Abstract

New Labour’s move towards joined up thinking has meant that physical education and school sport was no longer on the receiving end of educational policy but mainstream sports policy. Moreover, ideological assumptions about physical education and school sport has led to it being seen as a ‘vehicle’ for a wide range of broader policy objectives (Houlihan & Green, 2006). These objectives include elite sporting success, lifelong participation, health and well-being, community regeneration and educational achievement. These very different objectives are indicative of the complex nature of policy making within school sport and physical education.

The main mechanisms for meeting these objectives in physical education are school sports partnerships and specialist sports colleges as introduced through the PE, School Sport and Club Links strategy (DCMS & DfES, 2004). This New Labour partnership approach means that physical education teachers are having to work with partners from a wide range of sectors, including county sports partnerships, private sector sports providers and voluntary sector clubs. Indeed, the specialist sports college and school sports partnership were introduced into what could already be described as a crowded policy space (Houlihan, 2000).

The aim of this paper is to explore how New Labour’s approach to education and sport have shaped physical education since 1997 and to specifically understand the complex, crowded policy space that physical education occupies.