ABSTRACT
The status imputed to Physical Education and Sport by sociologists and funding bodies alike, along with the difficulties of doing research in the open contexts in which most Physical Education takes place undoubtedly have together combined to make this area of schooling a marginal, difficult and therefore unattractive area of study. In the contemporary British educational system, Physical Education has not been accredited such a position. The concept of schooling entails a grasp of the indissolubility of form and content. It examines the constraints and opportunities as well as the contradictory messages that are communicated within the social milieu of Physical Education, and how they are received by students. Any conventional distinction between socialization and formal education then tends to collapse even more quickly in the Physical Education curriculum than elsewhere, for socialization as well as education is manifestly intended by its practitioners.
