Despite the importance of interactions with natural environments for personal and social well-being, there is only limited evidence of the relationship between the environment and health as an idea or area of study in school education in Australia. Logically, the place for such a study, at least in Australia, would be within the Health &…

Purpose: Health education still tends to be dominated by an approach designed to achieve individual behaviour change through the provision of knowledge to avoid risk. In contrast, a critical inquiry approach educates children and young people to develop their capacity to engage critically with knowledge, through reasoning, problem solving and…

A National Curriculum in Health and Physical Education (HPE) has recently been developed in Australia. This new curriculum reflects, among other educational priorities, both environmental sensitivities and a commitment to the enhancement of young people's health and wellbeing. HPE is one of the key sites in the curriculum where a focused…

Background: The move for educational reform to improve student outcomes and learning has been the subject of ongoing debate over the last 15 years in Australia and internationally. In Australia, Game Centred Approaches (GCA) such as Game Sense have been positioned by advocates as having the capacity to achieve these characteristics in physical…

Contemporary notions of childhood overweight and obesity have become increasingly influential in curriculum and pedagogy in school-based Health and Physical Education (HPE). Teachers' delivery of HPE subject matter and related school practices are likely to have a considerable impact on the attitudes and beliefs of the children they teach,…

A critical inquiry approach is one of five key characteristics that have shaped the development of the new Australian Curriculum: Health and Physical Education (AC: HPE). However, what this means is open to interpretation. In the various documents leading to the consultation draft AC: HPE and in this document itself, critical inquiry is used in…

Drawing on research conducted in Australian Health' and Physical Education (HPE) and Swedish Physical Education and Health (PEH), this paper demonstrates the analytic possibilities of Foucault's notion of pastoral power to reveal the moral and ethical work conducted by HPE/PEH teachers in producing healthy active citizens. We use the pastoral…

Background: Following the 2000 Sydney Olympics, the NSW Premier, Mr Bob Carr, launched a school-based initiative in NSW government primary schools called the "Gold Medal Fitness Program" to encourage children to be fitter and more active. The Program was introduced into schools through a model of professional development, "Quality…

Background: Games centred approaches (GCA) such as TGfU, Game Sense, and Tactical Games are widely promoted as alternatives to traditional forms of teaching games within physical education. These approaches are promoted on the basis of their capacity to engage students in meaningful and enjoyable physical activity and to promote problem-solving…

Describes the theoretical underpinnings and methodology of research investigating the production and reproduction of gender in physical education lessons in three Australian schools, demonstrating how to explore questions raised within a feminist examination of the construction of gender in physical education using Foucault's poststructuralist…

A study of rural Queensland (Australia) parents' views of their children's involvement in physical activity interviewed parents who taught their children at home using distance education. Physical activity was encouraged, but not formally taught; health was linked more to nutrition than exercise; and lack of participation in team games was…