Movement in Motion : The Subject of Gymnastics in the Physical Education Teacher Training Programme at the Royal Central Institute of Gymnastics/Stockholm College of Physical Education and Sports during the Years 1944 to 1992

• Background This presentation focus on how different movement traditions in relation to the view of the body and the body movement culture have been kept, and in some cases, changed over time. Gymnastics has been a compulsory subject for almost 200 years in the Swedish schools. During the same time and even before that, gymnastics has existed as a subject at the Stockholm University College of PE and Sports (GCI/GIH/IH).  – How has gymnastics as a subject at the Institute been formed and transformed over the years? What has influenced gymnastics and the teacher training programme, and what has happened to the figuration of movement traditions?  ObjectiveThe aim of the study has been to follow and describe the subject gymnastics and its development at the PE teacher-training programme at GCI/GIH over the studied time period from 1944-1992. Special attention has been placed on the movement part without apparatus (the floor exercise) for male and female students. Methods The thesis consists of two separate empirical studies, with a shared interview study of 12 former teacher educators placed in both studies. The method of “triangulating” is used to be able to follow the changes of the subject’s content, figuration and representation. The methods used, besides the above-mentioned interview, are document analyses and visual analyses. The focus in this presentation will be on the study dealing with the possibilities of visual analysis to investigate how movements have been embodied, expressed and represented in relation to the view of the body and existing body movement culture. The film material used comes from the Institutes yearly events and the representation of the movements is interpreted by a semiotic discourse analyses. Results From the 40s to the 70s there existed two separate gymnastics discourses, one male and one female, expressed in the movement content and in the figuration of movements. The male discourse was maintained almost intact, without any changes. Instead, the female was continually changed and developed over the actual period of time, strongly influenced by rhythmic and dance. When coeducation was implemented in the late 70s a new body movement culture was developed – a unisex. Between 1949 and 1970 in the film material, the masculine discourse was represented by the body image of a systematically trained and disciplined body, doing corrective gymnastics exercises, according to an instrumental way of looking at physical training. The smooth, healthy looking young body image of a woman, doing rhythmical aesthetical gymnastics, according to existing values, characterized the feminine discourse. There seems to have been an aesthetics fostering rationality that ruled the female gymnastics. In 1985 the representation of the body image changed, and focus on the performance of the movements disappeared. The objectives of the subject have changed from the corrective and/or aesthetical form of gymnastics to a gymnastic discourse where the attention of simplifying of movements and the social climate in the group are central. Conclusions Finally, the over all findings show that three factors have influenced the changes and development of the subject and the teacher-training programme. First, changes in society in terms of equality, gender roles and a changed role of the PE teacher. Secondly, the impact of the sport discourse outweighed the status of the gymnastics discourse and its legitimacy. The cultivating values, in terms of the aesthetical schooling for the female students, disappeared. Thirdly, the Academy urged (from 1977) for research related instructions in the teacher training programme, which affected both time allowances to gymnastics and sport and the relation between theoretical and practical courses. Questions that need to be discussed further are: What rationalities lie behind today’s education of PE teachers? What kind of body movement culture has legitimacy and how is this expressed? And is visual analysis a fruitful way of investigating the representation of a body movement culture?  

Ämnesord

MEDICIN OCH HÄLSOVETENSKAP  -- Hälsovetenskap -- Idrottsvetenskap (hsv//swe)

MEDICAL AND HEALTH SCIENCES  -- Health Sciences -- Sport and Fitness Sciences (hsv//eng)

Nyckelord

PE teacher-training programme

gymnastics

gymnastics discourses

floor exercise

body movement

gender

Sports

Idrott

Publikations- och innehållstyp

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