Background, purpose, and theoretical framework: According to Knorr-Cetina, the development of knowledge occurs in objectual practice within what she refers to as epistemic cultures. We assume this also applies to knowledge in movement. However, there is a lack of insight into the epistemic cultures of movement practices, which may be why physical education (PE) is sometimes reduced to recreational physical activity or ‘correct technique’ in predetermined movements. In this article, we explore educational gymnastics, a practice often perceived by PE teachers as ‘difficult’ to teach. The purpose of the article is to explore how the epistemic culture of gymnastics informs gymnastics educators’ content knowledge (CK) when they teach educational gymnastics in a PETE context. How do experienced gymnastics educators use the tools that the epistemic culture offers in teaching to support objectual practice? Method: Four TEs specialising in educational gymnastics participated in a workshop with the authors of this paper, where TEs and authors jointly explored the epistemic culture of gymnastics through deliberation and practical examples about how teaching for the development of knowledge in movement is accomplished in gymnastics. Additionally, two gymnastics lessons conducted by one of the TEs were observed, during which ethnographic interviews were held with students and TEs. Knorr-Cetina’s notion of epistemic cultures, along with Jeraj and colleagues’ aspects of gymnastics feedback, framed the analysis. Results and conclusions: The analysis demonstrated how the TEs used aspects of feedback–visual perspective, visual experience, motor experience, personal relationship, methodological knowing, and biomechanical knowing–to create an objectual practice where the exploration of various gymnastic learning objects, in this case ‘stability’ and ‘rotation’ as they are expressed in a trampette jump with rotation, was the focus. The analysis indicated that the objectual practice oscillated between a convergent approach, which provided learners with a sense of direction, and a divergent approach, which provided learners with opportunities to explore different solutions to movement problems.

Purpose: This study investigates what enacted knowledge is in movement for preservice teachers and teacher educators within two different physical education teacher education courses at two universities. Method: Data were generated through video recordings, and brief interviews were conducted during two teaching units focused on gymnastics/parkour and acrobatics. The data set comprises 4 hr of gymnastics and parkour instruction at one university and 3 hr of acrobatics at another. Theory: The study is grounded in activity theory, which emphasizes the interconnected actions of individuals engaged in a collective activity and the object toward which their actions are directed. Findings: The findings reveal that the enacted knowledge deviates from knowledge in movement, which was the purpose of the teaching. Developing knowledge in movement was often overshadowed by didactic thinking and prevailing norms-such as avoiding moving beyond one's comfort zone-and by differing interpretations of explicitly stated learning objectives.

Background: In the last 40 years, physical education (PE) scholars have developed an array of approaches for teaching games. This development is positive in that PE professionals now have a wealth of practically-oriented scholarship to help them teach games. Yet the widespread availability of prescriptions for teaching games potentially reduces both the need and opportunity for teachers to exercise their practical judgement when working with games. Aim: The specific aim of the current investigation is to develop an understanding of how physical education teacher education (PETE) provides preservice teachers with opportunities to develop practical judgement with respect to games teaching in one course. Theoretical framework: We rely on Joseph Dunne's (Dunne, Joseph. 1997. Back to the Rough Ground: Practical Judgment and the Lure of Technique. Notre Dame, IN: University of Notre Dame Pess; Dunne, Joseph. 2005. “An intricate fabric: Understanding the rationality of practice.” Pedagogy, Culture & Society 13 (3): 367–390) notion of practical judgement. Practical judgement refers to the knowledge individuals use in complex and dynamic situations, where they need to find resonance between general principles relevant to a practice and the particular characteristics of the situation they are dealing with. Methods: Nine practical PETE lessons focusing on games were observed over a period of three weeks at one university in Sweden. Three three-hour lessons took place once with approximately 44 students. Three two-hour lessons took place twice (i.e. six times in total), each time with half the student cohort. Video data were produced by one researcher. The researcher alternated between active participation and passive participation in the lessons. Findings: The PETE lessons provided the preservice teachers with four different types of opportunities to exercise their practical judgement: (1) opportunities to judge how principles of games teaching would operate in school contexts; (2) opportunities to compare different approaches and content against one another; (3) opportunities to consider the teacher educator's pedagogical decisions; and (4) opportunities for preservice teachers to take on teaching roles. Discussion: We suggest that problematic situations where different interests compete and where deliberation is necessary, are valuable in PETE contexts. We also propose that providing space for preservice teachers to exercise their practical judgement may mean that they make loosely informed decisions. The investigation thus provides insights into a common trend seen in games scholarship. Impact statement: This case study reminds physical educators of the importance of working reflectively when teaching games. In the context of a long-standing debate about effective ways to teach games, the paper provides physical education teacher educators with concrete examples of how an expert games educator encouraged the preservice teachers in his course to use their practical judgement.

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.