THE CULTURAL TRANSMISSIVE FUNCTION OF PHYSICAL EDUCATION

Abstract

What is the cultural transmissive function of a high school physical education class? Research which I conducted in northeastern Utah' suggests that one function of participation in such a class (i.e., the extent to which students played basketball during the winter of 1972) was to display information about one's social identity. The participants were displaying information to members of their own community cultural group (in this case, either Anglo-Mormons or Ute Indians) that they were, in fact, members of that group, while to members of the other group they were providing displays that they were not members of that other group. In effect, the high school physical education class functioned to maintain two community cultures by providing an opportunity for Utes and Anglos alike to display to each other who they were, and who they were not. These conclusions resulted from a six-month field study in Roosevelt, Utah, during which time I observed, participated in, and investigated value orientations related to basketball in the Anglo community, the Ute community, and the high school.2 Union High School was populated predominantly by Anglo-Mormons. Ute Indians students represented approximately 20% of the total school population. These figures include the school staff which was exclusively Anglo with the exception of one Ute woman who was a liaison between the school and the Ute community. The interactional patterns in the school reflected the bicultural nature of the community, and were similar to the interactional patterns found by Kimball et al. in a southern urban environment.3 There were times and places where Ute and Anglo students met and talked (classes, clubs, etc.), but outside of those constrained situations the students and staff kept to their own cultural group. Ute students and their Anglo counterparts congregated in different places within the school. The community outside the school wa's similarly structured. There were times and places where Ute and Anglo residents came into interactive contact with one another-markets, banks, clothing stores, livestock auctions, movie houses, recreational facilities, churches, schools, and the like. But for the most part, the two communities maintained independent interactional structures: the Anglos interacted with Anglos, and the Utes interacted with Utes.