Introduction to physical education, fitness, and sport. (9th ed.)

Siedentop, D., & Van der Mars, H. (2022). Introduction to physical education, fitness, and sport (9th ed.). Human kinetics.

Now that I am interested in the pressure to stand on one side as a researcher, reading handbooks, that was expected to hold a balanced perspective, should have been a good idea. Thanks to a genius library system, the book has flown all the way from UIUC to UNCG only for me. After I checked the contents and read some parts, I noticed that a handbook was not an exception to the controversy, if anything, was a liberal place where they argue their opinion without limited pages. The whole book was filled with their perspective even though it covered a wide range of topics in this field. The way they constituted the contents and the following rationales were interesting and worth looking back on again to write what I am supposed to do in my paper.

One thing that stood out to me is the question, what is physical education? Over the 100 years, the definition of physical education has diverged and stratified along with Kinesiology has created and developed. The question has always been asked, and researchers and teachers had to answer it first. With some conflicts, the question has stood the test of time in both a positive and negative way. It is my time to dive into the question and answer it with my own perspective.

What is physical education? It it education in sport? Is it fitness education? Is it social development? Is it development through risk and adventure? Is it movement? Is it just about getting students to be physically active? Instead, is it all these things - and maybe more? A subject matter so loosely defined that it excludes very little is inevitably going to include activities that are hardly useful or very difficult to defend by any criteria.
The question then becomes, If physical education encompasses everything, can it ever stand for something specific and important?
(p. 81)