ABSTRACT

In this article, we show how collaboration between Danish municipal primary and lower secondary schools (folkeskoler) and elite sports clubs to establish SportsClasses enables schools to set parameters that align student-athletes’ attitudes and behavior towards school and academic performance. Using neo-institutional theory, we show how two separate institutional domains – education and sport – come to agree on common purposes and practices for an endeavor that takes place on the ‘home field’ of education. We apply the theoretical concepts of ‘contractualisation’ and ‘accountability’ to understand what these learning agreements or implicit social contracts involve, how they are made, and how they are enforced. These concepts capture the empirical governance mechanisms that produce the integration of athletes into school norms and practices as well as how these norms and practises are re-configured as an effect of the cooperation. The article is based on an ethnographic study of the admissions process for SportsClasses. We discuss the benefits and risks for the publicly funded school system in entering into such social learning contracts.

摘要

在这篇文章中，我们展示了丹麦市政小学和初中之间的合作（fokeskoler) 和精英体育俱乐部建立 SportsClasses 使学校能够设置参数，以调整学生运动员对学校和学业成绩的态度和行为。使用新制度理论，我们展示了两个独立的制度领域——教育和体育——如何在共同的目标和实践上达成一致，以便在教育的“主场”上进行努力。我们应用“契约化”和“问责制”的理论概念来理解这些学习协议或隐含的社会契约涉及什么，它们是如何制定的，以及它们是如何执行的。这些概念捕捉了将运动员融入学校规范和实践的经验治理机制，以及这些规范和实践如何被重新配置为合作的效果。本文基于对 SportsClasses 招生过程的民族志研究。我们讨论了公立学校系统签订此类社会学习合同的好处和风险。