Despite extensive critique, the teaching of Health and Physical Education (HPE) continues to be characterised by individualised and performative ideologies which are reflected in part by a continued focus upon fitness testing. There has been little attempt, however, to explore Australian HPE teachers' thoughts and reasoning for its privileged…

The teaching of health literacy in school-based health education (SBHE) is of international interest, yet there is less ready access to how conceptions of health literacy can be operationalised in school programmes. More specifically, while articulated in curriculum documents such as the incoming Australian Curriculum: Health and Physical…

The commercial media is an influential sociocultural force and transmitter of health information especially for adolescents. Instruction in critical media health literacy, a combination of concepts from critical health literacy and critical media literacy, is a potentially effective means of raising adolescents' awareness about commercial…

Health-related knowledge has been assumed to inform lifestyle choices for school-aged students. A "health-promoting school" provides the conceptual framework for this intervention. A large boarding school developed, implemented and refined a Nutritional Symbol System for their dining hall. The effectiveness of this social marketing…

This paper reports on the development and testing of a hybrid model of teaching games--The Style "E" Tactical (SET) Model. The SET is a combination of two pedagogical approaches: Mosston and Ashworth's Teaching Styles and Bunker and Thorpe's Teaching Games for Understanding (TGfU). To test the efficacy of this new model, the…

The draft Australian Health and Physical Education (HPE) curriculum (Australian Curriculum, Assessment and Reporting Authority [ACARA], 2012c) takes a strengths-based approach that emphasizes questions such as "What keeps me healthy and active?" rather than "What risks, diseases and behaviours should I learn to avoid?". This…

In 1914 opportunities for working-class women's sports participation were limited and peripheral, but the 1980s, policy reforms resulted in the then Sports Council identifying women as a "target group". Subsequently the notion that barriers to women's participation are issues to be identified and resolved has become commonplace in contemporary…

Health and physical education (PE) are low status, marginalised subjects in many schools internationally. However in New Zealand, Australia and elsewhere, they are concurrently credentialed and recognised senior high school options in which students can gain national qualifications. In New Zealand these subjects also tend to attract students who…

This article explores the ongoing evolution of a critical approach to teaching physical education in senior school physical education (SSPE) within a New Zealand context. The nature and development of SSPE is briefly discussed in order to contextualise a shift toward a critical pedagogy in light of recent curriculum changes that focus on…

In recent years, various scholars have expounded on the notable pedagogic work that assessment plays in educational contexts, describing its capacity to convey powerful messages on the valued aspect of education knowledge, impacting upon how and what students learn in these contexts. However, not many studies have sought to gain an insight into…