In 1993 the Ministry of Education in New Zealand identified health education, jointly with physical education, as one of the seven essential learning areas of the country's national curriculum. This article takes a critical look at some of the emerging issues during the construction and implementation of the new curriculum. Consultation is one of the vital ingredients for successful curriculum construction. It might reasonably be assumed that the views and opinions of children and young people would be sought, and that their issues and concerns might be taken into account during the process. Indications are that this does not happen; this article addresses the question of whose knowledge and what knowledge counts. The new curriculum identifies health with physical education as a single learning area. The author considers that it would be more suitable to position health with social studies, as the two subject areas have more complementary similarities between goals, processes and content.

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This paper discusses some of the data produced in the course of a research study that examined the perceptions that primary school aged children (7-13 year olds) had about their learning in health education. The study explored children's knowledge about their own health, their issues and concerns about health and health education and what they thought they should be learning about in health education at school. The research used mixed methods to collect data and several themes emerged that were central to listening to children and gaining their perceptions. The importance of understanding children and taking time to listen to what they were saying was the major theme and also the negation of children's views in favour of adult agendas. This study has shown that children have opinions and they also have something to say, and that what they have to say is worth listening to. Moreover, children possess knowledge that can contribute to classroom health lessons and health curriculum design.

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