抄録
This paper has examined how physical education （PE） lessons in elementary schools are accomplished under conditions in which they are conducted in large spaces such as gymnasiums or playgrounds and without the use of instructional furniture such as desks and chairs. The analysis demonstrates that PE lessons are sustained through teacher–students’ interaction, in and through which a form of “spatial order” appropriate to each instructional situation is achieved on a moment-by-moment basis.
More specifically, in situations where students are expected to “listen,” spatial order is organized through a combination of practices. These include the teacher’s suspension of talk, the direction of the teacher’s gaze, and students’ embodied arrangements, such as sitting down, facing the teacher, and gathering near the teacher. That such an order is intelligible to participants can also be confirmed through students’ utterances such as “be quiet,” followed by the teacher’s positive evaluation of those actions. In addition, in situations involving movement or changes in positioning, teachers’ utterances such as “don’t touch the ball” function to indicate once again that the ongoing activity is a “listening” phase.
Furthermore, during group formation, students can identify their own teams regardless of whether they remember them cognitively. Instead, they rely on cues such as “being in this place” or observing other students raising their hands, which enables them to recognize which team they belong to. In other words, group membership is not treated as a matter of individual cognition but is made available on each occasion through the maintenance of spatial order that includes bodily arrangements and others’ actions.
From these analyses, the aim of this paper is not to evaluate PE practices in terms of teachers’ levels of expertise or instructional techniques. Rather, its concern lies in describing the conditions under which a “listening” phase becomes mutually intelligible as having been achieved in PE lessons where desks and chairs cannot be used. For such a phase to be established, not only teachers’ talk and gaze but also students’ practices of becoming quiet, facing the teacher, and gathering nearby must be combined.
Thus, spatial order in PE lessons is not imposed unilaterally by the teacher but is continually maintained and adjusted through teacher–students’ interaction. Describing PE lessons as social phenomena accomplished through interaction makes the practical organization of PE instruction visible and is therefore meaningful even for novice educators.
