Creative dance, that is to say, movements, with or without music, which allow participants to express ideas, thoughts, and feelings, are sometimes accompanied by a 'there is no right or wrong way to move' rhetoric. This may reinforce the impression among physical education teacher education (PETE) students, who often have limited experience of (creative) dance, that there is nothing to practise in creative dance and that this activity is merely directionless movement. In this paper, however, based on Aggerholm's notion of practising movements, we explore an occasion in a PETE course where a magic moment occurred, indicating that the students had practised and 'figured out' something that made this moment possible. The purpose of the paper is to explore the knowledge in movement that PETE students were practising as they participated in creative dance. The purpose is also to shed light on what pedagogical practice contributed to enabling such practising. Video documentation and short interviews with students in one PETE course and one continuing professional development course for physical education teachers indicate that the magic moment was made possible as the students' practised making sense of moving in non-predetermined - creative - ways and appreciating the expressive dimension of movement. Laban's movement analysis framework seemed, along with the teachers' knowledge of movement, to be an important element in the pedagogical practice that made the magic moment possible.

Scholars have expressed concern about stagnation in physical education research. Specifically, they have claimed that physical education researchers have been investigating the same topics, presenting the same solutions, and at times fail to build on–or in some cases, even acknowledge–existing scientific findings. These are serious assertions that call into question the enterprise of researching in physical education. In this paper, we evaluate the merits of these claims. Through a Bernsteinian reading of four illustrations, the thesis we develop is that physical education has a horizontal knowledge structure. This knowledge structure affects the ways that scholars make scientific contributions, or in other words, how they develop knowledge. Understanding the connection between the knowledge structure and how knowledge is developed draws attention to: (1) the modest ways in which researchers typically make contributions, (2) the routine nature of repetition in research, and (3) the responsibilities researchers have to acknowledge the work of other researchers. We suggest that more generally, a Bernsteinian interpretation of the examples may help researchers acknowledge and accept slow disciplinary development and gain clarity regarding how and in which areas they can contribute in the future.

Introduction: The aim of this study is to investigate the integration of movement and physical activity (MoPA) within Early Childhood Teacher Education (ECTE) policies across Denmark, Finland, Iceland, Norway, and Sweden. This knowledge can inform the development of ECTE policies and practices that promote MoPA in Early Childhood Education and Care (ECEC) in Nordic countries and other countries worldwide.

Methods: In this study, a Nordic cross-national network of researchers collaborated in investigating policy documents at the national and university levels, which govern the education of ECEC teachers. This study was inspired by the Non-affirmative Theory of Education, which provides a framework for understanding the various influences on curricular development in higher education. Based on this, a four-step comparative analytical process of national and university documents across the Nordic countries was conducted. It included keyword search for MoPA related courses and a qualitative description of MoPA in ECTE. Thus, a combination of investigations of policy documents at the national and university level and expert knowledge set a solid foundation for international comparison.

Results: The comparative analysis of MoPA in ECTE reveals diverse approaches influenced by national and university policies. A central theme is the variability in MoPA integration across these nations. Finland and Norway prioritize MoPA with independent mandatory courses. In Iceland, compulsory MoPA courses exist at one of two universities, and in Sweden at three out of 19. All university colleges in Denmark offer an elective course. Furthermore, learning objectives related to MoPA are, to varying degrees, part of the internships in the countries, with Sweden being an exception. In the participating countries, the teachers decide the content of the MoPA courses with little guidance, support, and agreement on essential MoPA content within and across the ECTE's. Norway has established guidelines, and in Finland, there is a network of ECTE Physical Education (PE) educators, which, to some degree, increases the consistency and quality of MoPA in education.

Discussion: The Nordic countries present diverse MoPA integration approaches rooted in national policies and educational traditions. The findings emphasize the necessity of independent and mandatory MoPA courses, integration of MoPA into internships and promoting networks across the educational and academic sectors to equip future early childhood educators with competencies for fostering physical activity, motor development and children's well-being.

In the context of humanistic Bildung-centred Didaktik, the educational potential of different school subjects is emphasized. But how can different school subjects collectively contribute to the ‘cultivation-of-human-powers’ and Bildung with a focus on sustainability? In this article, seven different school subjects are compared. Eleven teacher educators from Malmö University, Sweden, have written scholarly about the roles of their respective school subjects for Bildung and sustainability. Drawing from the texts related to the seven school subjects – geography, mathematics, physical education and health, religious education, science for citizenship, Swedish as a second language, and visual arts – a comparative analysis was conducted. The primary focus was to understand the unique characteristics of each school subject, explore their epistemic differences, and discern their potential roles in fostering cross-curricular didactics for Bildung and sustainability. It is shown that the different school subjects collectively provide complementary contributions to contemporary Bildung and climate change literacy.

