Room for interpretation:

Abstract

In school physical education (PE), there seems to be a lack of information on what pupils should learn. Curricula do not seem to define teaching aims clearly. As a result, it will leave room for teachers to interpret how and what they want to teach.

Since, focus on health has increased a new view of looking at health has developed. This view means that through individual exercise a slender and slim shaped body will be achieved and maintained. This view of looking at health is called healthism.

The purpose of this thesis is to see how health and PE are represented in the Danish and Swedish PE curricula in upper secondary schools – as in defined and hidden meanings. As an insight, this information is important for teachers as they will see what sort of hidden information the curriculum carries and how this might affect their teaching. The three key foci that will be explored, through critical discourse analysis are health, physical education and the body.

The result has shown firstly, that there is a relationship between the body, health and physical education in the curricula. Secondly, this leaves room to believe that teaching will be based on the view of the healthism.

The main conclusion is that there is lack of information in both the Danish and Swedish curricula about what pupils should learn. However, how the body, health and physical education are related to each other differ: In the Danish curriculum it seems that PE is connected to lifestyle, while in the Swedish curriculum, lifestyle is connected to health. This leaves room for teachers to interpret what the curricula says and will in turn give different teaching outcomes.