Contested Identities: A Comparative Analysis of the Position and Definitions of Physical Education in National Curriculum Developments in England and Wales and Australia

Initiatives in recent years aimed at establishing ‘national curricula’ have drawn renewed attention to the contested nature of the curriculum ‘as a whole’ and subjects within it. This paper addresses national curriculum developments in England and Wales and Australia to explore this contestation in relation to the location and content of physical educationwithin school curricula. The paper examines both the explicit and implicit definitions of, and frameworks for, physical education provided in these developments. It pursues the reasons underlying the establishment and reinforcement of particulardefinitions of physical education and in so doing highlights the different status accorded to particular interests in and views of the subject. Political, ideological and economic issues at play in the formulation and implementation of policy are vividly illustrated, and attention is drawn to the significance of the “arrangements for policy” (Hill, 1980) in the shaping of ‘policy’ and ‘practice’ in education.