Health and wellbeing discourses in Norwegian education policy: using Bacchi's WPR method to understand problem representations

Purpose Norwegian education policy has recently emphasised the relationship between schooling and health. This study explores the discourses on health and well-being in policy documents to understand the problem representations. Design/methodology/approach This study adopts a discourse analysis. Bacchi's WPR approach is used to identify discourses in three policies (the Norwegian core curriculum and two related White Papers) as well as examine the underlying assumptions and presuppositions related to these representations. Findings Five distinct health discourses were identified in the documents, the most prominent of which was that health problems can hinder pupils' academic achievement and the social (and human) costs of young people's health issues. The impact of pedagogical practices on pupils' health and well-being is not prominent in the documents and pupil agency is narrowly emphasised. Research limitations/implications The findings illustrate that the school's role in promoting health is dominated by a risk reduction perspective and focus on pupils' individual qualification despite the curriculum being rooted in a Bildung tradition that strongly emphasises socialisation and subjectification. These findings call for a holistic perspective of health that promotes pupils' emotional, psychological, and social well-being (flourishing) as well as their agency. Originality/value Uncovering the contradictions between perspectives of health promotion and key principles for learning and development in the Norwegian curriculum and related White Papers can raise important debates about the potential implications for education policymakers and practitioners.