Abstract:
This paper builds on a doctoral study conducted as a socio-historical analysis of swimming in Britain from 1840 to 1914. The progress of swimming education was a particular focus in the original thesis and underpins the approach taken in this comparative study. The central purpose of this paper is to re-visit these historical findings, to explore current swimming education and to present findings as to the rationale for the relatively slow progress and minimal advances made in the availability and provision of swimming education within English schools in the 21st century. This is a qualitative, historical study and data has been gathered from a variety of sources including, government papers, curriculum and Board of Education documents and swimming governing body reports. The data is examined using a critical textual analytical approach and illuminates similarities in the rationale for swimming education between the nineteenth and twenty-first centuries and also uncovers antecedents to the current debates, regarding the values attributed to swimming.