ERIC Number: EJ1200188
Record Type: Journal
Publication Date: 2019-Feb
Pages: 20
Abstractor: As Provided
ISBN: N/A
ISSN: ISSN-1356-336X
EISSN: N/A
Social Class and the Emergent Organised Sporting Habits of Primary-Aged Children
Wheeler, Sharon; Green, Ken; Thurston, Miranda
European Physical Education Review, v25 n1 p89-108 Feb 2019
This paper reports on the patterns of participation in organised sports of youngsters coming towards the end of primary school, with a view to identifying emergent sporting habits in relation to social class gradients. The data for the study were generated via 90 semi-structured interviews with parents and children from 62 families. The data revealed differences in organised activity participation (both at and beyond school) between an 'under-class' and combined middle-class groups of children, as well as within-class gradients among the middle-class sub-groups. There were, for example, substantial differences between the under-class group and the combined middle-class group in terms of both the average number of bouts of organised sports participation and the repertoire or variety of sports engaged with. In effect, the mid- and upper-middle-class children were already sporting and cultural omnivores by the final years of primary schooling. We conclude that while the primary school organised sporting 'offer' may be neither a sufficient nor even a necessary contribution to the emerging sporting habits of mid- and upper-middle-class children, for under-class children it is likely to be necessary even though it may still prove, in the longer run, insufficient.
Descriptors: Social Class, Elementary School Students, Parent Attitudes, Team Sports, Student Attitudes, Physical Education, Student Participation, Foreign Countries, Middle Class, Working Class
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Publication Type: Journal Articles; Reports - Research
Education Level: Elementary Education
Audience: N/A
Language: English
Sponsor: N/A
Authoring Institution: N/A
Identifiers - Location: United Kingdom (England)
Grant or Contract Numbers: N/A