Constructing the ‘healthy’ student
A narrative review of the re-legitimisation of the biomedical discourse in physical education
Bibliographic Data
| ID | 21783680 |
|---|---|
| Authors | Pablo Saiz-González (0000-0001-6729-8065, Universidad de Oviedo, corresponding author), David Kirk (0000-0001-9884-9106, The University of Queensland) |
| Year | 2025 |
| Pages | 1-18 |
| Publication date | 2025-12-14 |
| Peer Reviewed | Yes |
| Open Access | No |
| Type | ARTICLE |
| Venue | Physical Education and Sport Pedagogy (JOURNAL) |
| Journal identifiers | ISSN: 1740-8989 • E-ISSN: 1742-5786 |
| Publisher | Informa UK Limited (PUBLISHER • GB) |
| DOI | 10.1080/17408989.2025.2603976 |
| OpenAlex | W7115180793 |
| Language | EN |
| References cited | 38 |
Background In recent years, health has re-emerged as a central justification for physical education, a shift reinforced by global curriculum frameworks and public health agendas. Across varied contexts, physical education is increasingly framed as a strategic response to global health concerns such as obesity, sedentary behaviour and mental illness. While several studies have explored how biomedical discourses manifest – even when not explicitly named – in policy, curricula, teacher education or practice, these contributions remain fragmented and often limited to specific national contexts.Purpose This study aimed to critically examine how the biomedical discourse is articulated, reproduced and legitimised in recent research on school-based physical education and physical education teacher education (PETE). Specifically, it sought to identify the underlying logic of this discourse and map its main consequences.Method A narrative review methodology was employed. Searches were conducted across three academic databases: Web of Science, Scopus and ERIC. A total of 42 peer-reviewed studies published between 2020 and March 2025 were included. Relevant data were extracted from each study’s results, discussion and conclusion sections, and organised into thematic categories. These categories informed the analytical structure of the findings. The analysis also focused on the discursive logic shaping representations of health, the body, socialisation and physical education.Findings The review identified an underlying logic that presents health as measurable, binary, and individually attainable through bodily optimisation. This framing encourages the regulation of students’ bodies, promotes visible effort as commitment to health, and assigns moral responsibility to individuals for improving their physical activity levels and biomedical indicators. As a result, hierarchies based on motor competence are reinforced, and lean, athletic, and physically able bodies are elevated as normative ideals. Six consequences were identified: (1) the medicalisation of physical education, (2) the spread of healthism, (3) the normalisation and surveillance of bodies, (4) student hierarchies based on fitness standards, (5) the prioritisation of physical activity quantity over learning, and (6) the reinforcement of hegemonic masculinity. Remarkably, some studies also highlighted moments of ambivalence or resistance to these discourses, suggesting that the biomedical dominance is never total.Impact Statement This study contributes to a deeper understanding of how the biomedical discourse could be shaping the aims, practices and power relations of physical education. It offers a basis for reflecting on what legitimises pedagogical decisions in the subject today and whether its growing alignment with public health agendas risks displacing the educational role of physical education
Discourse analysis · Narrative · Narrative review · Physical education · Children's Physical and Motor Development · Inclusion and Disability in Education and Sport · Physical Education and Pedagogy
Physical Education's Role in Public Health
Defining Physical Education (Routledge Revivals)
Norwegian Physical Education Teacher Education Students’ Perceptions of the Subject Physical Education
‘Get a butt like a rock’
Producing the well and skilled body
Secondary school students’ perception of health and teaching of health dimensions in physical education
The suffering of students in physical education. Unsettling experiences and situational conditions
‘You're not good’
Making sense of health in PE
What is health education within HPE? A critical analysis of curriculum in Aotearoa New Zealand, China and Japan
Structural Discrimination in Physical Education. The “Encounter” Between the (White) Norwegian Teaching Content in Physical Education Lessons and Female Students of Color's Movements and Expressions
Analysing Discourse
Traditional assessment and its consequences. A case in the hegemonic Physical Education
Body image in physical education
Making the familiar strange
The good, the bad and the ugly’
The politics of pleasure
Problematising young people’s bodies
The constitution of the ‘able’ and ‘less able’ student in physical education in Norway
Physical education across the international media
A discourse analysis of school girls engagement with fat pedagogy and critical health education
Problems created by the (un)clear boundaries between physical education and physical activity health initiatives in schools
Physical educator and/or health promoter? Constructing ‘healthiness’ and embodying a ‘healthy role model’ in secondary school physical education
Joe Wicks, lifestyle capitalism and the social construction of PE (with Joe)
A comparative analysis of discourses shaping physical education provision within and across the UK
Contesting discourses about physical education
Exercise is medicine’
Healthism and Physical Education
The fourth most important school subject’ – Norwegian school principals’ perceptions of physical education
Conceptualising and navigating bullying in English secondary schools
Healthism and the Medicalization of Everyday Life
| Citation velocity | historical |
|---|---|
| Highly cited | No |