Producing the well and skilled body: a critical discourse analysis of health and physical education curriculum policy in Aotearoa New Zealand

Background Aotearoa New Zealand is about to embark on a re-write of the official, national, health and physical education curriculum for all primary and secondary schools. This is a significant moment in policy history as the previous most recent curriculum updates occurred in 1999 Ministry of Education. Citation1999. Health and Physical Education in the New Zealand Curriculum and 2007 Ministry of Education. Citation2007. The New Zealand Curriculum. In the latter rewrite, health and physical education was combined with all other learning areas into one policy document called The New Zealand Curriculum (NZC). In light of this imminent shift, we have undertaken a discourse analysis of the current 2007 health and physical education curriculum in order to gain insight into what driving concerns, discourses and pedagogical imperatives were privileged in that document, how we might understand those within their related social and political contexts, and what insights such an analysis might offer this moment of curriculum review.