This conceptual paper takes a departure in the concept of powerful knowledge, developed by Young, M., & Muller, J. (2013. On the powers of powerful knowledge. Review of Education, 1(3), 229–250. https://doi.org/10.1002/rev3.3017). Powerful knowledge can in short be described as knowledge that people need to understand and change the world. The aim is to examine when movement capability, as theorized through empirical research,becomes powerful. To delineate our perspective on knowledge,the concept of knowledge and knowing as theorized by Polanyi,M. (1962. Personal knowledge. University of Chicago Press) and(Carlgren, I. (2020). Powerful knowns and powerful knowings.Journal of Curriculum Studies. https://doi.org/10.1080/00220272.2020.1717634) is outlined, showing that movement capability comprises ways of knowing which are neither merely physical(the doing) nor mental (the thinking), but rather a fusion of both.With a widened understanding of powerful knowledge as including the knowing involved in the doings, we illustrate through empirical examples from previous and ongoing research, how physical education can offer students possibilities to develop powerful movement capabilities.

Most children attend preschools in Sweden,and preschool is thus an important arena for children’s development and growth as well asforthedevelopment of and through movement. However, little is known about the teaching of movement in Swedish preschools. This article develops knowledge of what can characterize such teaching, particularly regarding goal and motive, content,and teaching actions. The material was generated in 2018–2019 in collaboration with 42 preschool departments in Sweden. The theoretical approach is didaktik, and “why”, “what”, and “how”questions are used as analytical tools. A variety of content can be seen, such as fundamental movement skills, different aspects of movement and, in a few teaching arrangements, physical activity. The teaching is often led by the teacher, though the children are sometimes co-leaders. The results also indicate a focus on inherent values but also on investment and added values. The study highlights the importance of preschool teachers’ attention to the prospective object and purpose of teaching movement, but also of teachers’ competence and the need for conscious strategies for teaching movement. Through well-grounded didaktik choices, children can be offered good opportunities to experience and explore movement.

Background: The World Health Organization (WHO) acknowledges the importance of preschool children taking part in comprehensive physical activities supporting, among other things, their motor development, and competencies. A growing number of children attend early childhood education and care (ECEC), and expectations that this will support the development and learning of the youngest children are high. ECEC are governed by different policies embodied in both laws and curricula, and the framework of a curriculum plays a key role in ensuring the quality of ECEC services. The documents represent the content society wants the ECEC institutions to disseminate, and set out the values, objectives, and content of the work of pre-school teachers and serve as a point of reference for ECEC teachers and schools. The purpose of this study was to examine the values of movement and physical activity (MoPA) using government policy documents ECEC from Denmark, Finland, Iceland, Norway, and Sweden.

Methods: This descriptive, comparative study was designed based on curriculum theory and used word count and content analyses to examine values of MoPA and to identify similarities and differences in the ECEC policies of Nordic countries.

Results: Seven terms were identified as MoPA related; body, motor, move, physical activity, physical education, coordination, idrott/liikunta. These terms occurred in various content contexts: development, environment, expression, health and well-being, learning and play, albeit sparsely and were referred to as both a goal in itself and as a mean of achieving other goals (e.g., learning or development in another area). Formulations dedicated to MoPA as a goal were present in the Danish and Finnish curricula and, to some extent, also in the Norwegian, while the Icelandic and Swedish curricula mentioned MoPA only as a mean.

Conclusion: Findings indicated that MoPA, which are important for children's development, health, and well-being, is a low-priority value, to varying degrees, in the ECEC policies enacted by the Nordic countries. Thus, the guidance provided to educators and stakeholders therein is inexplicit. The low priority of the MoPA domain in the ECEC policies might negatively affect the possibility for young children to be physically active in preschools.

Since teaching in Swedish preschool was regulated in the Education Act 2010, preschool teachers have appeared to struggle with the concept of “teaching” in their day-to-day practices.This paper is based on a collaborative R&Dprogramme involving preschool teachers and researchers aimed to build knowledge of what can characterize teaching in preschool.The research was carried out in 40–44 preschools/preschool departments in eight municipalities in Sweden between 2018 and 2020. The method was based on a praxiographic approach where preschool teachers tried out different theory-informed teaching arrangements, including didaktik, variation-theory, post-structural gateway and pragmatic perspective. The material for the article consisted of 350 co-plans, 305 co-evaluations and 35 hours of video. Analysis was based on a didaktik premise and can be methodologically described in terms of abductive analysis. Theory-informed teaching arrangements have been tried out and shown to support teachers in conducting teaching in the complex reality that is based on scientific grounds and proven experience. In summary, the analysis is merged in a communicable entity through the concept of “multivocal didaktik modelling”.

