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In this paper, we utilise queering as a mode of critique to interrogate the ways in which the politics of liberal recognition (Povinelli, 2002, 2006) problematically shape how health education in New Zealand (NZ) schools responds to its bicultural obligations. We utilise queer theory’s orientations to problematise, confound and provoke notions of normalcy to engage with normative constructions of race as they are enacted in lateTHE CULTURAL POLITICS OF QUEER THEORY IN EDUCATION RESEARCHliberalism. Research findings from a case study on religious and cultural differences in school-based sexuality education are drawn on to problematise how the ‘cunning of recognition’ (Povinelli, 2002) shapes school-based health education’s responses to biculturalism. The deployment of the Māori concept of hauora in both the intended and operational NZ Health curricula (Ministry of Education, 1999) is critically …