Physical education in Scandinavia: an overview and some educational challenges

As in a number of other countries, the educational systems of Denmark, Norway and Sweden are experiencing expansion and change. These reforms have meant many changes and new challenges for the teachers, especially with reference to their work outside the classroom (or the gym). In Sweden, for example, teachers are expected to collaborate in order to give national syllabi a more concrete and local form, which in turn demands a common professional language. In this essay, our aim is to cast a pedagogic and somewhat didactic light on the subject by 1) giving a short and descriptive picture of some aspects of PE in Scandinavia's nine-year compulsory schools, with a main focus on Sweden, and by 2) identifying and discussing some of the educational challenges facing the subject today, also mainly from a Swedish perspective.