In this chapter, the learning entitlement, defined as equitable access for all children to learn about health and physical education, is outlined in terms of the transition from the Australian Curriculum to state curricula. There have been developments to report since the third edition of this book was released. The Australian Curriculum: Health and Physical Education curriculum has moved through the stages of writing draft, consultation and was under review during 2021. An educative underpinning of physical education has been established. Viewing health from a strengths-based approach as a philosophy for working with individuals, families, groups, organisations and communities provides an ecological perspective. An ecological perspective incorporates the features of the strengths-based approach, which is based on the notion that most students are: healthy, safe, active and well.The approach to the key learning areas frames this strengths-based approach within the diverse features evident in most educational settings, with recognition of diverse factors such asculture; race; ethnicity; gender identity; and socio-economic status.

This chapter explores contemporary approaches to health education and health promotion, and investigates the research and theoretical underpinnings of these approaches. It aims to develop in the reader an understanding of the benefits of implementing a positive, strengths-based approach that builds on the competencies and resources of students and the community, to frame learning about personal, social and community health. The chapter reconnoitres the need for and recognises the value of embracing a holistic approach to health education and learning while acknowledging and appreciating the impact of social determinants of health on the capacity to implement behaviours conducive to health and wellbeing.

In contemporary times, the body of students in most schools reflects a diverse medley of race, class, gender, ethnicity, religion, ability, identity and sexual orientation. All these young people have a right to a quality schooling experience, as well as the knowledge, skills and understandings required for them to lead active and healthy lives. However, teachers are sometimes unprepared for managing this complexity let alone celebrate this diversity. Although the learning area has much to contribute to young people, physically, socially, emotionally and cognitively, research continues to show how teaching practices celebrate some students while marginalising and discriminating against others. So too, when health and physical education is influenced by the logic of neo-liberal individualism, students are made to feel responsible for their own health and are sometimes ‘blamed’ for their failure to perform particular skills or achieve particular kinds of bodies . However, with a focus on diversity, acceptance and inclusion, health and physical education can have an integral role in combating injustice and achieve the best outcomes for all students.

This chapter is focused on the continuum of motor development, from conception through to adolescence, and it describes the developmental pathway along which children travel on their way to achieving a range of movement skills. It outlines the links between the physical development of a child and psychological, emotional and later cognitive performance, and emphasises the importance of knowledge and an appreciation for developmental processes during the early years.

Scholarship on revolutions and on movements developed separately, but since movements are prime actors in revolution, the two fields were bound to converge. Movements and revolutions differ, but movements make revolutions, are their prime mover, and pilot the main mechanisms of revolutionary success.

The cultural turn in the social sciences has enriched social movement scholarship by emphasizing the framing of collective action, the construction of political identities, and emotion work. Together, these three approaches provide a more in-depth approach to social movements than pure instrumental approaches.

Over the course of the nineteenth century, the Qing dynasty faced one setback after another and its place in the world plummeted. At the beginning of the century, the memory of Qianlong's reign was still strong and Chinese goods such as tea and porcelain were in high demand around the world. The growth of its population since the beginning of the dynasty was taken as proof of success. Within a few decades, however, signs of serious problems were apparent to all. The most dramatic were the huge rebellions in the 1850s and 1860s, which caused massive destruction and loss of life. Added to this were progressively more damaging conflicts with foreign powers. Although China did not suffer outright colonization or dismemberment, after its defeat by the British in the Opium War of 1840 to 1842, foreign armies repeatedly proved themselves superior to the Qing's and the government had to make concession after concession. By the end of the century, Japan, too, having embraced Western technology and political practices, had become a dangerous adversary. Local elites took measures to protect their own communities and leading officials set out to reform military forces and introduce modern industries, but solutions proved elusive. Many began to question whether key elements of inherited culture and political practice would have to be abandoned.

Population growth and environmental degradation

Since the Tang period, China was almost always the world's most populous country. Indeed, China regularly had a greater population than all of the countries of Europe put together. Until 1700, population growth was slow everywhere in the world, never exceeding half a per cent per year for any lengthy period. Thereafter, populations through much of Eurasia began growing at more rapid rates, increasing 50 per cent or more during the course of the eighteenth century, probably as a result of a combination of such developments as global warming that lengthened the growing season, new crops increasing food supply, a reduction of disease after a period when increased global traffic had spread new diseases, and advances in state organization improving the delivery of relief in times of famine. In a small part of the world – western Europe – increased rates of growth were soon moderated by changed family practices, primarily later marriage and increased rates of celibacy.

From the rise of the modern state, social movements have grown up around the infrastructure of the state, shifting from traditional to modern forms of contention, using print and association to fortify themselves.

North and south China were reunited at the end of the sixth century under the short-lived Sui dynasty (581–617) and fashioned into an expansive, dynamic, cosmopolitan empire by its successor, the Tang dynasty (618–907). The reunification of north and south, the opening of the Grand Canal linking them, the creation of two huge capitals, and the expansion of interregional and international trade all stimulated economic growth. The Tang capital, Chang’an, grew to be the largest city in the world, housing perhaps a million people and attracting traders, students, and pilgrims from all over Asia. Especially before the massive Rebellion of An Lushan (755–63) brought to an end this era of expansion, the Chinese of the Tang showed themselves remarkably open to what other cultures had to offer. Music and art in particular absorbed considerable foreign influence, and Buddhism continued to be enriched by doctrines and rituals introduced from beyond Tang's borders.

Empire-building

The recreation of a huge Chinese empire in the late sixth century was not inevitable. By then the Chinese subcontinent had been divided into separate northern and southern states for over two centuries, each of which considered itself the true heir to the Zhou and Han dynasties. Given the geographical differences between north and south China, this situation might well have become a permanent one, like the division into eastern and western Roman empires in the West; the north and south could each have developed its own version of Chinese civilization.

However, the union of the north and south did occur, and the long-term consequences for Chinese civilization were profound. The centralized bureaucratic monarchy was refashioned on an even stronger basis than in the Han. This reunification and the resultant peace ushered in three centuries of cultural flowering. From then on those who thought about history had two examples from ‘modern’ times (the Han and Tang) that could be added to the three ancient dynasties (Xia, Shang, and Zhou) to prove the rightness of the unity of the Chinese world. Permanent division into independent states seemed less and less a natural, reasonable, or desirable state of affairs.