Staffan Karp

Gender in ice hockey : women in a male territory

This study investigates how female ice hockey players describe and explain their situation within as well as outside their sport. Information was obtained by semi‐structured interviews with female ice hockey players. The results were analyzed in a gender perspective where the main starting point was the concepts of different levels of power relations in society developed by Harding and applied to sports by Kolnes (the symbolic, structural, and individual level). The study shows that the players appeared to share the traditional views of men and women. They also described gender differences in terms of financial and structural conditions as well as differences in ice hockey history. Even though the players described structural inequalities, they were quite content with their situation and the differences in conditions were not considered when they explained the gender differences in ice hockey performance. At the individual level, the players considered themselves different from other women and appeared to share the traditional views of femininity and masculinity. It has been suggested that performance of a sport traditionally associated with the other sex might alter the traditional view of men and women; however, our results lend little support to this suggestion.

Learning to be a police officer : tradition and change in the training and professional lives of police officers

The purpose of this article is to demonstrate the usefulness of a model for empirical studies of conservative and innovative forces in police training and the professional lives of police officers. The model is based on frame factor theory and is demonstrated against Swedish police research and the authors’ own observations and experiences of the Swedish police organization and police training. The authors conclude that the model can be used to describe and understand the everyday practice that police students and new police officers encounter and adopt. In particular, the model can help to identify and describe the tension fields that individual police students and police officers must learn to navigate. Thus, empirical studies using the model may contribute to a deeper understanding of police officers’ individual and collective attitudes to the conservation and the development of day‐to‐day practice in police training and the police profession.

More of the same instead of qualitative leaps: A study of inertia in the Swedish sports system

Abstract Between 2007 and 2011, the Swedish government added 50 million Euro per year to the budget of the Swedish Sports Confederation (RF) for a Sports for All programme (SfA), Idrottslyftet (The Lift for Sport), with the aim of engaging more children and youth, especially those from underrepresented groups. The programme manifesto stated that all activities should be based on gender and equality perspectives and be permeated by the regular RF policy program, Idrotten vill (What sports want). In this article, we discuss mechanisms of change and inertia in the Swedish sports system by applying path dependency theory on results achieved in Idrottslyftet. Findings are based on three data sources from five National Sports Organisations (NSOs) (Swedish Budo & Martial Arts Federation, Swedish Floorball Federation, Swedish Gymnastics Federation, Swedish Ski Association and Swedish Sports Organisation for the Disabled); the data include their development plans, interviews with key personnel and granted project applications from sports clubs during the programme’s first and third year (N = 2,563). Overall, the study shows that when considering decisions and activities undertaken by the government, RF and the NSOs little has been done to enable change and to avoid inertia. The NSOs have mainly provided funds to applications that focus on recruiting instead of on applications with a qualitative approach focusing on changing activities for children and youth. Furthermore applications focused on only a few of the guidelines in Idrotten vill and lacked in general gender and equality perspectives. Our main conclusion is that projects carried out in sports clubs strengthen ongoing activities rather than being an engine for qualitative leaps in developing activities for engaging more children and youth. Finally, we note that path dependency theory has been a fruitful tool for analysing the results from Idrottslyftet. The theory has significantly contributed to a deeper understanding of inertia within the Swedish sports system.

Perspectives on the meaning of children’s sport for adulthood

Abstract This article is about what participation in organized sport in childhood and youth means for growing up and how it influences values in adulthood. In 2000 the results of interviews with parents and children relating to football and golf were presented. Those results showed that learning processes differ between football and golf: socialization in football corresponds to the methods and aims of child rearing in lower social strata and in golf with child rearing in higher social strata. Four of the children from the earlier study have now been interviewed. Today these are young adults aged 25-29. The results indicate that the young adults – the former footballers and golfers – have different patterns of values about learning and childrearing. The conclusion is that participating in organized sports as a child or young person contributes to a feeling of social belonging and to the construction of a social identity. For the footballers it is rather an identity close to the working and lower middle classes and for the golfers an identity close to the upper middle class. The conclusion is, furthermore, that children’s sport contributes to the reproduction of differences between social strata in society.

