SPECTRUM COLLEAGUES
Risto Telama
Professor Emeritus
Jyväskylä University, Jyväskylä , Finland
Email:
risto.telama@sport.jyu.fi
I met Muska Mosston and Sara Ashworth for the first time in Madrid 1977, but I already knew the name Mosston before that because Muska’s book Teaching Physical Education was known in Finland. My colleague Pauli Vuolle gave a lecture in physical education in 1969 which was mainly based on the Spectrum. Before that he had prepared a Finnish summary of the book Teaching Physical Education. In the early 1970's, I was a member of the committee for national core curriculum. In the curriculum, we introduced some ideas of the Spectrum.
It was in Madrid that we started a friendship and collaboration which continued until Muska’s death. Friendship and collaboration with Sara is still going strong. In order to learn more about the Spectrum, I spent some time in 1981 in Trenton, New Jersey, living in Muska and Sara’s house, discussing Spectrum, following Muska and Sara in school visits, proof reading their new manuscript, and enjoying life with them.
An important form of cooperation developed during the Spectrum seminars which I, as a head of PE Department, organised in the University of Jyväskylä. These seminars were a part of in-service training for the staff of the PE Department. In addition to the seminars in Jyväskylä, Muska and Sara were the main key-note lecturers in a Nordic Seminar of Sport Pedagogy. In 1984 Muska was honoured with an Honorary Doctorate by the Faculty of Sport & Health Science, University of Jyvaskyla. Muska’s last visit to Finland was in 1990 when he was invited to speak in Sport for All Congress in Tampere.
About Risto Telema
During his professional career, he was a PE teacher in secondary school, full time researcher of physical education in LIKES Research Institute and professor of sport pedagogy in Jyväskylä University. He received an Honorary Doctorate of Education from the University of Oulu. He retired in 1999, but has continued participating in research as a hobby. Risto Telama has also written about the Spectrum. Several of his articles connected with Spectrum are concerned with social and moral education in physical education.