activity professionals – School Sports and P.E. Curricula – Professional Development Programmes for P.E. teachers), consequent upon this shift. Our basic research question, within this theoretical framework, concerns the shifts in Pedagogic Discourse constructed and transmitted by the new C.P.Es, its latent relations to what other researchers have characterized as a shift from “government” to “governance” (Lawn, 2006), and, the constitution of specific subjectivities of the individuals within this field.