Background: This paper presents a counter-narrative to the long-held belief that Physical Education (PE) is impermeable to change. Transforming and enacting curriculum is incredibly challenging and sometimes impossible but if teachers have particular resources available to them over time, this makes 'radical reform more, rather than less likely'…

Purpose: The purpose of this conceptual article is to explore how Bernstein's concepts can further our understanding of the internal structure of knowledge informing physical education (PE) and the transmission of knowledge from its site of production into the school subject. In the process of constructing a school subject, knowledge is chosen and…

Background: Student participation in curriculum negotiation has been widely regarded as beneficial for student engagement, motivation, and learning. Within the physical education (PE) context however, several scholars claim that these benefits are seldom realized. Interestingly, most investigations into curriculum negotiation in PE focus on…

Background: The notion of carry-over value of certain physical activities has long been a preoccupation for physical education (PE) curriculum planners, one goal of PE being to prepare students for an active lifestyle in their adulthood. This goal is reinforced by the fact that over the last decade, there has been a considerable increase in…

Background: In Australia, Initial Teacher Education Institutions (ITEIs) provide undergraduate Health and Physical (HPE) programmes that meet a number of regulatory requirements, including those of the Australian Institute for Teaching and School Leadership (AITSL) and the Tertiary Education Quality and Standards Agency (TEQSA). In addition, ITEIs…

Background: Wisdom holds that healthy and fit citizens ensure more successful national development plans. In its transition to a knowledge-based economy (Vision 2030), Saudi Arabia is depending on women's contributions and leadership. But Saudi females have historically lacked access to physical education or sports as evident in their compromised…

Background: Sport Education (SE: Siedentop, D. 1994. "Sport Education: Quality PE through Positive Sport Experiences." Champaign, IL: Human Kinetics) remains the most researched of all the pedagogical models and thus has the strongest body of evidence that it has the potential to deliver on psychomotor, cognitive and affective student…

Background: The world experienced challenges due to the COVID-19 pandemic which resulted in school closures across the globe in early 2020. Schools pivoted to remote delivery of learning using a variety of online and offline resources. PE is vital in providing motor development opportunities for children and it is essential to ensure that the…

Background: More and more children are experiencing what have been termed adverse childhood experiences. An individual's response to these stressful events determines whether or not they are considered traumatic -- whereby the experience is so overwhelming that it engulfs their coping mechanisms leading to lasting negative effects on wellbeing.…

Background: Contemporary scholarship calls for the Health and Physical Education (HPE) profession to pay attention to the practical translation of the critical agenda. Whilst invitations to criticality have featured in HPE scholarship for decades, there have been limited attempts to explore how the critical agenda translates into practice in HPE.…

Background: Curriculum for Excellence, a new national policy initiative in Scottish Schools, provides a unified curricular framework for children aged 3-18. Within this framework, Physical Education (PE) now forms part of a collective alongside physical activity and sport, subsumed by the newly created curriculum area of "Health and…

Background: Achieving teacher change and the lofty goals of educational reform initiatives necessitates professional development (PD) designed to help teachers rethink their practice. A key implication for physical education, therefore, is that PD must be organized in ways that utilize teachers' voice, providing opportunities for teachers to build…

Background: Many critical curriculum theorists in physical education have advocated a model- or models-based approach to teaching in the subject. This paper explores the literature base around models-based practice (MBP) and asks if this multi-models approach to curriculum planning has the potential to be the great white hope of pedagogical change…

Background: Senior secondary physical education courses for certification continue to evolve with curricula reform occurring to ensure content is contemporary, student learning outcomes are maximised and assessment practices are valid for determining certification of students. The content of examinable senior secondary physical education courses…

Background: Among the many changes occurring across Chinese society in the early years of the 21st century has been the construction and implementation of a new national curriculum which includes physical education (PE) as one of the main subject areas. Unlike the old PE curriculum with its sports performance-oriented criteria, the new curriculum…