Sustainable development in Norwegian physical education: a document analysis of curriculum reform and design

Norway instituted a renewed national physical education curriculum in 2019 after an extensive process of stakeholder participation. Given the increasing focus both on climate change and the United Nations’ Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs) in recent years, it is important to investigate how sustainable development (SD) is represented in this curriculum. Thus, the purpose of this study was to examine how SD is represented in five documents related to the Norwegian physical education curriculum reform and design. The SDGs functioned as a lens through which to conduct this document analysis. Results suggest that while multiple aspects of SD were addressed throughout the policy documents behind the reform, explicit references to SD were limited in the resulting physical education curriculum. This suggests that the Norwegian physical education curriculum may benefit from a more comprehensive approach to SD for aligning with the core curriculum and legitimizing physical education in schools of the future.