An eroding social justice agenda: the case of physical education and health edu-business in schools

In this article, we draw on current research to explore notions of socially just health and physical education (HPE) programs, in light of claims that a neoliberal globalization promotes markets over the states and a new individualism that privileges self-interest over the collective good. We also invite readers to consider the UN Educational, Scientific, and Cultural Organization's ambition for physical education in light of preliminary findings from an Australian-led research project exploring national and international patterns of outsourcing HPE curricula. Data were sourced from this international research project through a mixed-methods approach. Each external provider engaged in 4 phases of research activity: (a) Web audits, (b) interviews with external providers, (c) network diagrams, and (d) school partner interviews and observations. We then used these data to pose what we believe to be three emerging lines of inquiry and challenge for a socially just school HPE in neoliberal times. In particular, our data indicate that the marketization of school HPE is strengthening an emphasis on individual responsibility for personal health, thereby elevating expectations that schools and teachers will “fill the welfare gap” and, finally, influencing the nature and purchase of educative HPE programs in schools. The apparent proliferation of external providers of health work and HPE resources and services reflects the rise and pervasiveness of neoliberalism in education. We conclude that this global HPE landscape warrants attention to investigate the extent to which external providers' resources are compatible with schooling's educative and inclusive mandates