Sports pedagogy

Sports pedagogy is about education, learning, upbringing, and influence in a sports context, focusing on the opportunities for children, young people, and adults to influence their sports.

Learning and influence processes in focus

Within sports pedagogy, the interest is directed toward learning and influencing processes, both within the school's subject, sports and health, and the sports activities that take place during free time. Other essential sports pedagogic questions to investigate are what opportunities people have to participate in sports and influence their sportsmanship.

History

Sports education and research have been conducted at GIH for almost 60 years. Pedagogy is about influence, learning, and socialization processes in scientific contexts. Sports pedagogic skills are thus included in all GIH's education programs, such as the teacher, coach, health promotion, and Sport Management program.

The sports education research started in collaboration with the Stockholm University of Education. The initiator was Lars-Magnus Engström, who, in 1983, took up a sports education professorship. He then formed a research group, PIF, which was active at GIH for a long time. So far, close to 25 doctoral theses have been produced by members of the PIF group.

Orientations

Sport is a vital leisure interest for many. How children's and young people's sports activities are designed during their free time, and how it affects their learning, is therefore of interest in sports education.

An essential ambition in sports pedagogy is to make visible the conditions for people's opportunities to participate in and influence their sports.

Sports pedagogy is also about teaching processes about school and teacher training, as well as the extent to which sports are open to everyone regardless of gender, age, ethnicity, religion, socioeconomics, and sexual orientation.

In addition, sports pedagogy focuses on how adults' exercise and training habits are related to social position and living conditions.

A vision within the subject area of sports education is that education and research should contribute to the following:

  • develop the subject of sports and health in school, especially regarding goals, teaching methods, and opportunities for all students to participate equally.
  • develop children's and young people's sports in their spare time, including applicable conditions and prerequisites for being able to participate.
  • develop a society that values health-promoting physical activity and accommodates diverse training styles, regardless of people's resources and conditions.

Collaboration and collaboration partners

Important collaboration partners for researchers and teachers in the subject area are actors in the education, sports, and health sectors, both nationally and internationally.

On this page

Contact

  • Håkan Larsson´s profilbildProfessor, Head of Subject Area in Sports PedagogyHåkan Larssonhakan.larsson@gih.se+46 8-120 53 828
Last modified:12 Feb 2024