Sacred ties and fresh eyes: voicing critical public health perspectives in curriculum-making

Abstract

It behoves the Australian Curriculum: Health and Physical Education (HPE) to provide an education for children and young people that accounts for future trends and new health challenges, but what such a curriculum should look like is a challenge in itself. As the Lead Writer of the curriculum’s background Shape Paper, supported by an Advisory Panel under the auspices of the Australian Curriculum, Assessment and Reporting Authority, I will outline and reflect upon where HPE may be heading in Australia with a focus on its relationship to public health. ‘Sacred ties and fresh eyes’ reminds us that some of those providing input, commentary and exerting influence over curriculum directions have an enduring sense of what the curriculum should address while others are looking for new ways of seeing health education. An ensuing dilemma is that new ways of seeing may not have the accumulated evidence of traditional practices nor the authority of programmatic, biophysical research. Rather they are informed by a constellation of factors, including research that provides a persuasive and credible solution in the eyes of many. Bernstein’s concepts of field, classification and frame are useful for making sense of the patterns of power and influence in the curriculum-making exercise.

Keywords:

• health education
• school
• curriculum