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The changing status of school sport and physical education: explaining policy change

This paper examines the changing political salience of school sport and physical education (PE) over the last 15 years. A brief survey of the recent history of school sport and PE based on an analysis of a range of policy documents published by professional bodies and government departments and agencies is followed by a discussion of two theoretical frameworks for explaining policy change, namely the advocacy coalition framework and multiple streams. The empirical section of the paper uses a series of interviews conducted during the summer of 2004 with a range of senior policy actors and analysts to explore the significance of four possible sources of policy change: changing values, beliefs and ideas; interest group lobbying; changes in organizational infrastructure and patterns of resource dependency; the impact of key individuals. It is argued that while individuals are an important explanatory factor their influence needs to be seen in the context of the institutional weakness of interest groups and the generalized, but largely unfocused, sympathy among politicians towards school sport and PE. It is further suggested that multiple streams is a more illuminating analytical framework than the advocacy coalition framework for understanding policy change in school sport and PE.