Dear ladies and gentlemen, in this short video, I want to briefly inform you about the most
recent findings of the Europlit study.
Our results have reasonably submitted to the Journal of Exercise Science and Fitness.
With our study, we want to tackle the problem that we hardly have any reports regarding
the implementation status of physical literacy in research, practice and policy.
Wherein physical literacy might serve as a promising concept for PA promotion, including
physical education, sport or health.
In total, our study addressed two main research questions.
What is the current status of physical literacy in European countries and in Europe as a whole
and what are the commonalities, differences and challenges for implementing physical literacy
across Europe?
To answer these questions, we have conducted a complementary mixed methods study.
In the first part, we have performed a qualitative approach.
We applied comparative document analysis.
First, with the help of the International Physical Literacy Association, we identified
representatives across 25 European countries and then we invited these representatives
to conduct country-specific reports, reporting the implementation status of physical literacy
in their countries.
Afterwards, we submitted all these reports to comparative document analysis.
And after acquiring different categories, we submitted these categories to a quantitative
survey in the second part to gain a detailed perspective on the implementation thing.
When we look now at the qualitative findings, we found a total of 10 different categories
on four major categories.
First, general conceptual aspects became apparent.
For example, the reports revealed that obviously physical literacy gains increasing attention
in the different countries, but nevertheless the countries seem to face different conceptual
challenges.
For example, translation issues or the fact that often researchers prefer to adhere to
competing more traditionally rooted concepts within their countries.
Furthermore, our analysis revealed a mixed picture of physical literacy in the area of
research.
There were some countries with a very strong power, whereas others, the efforts just rely
on single researchers.
Obviously assessments take a very important role in further disseminating physical literacy
findings.
Empirical research clearly profits from this important step.
Regarding practice and policy, we found that physical literacy hardly plays any role in
important health agenda or national initiatives, political documents.
On the other hand, physical literacy with some of its element can be found in certain
physical education curricula, but physical literacy as a concept is hardly mentioned
explicitly.
Furthermore, there are an increasing number of practical initiatives recognizing the value
of physical literacy.
And lastly, the representatives anticipate that physical literacy will probably gain
increasing importance within their different countries.
Our quantitative survey largely confirmed what we found for the qualitative findings.
Here this map visualizes the implementation state as an aggregate value across all different
categories.
Again, the Anglophone countries obviously are better or are more successful in adopting
the physical literacy concept, but also Denmark.
And then we have again a heterogeneous landscape for the rest for continental Europe.
And obviously there are still some challenges in adopting physical literacy.
Thank you very much for attention.
At this point, I also want to highlight the different representatives and especially two
main actors in this context.
First of all, I want to thank specifically Nigel Green, who came from England, but who
has also adopted the role of strongly supporting this study from the perspective of the International
Physical Literacy Association.
And I also want to thank Peter Alsborg, who has made major contributions in conceptualizing
and analyzing the whole data.
Now we invite you to read our study in more detail and also follow the developments of
physical literacy in Europe in the next years.