‘The fourth most important school subject’ – Norwegian school principals’ perceptions of physical education

Although many studies have explored teachers’ and students’ perceptions of physical education (PE), the voices and beliefs of school principals about PE remain scarce in existing literature (Ní Chróinín et al., 2020). In Norway, a new national curriculum for PE was introduced in 2020 (Norwegian Directorate for Education and Training, 2019) making it timely to examine how key stakeholders, such as principals, understand and attempt to enact these new curricular objectives. In this paper, we draw on interviews conducted with five participant principals from schools located in Eastern Norway that explored their perceptions of PE. Based on our reflexive thematic analysis [Braun & Clarke, 2022) of the interview data, we present the findings in relation to three main themes: (i) ‘PE is a very important subject’, (ii) ‘PE creates other pedagogical opportunities and has extrinsic values’ and (iii) ‘PE as friluftsliv [“outdoor activities”], swimming and social aspects – but not sports … ’. However, by also utilizing Foucauldian understandings of discourse (Foucault, 1972), we draw attention to how the principals’ perceptions of PE are largely constituted within dominant discourses of activation, fitness and (physical) health. To conclude, we call for further studies on what principals’ value and talk about in relation to PE but also what they do not talk about such as PE as a subject for learning and where other dimensions of health are promoted.