Testing, training and tensions: the expression of health within physical education curricula in secondary schools in England and Wales

Abstract

This paper utilises critical discourse analysis to explore and discuss the expression of health within physical education (PE) curricula in secondary schools in England and Wales. The study adopted a case study approach, involving three state secondary schools in England and two in Wales. Data were drawn from interviews with PE teachers and health-related school documentation in the five schools, plus observation of a health-related unit of work in one of the schools. The expression of health in PE broadly reflected ideologies associated with promoting 'fitness for life' and 'fitness for performance'. The extent to which teachers could express their favoured discourses in policy and practice was partly determined by their position of power, relative to others within the department, although they could find ways of privileging their favoured discourse in their own lessons. Curiously, rhetorical 'fitness for life' discourses were commonly expressed through 'fitness for performance' practices in the form of testing and training activities. These were found to be the most common contexts for the delivery of health-related learning. In terms of Bernstein's location of discourses within contexts of educational systems, the findings suggest that recontextualisation of statutory PE curricula occurred at the site of the relocation of discourse (in this case, within physical education departments in secondary state schools), resulting in the privileging of discourses heavily influenced by sport and fitness-related ideologies. Improved awareness of the expression of health in secondary school PE curricula should help to better understand and address the complex tensions between health-related policies and practices in schools.

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“…et al, 2011;. Testing program included commonly known tests (Liakh V.I., 2000;Sergiienko L.P., 2001;Cale L., Harris J., 2009;Khudolii O.M., Iermakov S.S., 2011;Harris J., Leggett G., 2013;.…”

From a Technology That Replaces Human Perception–Action to One That Expands It: Some Critiques of Current Technology Use in Sport

“…In collating this knowledge, technological devices, such as pedometers and accelerometers, have been proposed as the key for informing teachers and researchers about activity data, such as the total number of steps achieved or the time spent in target intensity thresholds. Unfortunately, however, the generation of target-driven frequency and duration information about a child’s physical activity has, for many, been counterproductive [ 45 , 46 ]. Specifically, rather than this information being embedded into context to inform or tweak rich, movement-based education curricula (thereby demonstrating focality), it has led to a rise in physical education syllabi that mechanistically drive participants to reach pre-determined step counts, temporal duration thresholds or arbitrary running distances (thereby demonstrating commodification and conformity) [ 46 ].…”

“…Unfortunately, however, the generation of target-driven frequency and duration information about a child’s physical activity has, for many, been counterproductive [ 45 , 46 ]. Specifically, rather than this information being embedded into context to inform or tweak rich, movement-based education curricula (thereby demonstrating focality), it has led to a rise in physical education syllabi that mechanistically drive participants to reach pre-determined step counts, temporal duration thresholds or arbitrary running distances (thereby demonstrating commodification and conformity) [ 46 ]. While such programs may fulfil government targets that have been informed by data commodified by a device, they are unlikely to transform a child’s movement experience given their abstracted and deterministic undertones [ 45 ].…”

Health-related professional competence of physical education teachers: Narrative review and heuristic model

“…The health-related competences of pupils are an important predictor of a physically active lifestyle and are thus an important variable for public health. However, current research shows a variety of approaches to teaching health in PE (Harris & Leggett, 2015b;Palmer & Behrens, 2017;Ptack & Tittlbach, 2018). Mong and Standal (2019) described two didactic approaches to health-related PE, distinguishing between 'biomedical' and 'alternative'.…”