ERIC Number: EJ1458404
Record Type: Journal
Publication Date: 2025-Feb
Pages: 20
Abstractor: As Provided
ISBN: N/A
ISSN: ISSN-1356-336X
EISSN: EISSN-1741-2749
Despite Good Intentions: The Elusiveness of Social Justice in Health and Physical Education Curricula across Different Contexts
Göran Gerdin; Katarina Lundin; Rod Philpot; Ellen Berg; Amanda Mooney; Ansie Kitching; Laura Alfrey; Katarina Schenker; Susanne Linnér
European Physical Education Review, v31 n1 p109-128 2025
This paper draws on critical discourse analysis to examine how health and physical education (HPE) curricula from Sweden, Norway, South Africa, Australia, and New Zealand may influence possibilities for the enactment of social justice in schools. The findings highlight the presence of social justice intentions across the five curricula as related to embodied movement experiences, social cohesion, and activism. That said, the findings simultaneously suggest that the language used to orient teaching towards social justice objectives is often elusive. In this paper, we contend that despite the presence of social justice intentions in these five HPE curricula, the articulation and function of the language within the curriculum documents do not necessarily support the enactment of this in practice. To conclude, we therefore suggest that more work is needed to ensure that curricula and other supporting artefacts and resources can better support both teachers' practice and students' learning in raising awareness of, and addressing, social justice outcomes in HPE.
Descriptors: Foreign Countries, Social Justice, Health Education, Physical Education, Cultural Differences, Intention, Curriculum, Context Effect, Semantics, Language Usage, Barriers, Activism, Group Unity, Physical Activities, Student Role
SAGE Publications. 2455 Teller Road, Thousand Oaks, CA 91320. Tel: 800-818-7243; Tel: 805-499-9774; Fax: 800-583-2665; e-mail: journals@sagepub.com; Web site: https://bibliotheek.ehb.be:2993
Publication Type: Journal Articles; Reports - Research
Education Level: N/A
Audience: N/A
Language: English
Sponsor: N/A
Authoring Institution: N/A
Identifiers - Location: Sweden; Norway; South Africa; Australia; New Zealand
Grant or Contract Numbers: N/A