School PE curricula claim to teach social justice—but teachers can't deliver it
A study of physical education curricula across five developed nations finds widespread social justice language that lacks practical guidance for classroom implementation. The disconnect between policy intent and teachable content could undermine education equity goals and complicate teacher training programs globally.
Originaltitel: Despite good intentions: The elusiveness of social justice in health and physical education curricula across different contexts
<p>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.</p>