ABSTRACT
Physical education programmes in British schools have been the subject of a vociferous public debate in the latter half of the 1980s. The major point of contention has been whether an insidious undermining of competitive sport in schools by ‘progressive’ physical educators has been taking place. Usually debates over the contents and teaching methods of physical education are contained within the profession. At least we have tended to think of curriculum development as an in-house issue, of interest to policymakers and a few researchers perhaps, but certainly unlikely to attract the attention of anyone else. However, in this case the debate not only attracted the interest of the media, politicians and sporting bodies, it was to a large extent initiated by them, and the strength of feeling the debate generated took many physical educators by surprise. Details of the terms of the debate, the circumstances surrounding it and its likely impact on schools are now beginning to emerge,1 and these analyses provide insights into the changing nature of sport and organized physical activity in British society and the extremely important role of school physical education within this process.
