ABSTRACT
In this chapter we explore the construction and reception of a critically oriented Australian Curriculum: Health and Physical Education (AC:HPE). We begin with a review and mapping of sociocritical perspectives in the Australian HPE curriculum documents of the 1980s and 1990s, and the research of sociocritical scholars informing the design and implementation of these. We then introduce two analytic concepts: principled position and threshold concepts (Cousin 2006; Hunter 1994; Meyer, Land, and Baillie 2010), which provide a useful lens through which we can understand and respond to the journey of the most recent iteration of a critically oriented AC:HPE. In conclusion, we contend that sociocritical perspectives pose a source of troublesome knowledge and, as a result, are particularly sensitive to the principled positions that stakeholders adopt in their efforts to influence the intent, knowledges and practices of HPE in schools.
