Abstract:
This paper draws on a comparative review of two different curricula focused on health and physical education in schools. It compares and contrasts the orientations towards literacy as way to consider the associated practices. The building of understanding about these literacy practices and how each curriculum argues that they can be applied to ‘real’ situations that students (might) experience is set against the social construction of health.The reference to literacies in previously unassociated or unexpected educational domains is the result of a change of view from literacy as a neutral and technical skill to literacy as a social practice. Thus literacy is an ideological practice, it is implicated in power relations, and has specific socio-cultural meanings and practices.