Rapporten baseras på forskningsdelen i ett forsknings- och utvecklingsprogram som syftar till att, i samverkan mellan förskollärare, ledare och forskare, beskriva och vidareutveckla kunskap om vad som kan känneteckna undervisning i förskola. Undervisning studeras i relation till vetenskaplig grund och beprövad erfarenhet. Forskningsdelen genomförs i mellan 40 till 44 förskolor/avdelningar belägna i åtta svenska kommuner, mellan åren 2018 och 2021. Sammantaget har 10 671 personer samtyckt att med­verka i forskningsdelen av programmet, varav 8 447 barn/vårdnadshavare och 2 224 förskollärare, barnskötare, rektorer, biträdande rektorer, chefer och övriga. Metoden kan beskrivas i termer av en ”praxiografisk samverkansmetod” som avser analys av registrerad praktik. Designen utgörs av parallella och prövande serier av teoriinformerade under­visningsupplägg där didaktik kombinerats med olika innehålls- och lärandeinriktningar. I samverkansforskningen inkluderas didaktiskt, variations­teoretiskt, poststrukturellt och pragmatiskt informerat undervisningsupplägg. Vidare inkluderar undervisningsuppläggen teorier med anknytning till innehåll, såsom musik och digital teknik, matematik och programmering, naturvetenskap, däribland kemi, samt rörelse, hälsa och hållbarhet. Materialet består av 473 samplaneringar, 444 sam­värderingar och 35,5 filmtimmar från genomförd undervisning. Analysen är didaktiskt orienterad och kan beskrivas i termer av abduktiv analys – en strategi för att kunna sluta sig till en nyanserad praktikteoretisk tolkning av vad som kan känneteckna undervisning i förskola. Resultatet indikerar flerstämmiga spår relaterade till didaktiska modeller i de teoriinformerade undervisningsuppläggen. Sammantaget fogas analysen samman och prövas i en kommunicerbar helhet genom konceptet ”flerstämmig didaktisk modellering”. Konceptuell replikering och upprepning av prövandet av konceptet i två FoU-program har inneburit att vi rört oss från en relativt vag aning om vad det kunde innebära till en allt tydligare och precisare innebörd genom framväxt av modeller och begrepp i relation till alltmer tillförlitliga forskningsresultat. Utfall i skriftliga frågor om undervisning, organisation, ledarskap och sambedömning, åren 2018 och 2021, tyder på delvis utvidgat och preciserat yrkesspråk, med spår av ett utvecklat professionellt och didaktiskt omdöme, inkluderat spår av flerstämmiga vetenskapliga grunder och beprövade erfarenheter. Samman­taget kan samverkans­forskningens kunskaps­utvecklande bidrag beskrivas i termer av teoriinformerad praktikutveckling och praktikgrundad koncept- och teoriutveckling.

Forskningen presenteras också på följande websidor: 

https://mau.se/forskning/projekt/flerstammig-didaktisk-modellering/ 

https://www.ifous.se/flerstammig-undervisning-i-forskolan/

Purpose: The purpose of this conceptual article is to explore how Bernstein's concepts can further our understanding of the internal structure of knowledge informing physical education (PE) and the transmission of knowledge from its site of production into the school subject. In the process of constructing a school subject, knowledge is chosen and decontextualised from where it is produced and then recontextualised into the pedagogic context. This process involves a subjective selection of what is valued as important knowledge. That which is stipulated in the curriculum is regarded as legitimate knowledge worth transmitting to the younger generation. This article offers a deepened understanding of the organising principles of knowledge and the transformation of knowledge into the recontextualised field of PE.Background: The subject of PE has been legitimised in various ways over time, yet in many parts of the world PE as a school subject remains under discussion. Competing ideas have appeared over the years about what constitutes PE, and these have been compared and contrasted with each other. Researchers in the field are concerned with a range of different yet related issues regarding the aim of the subject, the relevance of the content knowledge, and the legitimacy of PE as a school subject.Key concepts: Bernstein's concepts ofpedagogic deviceandknowledge structureswill be applied as explanatory frameworks. The current PE syllabus and support documents in Sweden serve as examples to illustrate how the use of these two overarching concepts can help deepen the understanding of the internal structure of knowledge informing PE and the transmission of knowledge from its site of production into the school subject.Conclusion: This article demonstrates how applying Bernstein's concepts as an explanatory framework helps identify the characteristics of the knowledge that informs PE and the origin and site of this knowledge. PE appears to be informed by a wide range of different knowledge domains, with each one possessing its own knowledge structure with different characteristics and ways of constructing knowledge. The article suggests that an understanding of the complexity of knowledge informing PE must be taken into consideration in the debate about the subject.