HPE and the moral governance of p/leisurable bodies

Abstract

Contemporary notions of good citizenship and proper living have become intimately related to the pursuit of good health. Consequently, modern states have devised programmes of education and training that endeavour to provide apprentice citizens with the knowledge, skills and attitudes required to enhance their own and others health and wellbeing. These strategies, deployed through institutions such as schools, contribute to the moral regulation of subjects, focusing as they do upon the moral and ethical practices of the self. Contemporary Health and Physical Education (HPE) claims to have an explicit and significant role to play in this endeavour. HPE research suggests the profession values its moral education role, believing the field has something unique to offer in this regard as a result of its special teaching and learning environments, subject matter and caring teacher–student relationships. Nonetheless, the profession has been criticised for failing to provide adequate theoretical and empirical support regarding the role of HPE as a moral enterprise. This paper draws upon a Foucauldian genealogical analysis of twentieth century programmes of Queensland HPE to provide an alternative response to this challenge. In this paper we contend that HPE's capacity to operate as a mechanism of social and moral training relies not on any one special dimension, but through the orchestrated deployment of its subject matter, learning environments and caring teachers, as the definitive governmental technologies of the HPE apparatus.This paper first traces HPE's lines of visibility and enunciation, establishing its subject matter and learning environments as the foundational coordinates of the HPE apparatus. Secondly, we explore the constitution of power/knowledge relationships within HPE and the manner in which truth games have emerged and are deployed within the HPE apparatus. Through a mapping of HPE's lines of subjectivity we suggest that HPE teachers have been incited to constitute themselves as agents of pastoral power and have joined a privileged group of pedagogues who have been allocated the responsibility for training subjects in particular arts of living. In light of this argument, we focus upon the contemporary significance of these teachers’ capacity to create caring relationships with their students. In conclusion, we raise some implications for the profession in light of this Foucauldian perspective and provide a possible explanation underpinning the profession's claims concerning the moral education of young people.