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…

New Zealand and Australia introduced health and physical education curricula espousing a socially-critical perspective more than two decades ago. Yet, despite growth in advocacy and teaching resources, there is little research exploring how HPE teachers are enacting these pedagogies. This article addresses the challenge of understanding what six…

Critical health literacy (CHL) and more specifically the development of young people's CHL in school-based health education is an under-explored area in research. This is despite health literacy being viewed as a critical determinant of health in contemporary times (World Health Organization. (2016a). The mandate for health literacy.…

In this article, we draw on findings from two critical ethnographic studies across three high schools in Auckland, Aotearoa New Zealand. While the critical ethnographies canvased a range of topics, this article draws on the empirical findings specific to exploring how relationships and sexuality education as a key learning area within Health…

The Health and Physical Education (HPE) profession has increasingly advocated for caring teacher-student relationships. In this paper, we draw on data from an international research project called 'EDUHEALTH' [Education for Equitable Health Outcomes -- The Promise of School Health and Physical Education] to explore caring teaching and the…

For more than 40 years, health and physical education (HPE) academics in universities and teacher education colleges have drawn attention to issues of social justice specific to the context of PE and advocated for teachers in fields, gymnasiums and other physical activity spaces to do a better job of promoting more equitable outcomes for all…

The paper explores the concept of social justice in Health and Physical Education (HPE) as constituted and addressed across three different countries -- Sweden, Norway and New Zealand -- and how HPE teaching practices for social justice may be understood from regulative, normative and cultural/cognitive perspectives. Although much has been written…

In a world of increasing diversity in which many established democracies are now consumed by capitalist individualism and protectionist ideals, a focus on equity and social justice is particularly pertinent. For many years, scholars have proposed that schools have the educational responsibility to prepare children for peaceful living in a…

In this paper, we describe and reflect on the Critical Incident Technique (CIT) methodology used to explore how secondary school health and physical education (HPE) teachers address social justice in their teaching practice. The paper is informed by data generated as part of an ongoing three-year international research project involving eight…

This paper provides insights into political battles associated with the attempted introduction of a postcolonial bicultural dimension to the 'Health Physical Education in the New Zealand Curriculum' (NZHPE). Limited attention has been given to the gestation period of four years between the submission, release of the draft and the final publication…

Background: A focus on equity, democracy and social justice in HPE is pertinent in an era where there are growing concerns about the impact of neoliberal globalisation and precariousness of society (Kirk 2020). Although there is advocacy for teaching approaches in HPE that address issues of social justice, there is limited empirical research of…

The way school Health and Physical Education (HPE) is conceptualized and taught will impact on its ability to provide equitable outcomes across gender, sexuality, ethnicity, religion and social class. A focus on social justice in HPE is pertinent in times when these ideals are currently under threat from neoliberal globalization. This paper draws…

While an emphasis on social justice has emerged as a theme in initial teacher education (ITE) over the past decade, there is much debate about how to engage ITE students in foregrounding issues of equity and social justice in their own teaching. One strategy, the introduction of critical pedagogy in ITE, has been promoted in teacher education…