Human movement and humans moving

Human movement, physical education, sport, outdoor recreation/education and fitness generally all have one thing in common. They are disciplines which involve the moving body. The moving body is basic to bodily experience but the qualities and characteristics of it in differing environments and communities are not well appreciated in the current education literature nor current public health or health promotion discourses. Physical activity and sport are typically understood through the sciences of exercise/sport (e.g. anatomy, biomechanics, psychology, exercise physiology, skill acquisition and exercise rehabilitation). However, the ‘human’ aspect of movement is lost, as is the notion of human agency and its social and environmental contexts, when such scientific discourses are emphasised.

Within the Movement, Environment and Community (MEC) research group at Monash University – Peninsula campus, a group of researchers believe there is a need in education and public health/health promotion for the development of qualities and characteristics of the body in movement that posits a more intrinsic and subjective value of physical activity. Our research focuses on complex meanings that individuals experience in physical activity. Research has intimated (Kretchmar, 2000) that developing more meaningful experiences of physical activity and movement may help promote and maintain active lifestyles than those that do not.

The lack of understanding about the moving body also serves to undermine how ‘movers’ make meaning of their bodily movements, but more importantly for those that work with the moving body, such as fitness trainers, gym instructors, community sport practitioners, physical education/outdoor education teachers, learning about the subjective and intrinsic qualities of the moving body must complement the richness of knowledge that has occurred in the technical, cognitive and social fields in each of the sub-disciplines.

Traditionally, in schools and pre-service teacher education, the discourses of physical education have been heavily shaped by sports, fitness, skills and drills and a culture of competition. It is therefore important that researchers/educators begin to understand the meaning of movement for children and adolescents in educational settings so as to allow them to find ‘deep’ meaning in their experiences. For example if physical education is ‘about’ learning through, about and in movement, then developing an understanding of the diversity of experiences that bodies can have during moving activities such as golf, soccer, bushwalking, kayaking, tai chi or yoga, must account for not only the scientific rational objective approach most often used (e.g. technical, skills, cognitive), but must also seriously engage with the subjective intrinsic qualities of that experience as experienced by the individuals with which we work.

To date the literature in physical education/sport relating to the moving body has not been abundant but that which has been available for four decades is conceptually rich and has provided untapped intellectual resources for theoretical development of a phenomenology (lived experience) of movement. But this work needs to continue and there are many opportunities for Honours, Masters and Doctoral students to pursue projects/studies related to intrinsic and subjective qualities of movement, the moving body and how individuals might make meaning from their engagement with movement in school, health or community settings.

The study of movement as a broader, more complex, individual and social and spatially sensitive and temporally aware phenomenon and its implications for education relate also to the physical, emotional and mental health debates individuals and society now confronts.