HPE and the moral governance of p/leisurable bodies

Abstract

Contemporary notions of good citizenship and proper living have become intimately related to the pursuit of good health. Consequently, modern states have devised programmes of education and training that endeavour to provide apprentice citizens with the knowledge, skills and attitudes required to enhance their own and others health and wellbeing. These strategies, deployed through institutions such as schools, contribute to the moral regulation of subjects, focusing as they do upon the moral and ethical practices of the self. Contemporary Health and Physical Education (HPE) claims to have an explicit and significant role to play in this endeavour. HPE research suggests the profession values its moral education role, believing the field has something unique to offer in this regard as a result of its special teaching and learning environments, subject matter and caring teacherÁstudent relationships. Nonetheless, the profession has been criticised for failing to provide adequate theoretical and empirical support regarding the role of HPE as a moral enterprise. This paper draws upon a Foucauldian genealogical analysis of twentieth century programmes of Queensland HPE to provide an alternative response to this challenge.In this paper we contend that HPE's capacity to operate as a mechanism of social and moral training relies not on any one special dimension, but through the orchestrated deployment of its subject matter, learning environments and caring teachers, as the definitive governmental technologies of the HPE apparatus. This paper first traces HPE's lines of visibility and enunciation, establishing its subject matter and learning environments as the foundational coordinates of the HPE apparatus. Secondly, we explore the constitution of power/knowledge relationships within HPE and the manner in which truth games have emerged and are deployed within the HPE apparatus. Through a mapping of HPE's lines of subjectivity we suggest that HPE teachers have been incited to constitute themselves as agents of pastoral power and have joined a privileged group of pedagogues who have been allocated the responsibility for training subjects in particular arts of living. In light of this argument, we focus upon the contemporary significance of these teachers' capacity to create caring relationships with their students. In conclusion, we raise some implications for the profession in light of this Foucauldian perspective and provide a possible explanation underpinning the profession's claims concerning the moral education of young people.

Mum’s Diet and children’s voice in health education

“…This research found that teachers continue to uncritically accept the dominant obesity and healthism discourses. This is despite findings by academics who challenge and call for teachers (such as health and physical educators) to examine their practices and curricula that reproduce social meanings for students that in turn perpetuate such negative body discourses (Alfrey & Brown, 2013;Burrows, Wright & McCormack, 2009;Cliff & Wright, 2010;Evans et al, 2008;Lee & Macdonald, 2010;McCuaig & Tinning, 2010;Quennerstedt & Ohman, 2014).…”

Not fat, not skinny, functional enough to finish: interrogating constructions of health in the Ironman Triathlon

“…The purported positive correlation between sport and improved health is also often uncritically promoted through medico-scientific research, particularly in investigations related to the so-called obesity epidemic (Theberge, 2008;Zanker & Gard, 2008). In this body of research, sport gets lumped together with exercise and physical activity, connecting the pursuit of good health to "good citizenship" and "proper living" (Howell & Ingham, 2001;Ingham, 1985;McCuaig & Tinning, 2010). The common theme -either explicit or implicit -among these various scenarios is the link suggested to exist between sport and improvements to one's health.…”

Principled pursuits of ‘the good citizen’ in health and physical education

“…To this end, we preface our discussions regarding the current curriculum development process with a genealogical account of Queensland HPE curriculum reform, to demonstrate the shifting principled strategies, technologies, and practices deployed within and towards HPE to construct a particular subject: the active healthy citizen (McCuaig and Tinning 2010). As Rose (2000) notes, the genealogy of subjectification approach owes much of its theoretical underpinnings to Foucauldian theory and the 'problematizations through which being offers itself to be, necessarily, thought -and the practices on the basis of which these problematizations are formed' (Foucault 1990, 11).…”