Interventionin physical education and sport: trends and developments in a decade of Francophone research

Abstract

Introduction:The aims of this literature review were to characterize the communications presented during six Association for Research on Intervention in Sport (ARIS) Frenchspeaking congresses from 2000 to 2010 and to compare the research trends between French and English research traditions. The definition of pedagogy is close to the notion of intervention and attempts to study, in an interacting or isolated way, three key components -the educator (professor, coach, teacher's educator), the participants (students, children, adults) and the curriculum/knowledge in specific contexts. The theoretical framework is centred on the social construction of the scientific knowledge. Method: All the communications of the six ARIS congresses (n ¼ 836), reflecting the multiple facets of educational research were analysed. The quantitative treatment of the data, with the assistance of Sphinx software, consisted of univariate (frequencies, percentages) and bi-variate (chi-square statistic) analyses to identify possible significant relations between variables such as the congress, country and sex of author(s), institution, and so on. Findings: The results highlight the commonalties and differences between French and English research about intervention/pedagogy. We notice the continuing expansion of the field of intervention/pedagogy in the Francophone and the Anglophone worlds. But the low participation of the practitioners shows how intricate it is to move educational research closer to everyday practice. The results show that the contexts studied within ARIS are mainly school physical education and teacher's education, then coaching and other contexts. The majority of studies are centred on one component of pedagogy, but rarely on the interactions between the educators and the participants. The Francophone research is essentially descriptive and heuristic, using mostly qualitative methods (interviews and observations). This orientation of Francophone studies towards heuristic research seems to contrast with Anglophone research, even though qualitative research has recently come to dominate. Conclusion: The ARIS researchers have a common object of study (intervention/ pedagogy), share the same ideas and aims, learn how to do it better as they interact regularly and develop a shared repertoire of knowledge, theories and methods. We see here signs of an undeniable wealth of knowledge and the combination of different theories and methods leading to a better understanding of educational phenomena.

A review of the penetration of Francophone research on intervention in physical education and sport in Anglophone journals since 2010

“…The aim of this literature review was to characterize the Francophone research in the English language literature in physical education and sport concerned with intervention since 2010 in the category "Education & Educational Research" of the Journal Citation Reports (2017). This research was in line with the analysis of the papers presented during six Francophone congresses from 2000 to 2010 of ARIS (Musard and Poggi, 2015). This Frenchspeaking research community considers intervention sciences as a specific field of research in sport and PE (Musard, Loquet, and Carlier 2010).…”

“…Indeed, both are characterized by a variety of theoretical approaches based on "human sciences" which analyse practices in physical education and sport with the focus on the interaction interdependent components as : curriculum / knowledge; learners and learning; teachers, teaching and teacher education, and their embedding and enactment in particular environments (Kirk 2010). This definition is close to the definition of intervention given by David (2001) corresponding to various processes of transmission / appropriation of knowledge, attitudes and sports techniques in different educational contexts, as already noted by Musard and Poggi (2015).…”

“…This Frenchspeaking research community considers intervention sciences as a specific field of research in sport and PE (Musard, Loquet, and Carlier 2010). On the one hand, this community gives huge importance on the articulation between practice and theory, aiming at a mutual enrichment between practitioners and researchers (Musard and Poggi, 2015). This suggests creating conditions for exchanges and sharing such as workshops or symposia with practitioners.…”

“…The ambition of this diversity of theoretical approaches is to analyse practices in sport and education in order to understand and transform them. A literature review was published in Physical Education and Sport Pedagogy by Musard and Poggi (2015) analysing the communications presented during six Francophone congresses from 2000 to 2010 of ARIS.…”

New research programmes in physical education and sport pedagogy

“…Grehaigne, Wallian, and Godbout (2005) have further developed the coming together of MBP and didactique through their work on team invasion games, while other studies have contributed to the theoretical development of relational research from the perspective of the French 'course of action' socio-cognitive model (e.g. Guillou & Durny, 2008, for an overview, see Musard & Poggi, 2013).…”