Abstract

American physical educators have struggled to gain academic legitimacy for the last 100 years. This paper examines a key part of this struggle, the debate over the nature of the field. Two periods in the debate are identified. The search for an American system of physical training resulted in physical education. When this system came under attack in the 1960s, there began a search for a discipline of physical education. This discipline has been seen most often as a cross-disciplinary, research oriented study of human movement. However, it has failed to distinguish itself from an interdepartmental study of human movement and from a cross-disciplinary, research oriented conception of the profession. The paper concludes by demonstrating how these problems are overcome if the discipline is seen as a form of culture in which movement is the medium of expression. Verf.-Referat