“I move nearly as much as the boys who play soccer in school”: a qualitative case study among the least physical active schoolchildren and their social identities

Danish school reform requires all pupils to have 45 minutes of physical activity every day. This requirement aims to enhance pupils’ health and learning and encourage the least physically active, because of an increasing disparity between the least and most physically active pupils. Preliminary studies show that 65% of Danish schools meet this requirement (Oxford Research, 2018), but it remains unclear whether the least physically active pupils are becoming more active. Studies have shown that the least physically active children tend to choose more sedentary activities because of low self-esteem and peer influence (Pawlowski et al., 2016).
The research question is how physical active the least physically active pupils see themselves and the other pupils in their class at school.
My overall methodological design is a multiple case study (Yin, 2018) involving three schools in Denmark.
The research is based on Qualitative interviews and Participant observations of 30 Year 3 pupils in six classes in 2018.
The empirical framework will be analysed based on theory of Social Identity of the sociologist Richard Jenkins (2003).
Results: The research is still ongoing. In the interviews, most pupils see themselves as being very physically active. There is thus a discrepancy between the observations and the pupils’ own perceptions of their participation in physical activity. This topic is relevant because it is important to discuss how far schools can support all pupils in a culture of physical activity when their social identities might vary from a discourse of health and learning.