Abstract
A problem that has been of some concern to educationalists, headmasters, and teachers of physical education in Britain, is why an increasing number of pupils in secondary schools do not participate in extracurricular physical and sports ac tivities.
For example, a recent study of 3000 pupils aged fifteen and sixteen in 15 compre hensive schools in Central Scotland, shows that less than half the pupils — including only 30% of girls — were actively involved in extracurricular physical and sports activities (Hendry 1975).
It might seem superficially that non-participation in extracurricular physical and sports activities is a special case of the more general problem of "school re jection" among many pupils of this age-range in secondary schools (Hargreaves 1967, Reid 1972).
However, "school rejection" is of limited value in understanding the conduct of pupils, for a number of reasons. If pupils choose not to participate in extracurricu lar activities, then "school rejection" is merely a substitute term for "choosing not to participate". School rejection itself then must still be explained.
It is suggested in this paper that an explanation of "school rejection" rests in understanding from a sociological point of view, the manner in which "school re jection" is part of the pupils' critique of a hierarchical authority structure.
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