Movement education, as a curriculum concept for physical education at the elementary school level, was interpreted by using a framework drawn from critical theory. More specifically, critical theory was used to develop an interpretation of movement education as it was presented in selected physical education literature during the period from 1960 to 1980. Critical theory was chosen as the mode of analysis because it requires that curricular ideas be examined within the social and historical context that gives them meaning. Included within this context are the human interests in control, understanding, and emancipation (Habermas, 1968; Macdonald, 1973, 1977a, 1977b), which are manifested in 11taken-for-granted" social arrangements involving issues of power, knowledge, gender, and others that point to the liberation or oppression of people or ideas (Anyon, 1979; Apple, 1976, 1979; Giroux, 1980, 1983)
