Postmodern Youth Culture and the Crisis in Australian Secondary School Physical Education

In this paper we claim that there is a crisis in Australian secondary school physical education. The crisis is evident in, among other things, the fact that school physical education is irrelevant or boring for many adolescents. The curriculum does not excite or stimulate adolescents who outside of school live in what might be called a postmodern youth culture, inextricably shaped by television and the information society. A contradictory, and ironic, aspect of the crisis is that many of the adolescents bored with school physical education see physical activity as significant to their lifestyles outside the school context. We provide a tentative analysis of this trend and draw on our experiences in a curriculum development project to discuss the need to consider a curriculum that is relevant and engaging for postmodern youth. We argue that this requires more than providing entertaining classes or better teaching: It requires a rethinking of the nature of school physical education.