Abstract
With claims that neo-liberalism is the ‘specific defining political/economic paradigm of the age in which we live … ’ [Apple, Michael. 2006. Educating the ‘Right’ Way: Markets, Standards, God, and Inequality. New York: Taylor & Francis, 14.], an invited symposium at the 2012 International Convention on Science, Education and Medicine in Sport (ICSEMIS), under the auspices of the Association Internationale des Ecoles Superieures d'Education Physique (AIESEP), sought to consider if, globally, physical education has been touched by neo-liberalism. Entitled School Physical Education Curricula for Future Generations: Global Patterns? Global Lessons? the symposium featured six speakers from Africa, Australia, Korea, New Zealand, UK, and the USA. Each of the speakers articulated the impact of instantiations of neo-liberalism on their countries’ physical education curricula, resources, practices, status, and teacher education. The speakers’ accounts suggest ‘the indigenization of neoliberalism in different places, the spatial unevenness of its spread, and … its articulations and intersections with other political-cultural formations and governing projects … .’. [Kingfisher, Catherine, and Jeff Maskovsky. 2008. “Introduction the Limits of Neoliberalism.” Critique of Anthropology 28 (2): 115–126.]