Individuals as supporting walls of physical education, from politics to policy areas

The field of physical education can appear to be an area in which the structuring actors occupy a place from which they act. In trying to capture all of the actors affecting the trajectory of the discipline, a caricatured vision is often formed, hindering the evolution of current concepts. However, these actors operate in a dynamic network based on politics at the structural level and on pedagogy at the functional level. At the interface of these two worlds, course designers must understand both levels while also considering other spheres of influence: medical, scientific, trade unions, and training institutions. Finally, the strength of influence that these individuals hold lies in their ability to have their ideas identified and accepted within the field and to have their ideas circulated between the spheres. Through the presentation of the different contributions, we will see how this level, which we will identify as the polities scale (Leca 2012), becomes active when it is able to generate a movement in the other levels of politics: from politics to policies.