How does physical education and health respond to the growing influence in media and digital technologies? : an analysis of curriculum in Brazil, Australia and New Zealand

The increasing use of media and digital technologies has been modifying how people think over and shape their physical activities and healthcare consumption. This growing trend has been reflected in school curriculum developments for Physical Education and Health. As educators and policy makers adjust local curricula to reflect these technological changes, there is a lack of knowledge on how these developments have been undertaken in different national realities. This study employ Media-Education theory and use content analysis to examine how media and digital technologies have impacted on the official Physical Education and curriculum documents from Australia, Brazil, and New Zealand. The findings show that there is a common assumption and emphasis that educators need to use technology to focus on thinking critically about media content. On the other hand, there was a lower emphasis on understanding media and technology as a language for social interaction and communication. In that sense, the results show little investment in the production and consumption of media content. Such findings highlight the need to evolve Health and Physical Education as a learning area so that it can provide students with the means to make critical and informed decisions about their health and physical activity needs.