Collective reflection in practice : an ethnographic study of Swedish police training

Abstract Although reflection has been viewed as an individual process, increased attention has been given to how reflective processes are socially anchored. The present article contributes to this knowledge through an examination of how collective reflection is enacted in the context of police education. The article is based on a one-year ethnographic study of police recruits undergoing training, and the main sources of data collection were participant observations and field interviews. The data were inductively analysed, and a model that differentiates amongst ‘specular’, ‘dialogic’ and ‘polyphonic’ reflection processes is presented. The findings suggest that collective reflection involving multiple individuals adds complexity to reflective processes and that these processes may take on more diverse forms than has been acknowledged, as previous research has mainly focused on dialogic collective reflection. The implications of these findings, such as how increased complexity may counteract the benefits of collective reflection, are also discussed.

The impact of preparation: conditions for developing professional knowledge through simulations

This article examines simulations of critical incidents in police education by investigating how activities in the preparation phase influence participants’ actions and thus the conditions for learning professional knowledge. The study is based on interviews in two stages (traditional and stimulated recall interviews) with six selected students and video analysis of one student police patrol’s short-term preparation. The results showed that simulation and associated activities informed the students of their responsibilities and pre-determined tasks without effectively helping them to cope with the situation. The analysis suggests that an understanding of the social and interactional requirements for producing the kind of situation that the students were to be trained for and learn from were not mediated. Thus our conclusion is that good conditions for learning in and through simulations require a simulation competence among the participants and that it is a responsibility of the instructors to consider how this competence is to be developed.

Cross-cultural Comparison of Motivation to Learn in Physical Education : Japanese vs Swedish Schoolchildren

The present study compared differences between Japanese and Swedish schoolchildren in learning motivation-related variables in physical education. The subjects were 1,562 Japanese fifth and sixth graders (776 boys and 786 girls) ranging in age from 10 to 12 years and 573 Swedish fifth graders (306 boys and 267 girls) from 10 to 13 years (M = 11.4, SD = 0.5). They completed three questionnaires to evaluate the childrens learning motivation, factors supporting motivation to learn, and preferences of learning behavior. The questionnaires were taken from Nishidas Diagnosis of Learning Motivation in Physical Education Test, a multidimensional and comprehensive test that measures learning motivation. A 2 times 2 (country by sex) multivariate analysis of variance indicated both Swedish boys and girls scored significantly higher than the Japanese children on most subscales. Results were discussed in relation to differences in the sports environment and culture of the two countries.

Supporting roles in live simulations : how observers and confederates can facilitate learning

ABSTRACT Live simulations in which students perform the roles of future professionals or act as confederates (i.e. student actors) are important training activities in different types of vocational education. While previous research has focused on the learning of students who enact a professional, secondary roles in scenario training, such as student observers and confederates, have received inadequate attention. The present study focuses on student observers and confederates in order to examine how these roles can support the learning of other participants in live simulations and to determine how the experience of performing these roles can become a learning experience for the performers. A total of 15 individual interviews and 1 group interview of students attending Swedish police training were conducted. The study findings indicated that the observer role is characterised by distance and detachment, and the confederate role by directness and sensory involvement. Both roles can support as well as inhibit intentional learning for primary participants and offer learning experiences for those playing the roles. The study theorises these roles and lists practical implications for planning live simulations in vocational education and training.

Policy Ideals for a Reformed Education: How Police Students Value New and Enduring Content in a Time of Change.

Purpose This study aims to examine how subgroups within a cohort of Swedish police students value different types of curricula content (i.e. new competencies versus enduring ones) in the context of ...

Developing sports with a children’s rights perspective? Intentions, methods, and priorities of development projects in local Swedish sports clubs

Abstract The purpose of this study is to analyze the planned development of sport practice regarding children’s rights through project applications from Swedish sports clubs within the Lift for Sport programme. The study on which this paper reports uses data from a large-scale research project that evaluated this sport-for-all programme and is based on an analysis of 2563 applications within five different national sports organizations. Theoretically, the evaluation study draws on programme theories and analyses financially funded development applications made by the sports clubs. The proportion of applications concerning aspects of children’s rights was 2.4% within the following categories: children’s safety in sports, young people’s views, ethics of children’s sports, and prevention of exclusion and dropout from sport. Those applications were further examined regarding which intentions, methods, and priorities sports clubs were aiming to develop children’s sport to be in line with a children’s rights perspective. The methods used to reach the goals were sometimes the same regardless of intention, and, despite the good intentions and some creative methods used for development, applicants seemed to be uncertain about and searching for which relevant methods to use. The findings can be used to inform the discussion on the design of development programmes, policies, and practices to change children’s sport in the framework of children’s rights.