THE BOLOGNA PROCESS AND ITS IMPACT ON THE FIELD OF PHYSICAL ACTIVITY AND SPORT SCIENCES IN SPAIN

Abstract

This paper analyzes the process of incorporation of the Spanish university system to the European Higher Education Area (EHEA), focusing on the implementation of the degree on Physical Activity and Sport Sciences (PASS). We analyze this process from the Bourdieu perspective of “Scientific Field” and the data obtained through content analysis of documents related to the EHEA, and semi-structured interviews to eleven key actors in the process, analyzed with the support of NVivo 9.2 ® software. The results indicate two aspects particularly relevant. First, is observed a positive attitude to the Bologna process, although the distance between the Spanish traditional model and the new one, as well the scarcity of resources, set to a Spanish model itself and make impossible to apply the EHEA principles as desirable. Secondly, the results show the PASS need to assert in the university system and the fear to be not recognized as university degree, which leads this discipline to start the process very quickly, and strictly, through the development of the White Paper.