Neoliberalization of Physical Education: Analyzing New Jersey Physical Education Policy

• In Event: 34.079 - Roundtable Session 14
  In Roundtable Session: 34.079-4 - Political and Attitudinal Experiences Related to Physical Education

Abstract

Macdonald (2011) claimed physical educators are like a ‘fish in water’ in neoliberal settings. Despite the overarching influence of neoliberalism on education policy in the United States (e.g. Apple, 2005; Apple, 2006; Ball, 2012), there has been very little interest in how neoliberalism is shaping United States physical education policy. In this paper, the author uses critical discourse analysis (Mills, 2004) to investigate New Jersey policies related to physical education. Using Deleuze and Guattari (1987), the author examines how students’ bodies and desire are constructed in physical education policy. In so doing, the claim is made that an underlying purpose of physical education policy in New Jersey is to perpetuate discourses of neoliberalism and structural inequalities.

Author

• Dillon Landi, Towson University