An examination of Konrad Koch's theory of play in the school for sports education: Play movement and self-discipline in the Martino-Katharineum gymnasium

This study focuses on the early theory of play in the school (“Schulspiele”-Theorie) of Konrad Koch, who advocated his “play movement” (Spielbewegung) at the Martino-Katharineum gymnasium in Braunschweig at the end of the 19th century. According to Koch's “Schulspiele”-Theorie, sports education...

Ausführliche Beschreibung

Gespeichert in:
Bibliographische Detailangaben
Veröffentlicht in:Taiikugaku kenkyu (Japan Journal of Physical Education, Health and Sport Sciences) Health and Sport Sciences), 2010, Vol.55(2), pp.481-498
1. Verfasser: Kamasaki, Futoshi
Format: Artikel
Sprache:eng ; jpn
Schlagworte:
Online-Zugang:Volltext
Tags: Tag hinzufügen
Keine Tags, Fügen Sie den ersten Tag hinzu!
Beschreibung
Zusammenfassung:This study focuses on the early theory of play in the school (“Schulspiele”-Theorie) of Konrad Koch, who advocated his “play movement” (Spielbewegung) at the Martino-Katharineum gymnasium in Braunschweig at the end of the 19th century. According to Koch's “Schulspiele”-Theorie, sports education shows isolated pupils how to conform to norms on their own initiative, i.e. following rules and norms as a requirement in sports, and also improves self-discipline. However, at least at the inception of the thesis of play in the school (“Schulspiele”-Thesis) written in 1878, the school was placed as an associate between “home and family” and “nation”, where not only “lessons” were required, but inside the free gymnastic group (freie Turnerschaft) a community was to be built on the basis of an independent connection between teachers and students, as well as amongst the students themselves. The ideal form for this formatted collective was not further defined by Koch, who did not intend to have this collective focusing on “nation”, but rather aimed to build this on the basis of a civil collective. Although at this time Turnern idolized anti-foreign nationalism, Koch admired the significance of the English style of sports education. One can say that the “Schulspiele”-Theorie based on a civil collective had aims that were quite different from gymnastics in school (Schulturnen) that valued nationalism. Nevertheless, by the turn of the century, Koch had also published an extremely militaristic thesis. At this time, the collective building based on play in the school (Schulspiele) was to be described as something that was clearly dependent on the “nation”. Future issues will focus on how and in which way Koch's “Schulspiele”-Theorie subsequently found its way into forms of authority in modern nations.
ISSN:0484-6710
1881-7718
DOI:10.5432/jjpehss.09064