Introduction: Education equality is a central goal in well-fair states around the world. In Sweden, the school and the subject physical education (PE) should be equal and compensate for students’ different backgrounds, e.g. socioeconomic, - and migration background. Although equality is a central goal, little is known about how equality in PE has changed during the last decades (Jansson et al., 2021). One approach to study equality is to analyze how grades for biological siblings correlate – this captures all aspects that siblings share, among others, socioeconomic, - and migration background. Although this approach is well established in educational research, there are no studies in PE-research (Jansson et al., 2021). As a result, there is limited knowledge about the extent to which students’ backgrounds have affected their grades in PE. Therefore, the aim of this study is to analyze how equality in PE in Sweden has changed over the last two decades. 

Method: The method is based on quantitative analyzes of students’ (N = 5,848,642) grades in PE, between the years 1999-2019. The method is based on analyzing correlations between siblings’ grades, using variance decomposition. More precisely, analyzing the correlation between full siblings, born within a three-year window, and their annually standardized grades in PE. In addition to socioeconomic, - and migration background, the measure takes into account all the aspects that full siblings share, such as: upbringing, genetic factors, living conditions, parenting and regional factors. 

Results: In relation to the total variation in students’ grades in PE, the proportion explained by variation between siblings has increased between the years 1999-2019. That is, the results indicate that the importance of students’ family background, over the past two decades, has become more important for students’ grades in PE. Furthermore, the largest increase in sibling correlation is found within the group of students born abroad.

Discussion: The results indicate that equality in PE in Sweden has deteriorated. This can be explained by that, between 1999 and 2019, (i) the student group has become more heterogeneous, i.e., it has become more difficult to compensate for students’ different backgrounds; (ii) PE has become worse at compensating for students with different backgrounds, e.g. lower socioeconomic background.

Reference: Jansson, A., Sundblad, G. B., Lundvall, S., Bjärsholm, D., & Norberg, J. (2021). Students’ perceived learning in physical education: variations across students’ gender and migration background in Sweden. Sport, Education and Society, (1)1-13. Doi.org/10.1080/13573322.2021.1878129