Contemporary Issues in Early Childhood Experiences and outcomes of preschool physical education: an analysis of developmental discourses in Scottish curricular documentation

This paper provides an analysis of developmental discourses underpinning preschool physical education in Scotland’s Curriculum for Excellence. Implementing a poststructural perspective, I examine the preschool experiences and outcomes related to physical education, as presented in the Curriculum for Excellence ‘health and wellbeing’ documentation. I interrogate the ways in which developmental discourses are evident throughout this and related documentation and how these discourses might ‘work’ to produce specific effects on practitioners and children as they are deployed and taken up in Scottish preschool education contexts. This analysis involves speculating about potential consequences for practitioners’ and children’s experiences and subjectivities. In conclusion, I suggest that practitioners should critically engage with the curriculum, as uncritical acceptance of the discourses underpinning it could lead to practices that may have negative consequences. Furthermore, I propose that future research should investigate the ways in which the discourses privileged in the Curriculum for Excellence ‘health and wellbeing’ documentation are taken up and negotiated in Scottish preschool settings.