Health and wellbeing: a policy context for physical education in Scotland

Abstract

The ‘Curriculum for Excellence’ (CfE) guidelines and associated learning experiences and outcomes have been developed following a national debate on the purposes of education in Scotland. The recent development shifts physical education's (PE) role in Scottish education, changing from contributing to the ‘Expressive Arts’ area of the curriculum, to one central to the newly created curriculum area of ‘Health and wellbeing’ in the CfE. This paper provides an analysis of the broader policy context at national and global levels examining the policy developments for PE in Scotland situating them within a globalised discourse emphasising concerns about ill-health and obesity within society. Drawing on the work of Bowe et al., the paper examines the context of production and the context of influence that has contributed to the recent development of ‘Health and wellbeing’ within the CfE. It is argued that the role for PE and the focus on schools promoting daily physical activity within the CfE masks the complexity of addressing the issues of health and well-being. In conclusion it is highlighted that in the interpretation and implementation of policy there will be further issues for PE and as yet unknown consequences for the context of practice and pupils' experiences of PE in Scotland.

Keywords:

• Curriculum for excellence
• Health and well-being
• Physical education
• Scotland
• Policy-making

Acknowledgements

Sincere thanks to Bob Lingard and to the two anonymous reviewers for their valuable suggestions on an earlier draft of this paper.

Notes

1. Within this paper, the period of curriculum review refers to the development of ACfE which took place between 2002 and 2008. Following a change in administration in 2007, the Scottish Executive was renamed the Scottish Government. After the review and post consultation period on the learning experiences and outcomes for each of the eight curriculum areas, the CfE was published in 2009. The CfE provides curriculum guidance for the 3–18 age range and replaces the 5–14 curriculum guidelines, which saw PE placed within the ‘Expressive Arts’ area of the curriculum.

2. No other subject area has any guidance provided for the time that could be allocated for lessons each week within the CfE. The guidance provided within the CfE is that schools should provide two hours of PE per week and facilitate one hour of physical activity per day. Given that the two hours suggested for PE in curriculum time will include changing and where necessary travel time to facilities, research indicates that of the time available less than two hours will be spent engaged in physical activity.

3. Given the expense of using isotopes of H and O the doubly labelled is currently only applicable in small studies, as water with the stable isotopes of 2H and 18O (rather than 1H and 16O) are ingested; 2H is eliminated as water while 18O is eliminated as both water and carbon dioxide. Mass spectronomy is used to analyse the disappearance of the two isotopes from samples of body fluid. The difference between the two elimination rates is therefore a measure of carbon dioxide production providing an accurate measure of total energy expenditure.