Health Literacies: Pedagogies and Understandings of Bodies

The development of health literacies, in relation to health, well-being, safety and physical activity, is a key pillar of the "Australian Curriculum: Health and Physical Education". Implications, therefore, arise for teachers of health and physical education (HPE) and their pedagogical practices. These practices of HPE inform ways of thinking, the acquisition of dispositions and constitution of subjectivities. They also impact on student success and positioning in relation to societal and cultural assumptions. We argue that bodies, including how they move, are exercised, nourished, represented and understood, should be central to pedagogies for developing health literacies. In this paper, we use interview and media excerpts to explore pedagogical practices and understandings in relation to bodies. We attempt to analyse practices of the body as they relate to health literacies. In arguing for socially critical pedagogical practices around bodies, we highlight the need to develop critical health literacies that disrupt common sense readings of "acceptable" and "desirable" bodies as lean, youthful and able-bodied. We conclude by identifying implications for pre-service teacher and in-service teacher education around the development of socially critical pedagogical practices and health literacies.