[LUM#20] The Unthought Body at School

[LUM Magazine, Podcast] - Published on December 5, 2023 in Science and Society

The role of the body in school—whether in motion or at rest—is a major focus for researchers in the field of education. What role should physical education and sports play in school curricula? And beyond that, how should the body be considered within a holistic approach to education? Fabien Groeninger, researcher at the Interdisciplinary Laboratory for Research in Didactics, Education, and Training¹, tackles these questions head-on.

“Long live physical education! ” This was the tweet posted on August 7, 2021, by the Minister of National Education, Youth, and Sports to congratulate the medalists at the Tokyo Olympics. “The success of our teams illustrates the quality of physical education in schools,” added Jean-Michel Blanquer, addressing the newly crowned basketball, handball, and volleyball champions.

Is the success of these athletes really due to those famous physical education classes taught in middle and high school? In any case, that’s not always the view of these champions, who were quick to share their thoughts. “It wasn’t the two measly hours of PE per week in my middle school schedule that inspired me to play basketball,” basketball player Evan Fourrier responded in an op-ed later published in the Huffington Post.

Hours that stand still

“Those two measly hours for high school students actually represent ‘a decline in physical education hours in secondary schools, ’” adds Fabien Groeninger, a researcher and lecturer at the Faculty of Education at the University of Montpellier. And for younger students, 30 minutes of physical education per day has been the standard since late 2020 and the post-COVID era. A requirement deemed paradoxical by Fabien Groeninger, “because it means that some children could remain inactive for several hours a day, ” says the specialist in the history of physical education, who is concerned about these sedentary hours.

Sitting still at school is precisely one of the social constraints inherent in the school system that the researcher highlights. “It is an obedient, tamed, and standardized body that the French school system has shaped through the classroom setting, where children sit all day, ” explains Fabien Groeninger.

A time when sports were still struggling to find their place, even though physical education had long been part of the school curriculum—albeit in a form very different from today’s practices. “The Third Republic assigned it civic, patriotic, health-related, and economic objectives, ” the researcher notes. Gymnastics and shooting for boys, with the aim of training soldiers, and “basketball” for girls, an activity supposed to “strengthen the abdomen and prepare for motherhood.”

Reaffirm its legitimacy

The athletic aspect, however, was not taken into account until much later, and it wasn’t until 1962 that the discipline was officially recognized, though it struggled to gain a foothold. In fact, physical education teachers, who initially reported to the Ministry of Youth and Sports, were not incorporated into the National Education System until 1981.

“Physical education remains a subject that must constantly reaffirm its legitimacy in the face of so-called intellectual disciplines, and teachers sometimes suffer from a form of unconscious condescension on the part of the rest of the faculty, too often finding themselves reduced to the role of school activity leader. ” And when it comes to allocating teaching hours, it is all too often the case that the PE teacher is shortchanged to benefit the math or history-geography teacher… For the researcher, this discipline-based structure —“where each subject pulls the blanket over itself”— limits a holistic view, creating divisions of which PE is one of the primary victims.

Holistic education

Moreover, beyond the athletic aspect, the broader question of the body’s role in learning remains unresolved. “The mind-body dualism characterizes the French school system through the dichotomy between cognitive learning and physical, manual, and emotional learning. This hierarchy of body and mind reflects a lack of understanding of children’s learning mechanisms, motivation, and interests , ” explains Fabien Groeninger, who laments the neglect of the body in schools.

Research in the field of educational science has, however, demonstrated the importance of taking the body into account not only for well-being at school but also for motivation. These mechanisms have also been highlighted by child psychology and have been incorporated into progressive education since the late 19th century through the concept of holistic education, in which “we take into account the different facets of the human being without compartmentalizing cognitive, physical, and psychological development, ” explains the researcher.

While many initiatives along these lines are beginning to emerge, they still too often depend on the goodwill of teachers, even though in Finland, for example, there are large-scale projects aimed at integrating physical activity into the daily school schedule without limiting it to a single activity. The Finnish Schools on the Move initiative, for instance, includes regularly scheduled recess periods to ensure children do not remain seated for more than two hours, while relaxation exercises help students focus on all their schoolwork. Over 90% of Finnish schools participate on a voluntary basis.An inspiring initiative as the 2024 Paris Olympics approach, an event that is sure to bring the issue of sports back into the spotlight. “The body cannot be reduced to program components: it is an inherent part of any comprehensive reflection on our education, ” concludes Fabien Groeninger.

1. Lirdef (UM, UPVM)
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Keywords: Education, LUM#20, LumLu, LUM Magazine, Research, Science, Company, Sports