Symbolic capital in physical education and health: to be, to do or to know? That is the gendered question

Abstract

The way teachers’ in Sweden reason about assessment and grading in physical education and health is in focus in this article. The central question is to investigate what teachers’ believe are the goals of the subject, important knowledge in the subject and criteria for assessment in physical education (PE) health. With this study we take up a theme, particularly developed by Evans (2004), that examines what abilities are recognised in and through the practice of PE. By using a cultural–sociological approach, inspired by Bourdieu, in the analysis, we want to discuss what abilities are assigned value and recognised as valuable in PE and health; in other words, to analyse the symbolic capital of the subject. The aim of the article is to illuminate the symbolic capital, as it appears when teachers talk about grading criteria, and to discuss the way it contributes to the construction of gender. The aim is also to discuss the learning consequences in teachers’ ways of assessing pupils, both what pupils might learn about the subject matter and what girls and boys might learn about themselves as able or not.