Health, the Body, and Movement: What Is Health and Physical Education For? A Critical Policy Analysis of Health and Physical Education Curriculum Policy in Aotearoa New Zealand, China, and Japan

This thesis examines the health and physical education (HPE) curriculum policies of Aotearoa New Zealand, China, and Japan to investigate how HPE is represented in each nation state. Global health discourses surrounding concerns such as obesity and physical inactivity among young people increasingly position schools as key sites of intervention and body regulation. HPE curriculum policy is a key vehicle that transforms such discourses into curricular aims, priorities, and expectations. Drawing on Foucauldian concepts of discourse, knowledge/power, and problematisation, this thesis combines Norman Fairclough’s textually oriented discourse analysis and Carol Bacchi’s “What’s the Problem Represented to Be?” approach to conduct a critical comparative policy analysis of HPE curriculum policy in Aotearoa New Zealand, China, and Japan. The analysis identifies different dominant discourses, each of which construct young people’s bodies in specific ways. In Aotearoa New Zealand, HPE curriculum policy constructs young people’s non-skilled bodies as a “problem” that may hinder the development of young people’s wellbeing. In China, HPE curriculum policies emphasise a performance discourse, which represents young people’s bodies as underperforming and requiring enhancement to achieve the national goals. In Japan, HPE curriculum policies highlight a problem-solving discourse that constructs young people’s bodies as deficient in problem-solving ability and in need of cultivation to meet future social challenges. The findings demonstrate that, although HPE is mobilised as a response to pressing health concerns, its purposes are framed by the socio-cultural, and political contexts in which HPE curriculum policies are produced. This thesis argues that HPE is not a universal learning area but a dynamic field in which educational purposes are constantly negotiated. More broadly, this thesis highlights the importance of interrogating policy as a key site for understanding the contested purposes of HPE and the role of education in shaping health, the body and futures of young people.

Name thesis:degree_name

PhD

Level thesis:degree_level

Doctoral

Discipline thesis:degree_discipline

Education

Grantor dc:publisher

ResearchSpace@Auckland

Year dc:date.issued

2026

Author dc:creator

• Deng, Jiayuan

Advisors dc:contributor.advisor

• Fitzpatrick, Katie
• Powell, Darren

• health and physical education
• curriculum policy
• body
• movement
• Foucault
• Aotearoa New Zealand
• China
• Japan
• culture
• discourse
• power
• knowledge

Statement dc:rights

• Items in ResearchSpace are protected by copyright, with all rights reserved, unless otherwise indicated.

Licence dc:rights.uri

• https://researchspace.auckland.ac.nz/docs/uoa-docs/rights.htm

Handle dc:identifier.uri

https://hdl.handle.net/2292/75404

OAI identifier oai:identifier

oai:researchspace.auckland.ac.nz:2292/75404