ABSTRACT
In this chapter, we examine the contested nature of curriculum in examination and senior secondary physical education. We explore the content and structure of curriculum and illustrate the profound impact that structural characteristics have on the discourses that are dominant or in contrast, peripheral, in contemporary examination and senior secondary programs in schools. Our analysis reveals commonalities and divergences in curriculum documents across a variety of international and state boundaries and directs attention to the significance of particular features of official texts for the possibilities and constraints they pose for teachers. Drawing on contemporary curriculum theories we reveal complex inter-relationships between curriculum texts produced by government, other agencies and teachers in schools, and examine the ways in which policy and institutional contexts impact curriculum policy and practices. We use concepts introduced in Chapter 2 to particularly pursue the forms of movement and types of movement experience that are legitimated by contemporary curricula.
