Secondary School Physical Education Content as a Political Text: A Theoretical Overview of the Power and Factors that Lead to the Social Construction of Physical Activity Curriculum.
Abstract
Much attention is being given to the physical activity engagement of youth in school physical education with the hopes that engagement in curricular physical activity will track into adults leading active and healthy lifestyles. Much scholarly attention has been given to a variety of areas and issues that inform physical education pedagogy. Far less research inquiry, however, has been paid to the dynamics and forces that inform how content and physical activities are selected for inclusion to the scope and sequence of programmatic curriculum at the secondary level. In this paper I overview the limited work in this area while suggesting additional factors and forces yet to scientifically examined, and do so from the perspective that curriculum is a socially constructed entity that can be read as a political text. Concluding comments suggest future lines of research resulting from the previous theoretical framework laid out.