From the outside looking in it can be easy to feel disconnected and from the inside looking out it can be easy to forget everyone doesn’t see things the same way. Here are some thoughts from two educators on physical education, culturally sustaining practices and the place of mātauranga Māori in PE.
He oranga ngākau, he pikinga waiora.
Positive feelings in your heart will raise your sense of self-worth.
FROM THE OUTSIDE LOOKING IN:
A perspective from Heemi McDonald, an English teacher and an advocate for physical education.
As an adolescent, I think PE intimidated me. I’m not sure that’s the right word, but it conveys the sentiment. It wasn’t that I couldn’t do it or that I didn’t enjoy it. I think that I discovered early on that I was worried about being ‘found out’. What if I couldn’t climb the rope? What if I couldn’t climb it in the ‘required’ time? What if I couldn’t perform in the way that was required? What if I let someone else down?
I didn’t suffer from anxiety, stress or anything like that. By all accounts I was the scrawny white Māori kid in the class. None of these things stopped me from participating, but I always held back. In my mind, the performance culture of our PE classes was such that it created an environment where risk and failure might result in actual ridicule from others. This was not the intention of my teachers, but the ‘boys club – peak performance’ culture was damaging to my confidence and changed my relationship with physical activity.
Now this might have been all in my mind, however as soon as it was no longer compulsory I opted out. Some of you might even be thinking that I should have “hardened up” and just got on with it because I was missing out. You wouldn’t be the first to think or say it and you might be right. The thing is, I still showed up to every PE class and participated as best I could. The funny thing about all this for me is that I was a very active person up until High School. Football, Basketball, Touch, League, Kapa Haka, Softball, Karate. We were encouraged from a young age to be physically active and involved. Physical activity in all its forms was how we lived. If it wasn’t sports, it would be beach activities, work on the farm, eeling, camping or water activities. Community was an important element of our lived experience, and physical activity, fed into this experience.
Coming from a large family certainly contributed to the construction of my identity and my connection with physical activity. My siblings and I were active and tough on one another. We were all very different and we made sure that we reminded each other of that fact. I came to think of this as the whānau filter – the stuff only your family would say and get away with. It stung and made you mad, but the filter said that it didn’t matter because it was whānau and ultimately we would still manage to find our way through. Unfortunately, my experience with my High School PE classes began to erode my confidence in ways that meant I was no longer comfortable being involved in physical activities with my own family if it risked failure or letting others down. Your siblings can be some of your toughest critics, next to yourself, but prior to High School I was always able to place the whānau filter on the banter pile. Post High School, I was not so sure anymore.
The interesting thing for me, is that at High School, in all of my other learning I never felt this way. I might not have liked it or even been that good at it. But, something about my time in PE deeply affected that part of my identity. The risks associated with physical activity, particularly in public and with sports, had become so great that it became easier to just not participate and to avoid. My PE teachers were not bad teachers. What they failed to recognise was that my cultural identity couldn’t find a place to live in the PE class. How I had experienced physical activity and what I valued in it was never discussed, considered or developed. For me, it was either a ‘fit in’ or ‘be eaten’ kind of a thing. I had gone from a child that loved physical activity, in all its forms, to one that preferred to steer clear rather than be ‘discovered’.
My PE classes hadn’t caused this disconnection, but they had compounded an already crowded landscape of confusion and frustration. My home life was extremely complicated and I had kept hidden a disability and was fiercely protective of this. I refused to openly share that I was completely deaf in one ear because I didn’t want to be treated differently. The idea of PE and physical activity carried so much baggage now, I didn’t want a bar of it. I really didn’t give PE another thought in High School. I still remained active, I didn’t continue with any formal sports although I would play the occasional game touch on the lawn or indoor netball or volleyball. I liked to be physically active in the outdoors, but at all times I ensured the risk was low, especially where others relied on me to perform as a part of a team. Fortunately, or ironically, PE hadn’t given up on me and returned to my life in unexpected ways.
Given my strained relationship with physical education, I never would have thought that PE would continue to play an important part in shaping my identity and being heavily involved in my life. As it turns out, my wife is a PE teacher, her two brothers are PE teachers, my mother-in-law was a sports coordinator, my wife’s brother, uncles and cousins were All Blacks or Māori All Blacks, I have worked in schools where I co-taught with PE teachers, I now serve on the board of Physical Education New Zealand and I’m even coaching my daughters Year 5-6 netball team. It’s kind of hilarious when I think about it.
Now, as an outsider looking in, I would say that PE is such a powerful avenue for good in the lives of young people. Given what I have now observed from amazing practitioners, I wonder how my adolescent self would have fared during my formative years if only I was able to experience a little more of what I see today. One of my observations has been that, in the fight for relevance and place, PE as a subject has continued to evolve and grasp for the new and unexplored. I would characterise PE departments as just important enough. By this I mean, PE never really seems to be relegated to the boondocks as an ‘optional’ subject but then never really enjoys the status of ‘core’ or ‘compulsory’. It seems that there is a middle ground occupied by the PE departments in Aotearoa, won through continued and hard fought ideological battles. What I have also observed is that, perhaps due to this status, PE departments are primed to be able to better reflect the lives of their ākonga Māori through more than the Māori activity.
I wonder if for my PE teachers, they just didn’t know any better. I never really saw myself or my lived experience in my PE classes and don’t remember having access to ‘Māori activity’ or te ao kori. By ‘Māori activity’ I mean the thing that is designated in our PE classes as Māori – be that hand games, stick games, activities with Māori language embedded or ki o rahi. These activities appear to have grown in prominence in PE classes across the motu. In working with PE educators I have come to realise that below the surface, the introduction of Māori activities appears to be about trying to connect more deliberately to te ao Māori, mātauranga Māori and by extension to ākonga Māori. This action alone could have transformed my experience. What is clear to me now is that the relationship between myself as a learner and my PE teachers needed to be one built on reciprocal trust and respect. I would have benefited from the integration of mātauranga Māori and Māori ways of knowing and being in my learning experiences. I should have been able to expect it as a part of my learning in every PE class.
FROM THE INSIDE LOOKING OUT:
A perspective from Amy Kaukau, a PE junkie who loves to teach and be on the edge of innovation in PE.
I am a PE teacher because I absolutely loved PE when I was at school. I lived for my PE class. For me PE was about a sense of belonging. If I could do, and do well then I belonged. I grew up with 4 brothers and so in order for me to feel a sense of belonging in my own family I had to be able to participate in sports. Otherwise, I spent the afternoon at home watching my brothers go at it.
When I reflect on this now I realise this is also how I have made friends, through physical activity. As a student, I never really thought much of those kids at school who brought sick notes each week. I just thought they were lazy. I never really thought critically about the learning environment that existed – I mean what teenagers would – and I probably perpetuated some of the culture others found difficult.
It wasn’t until I went to uni and had a lecture with Kirsten Petrie who highlighted the environment that exists in a performative PE class. I had not once thought that maybe if the context changed or the learning objective changed then maybe the kids who brought the sick notes would participate and find joy. It was a catalyst of ‘aha’ moments which has continued to oscillate back and forth throughout my interactions in the classroom, which have contributed to the shift in my thinking about the purpose of PE. As a kaiako, armed with this new pedagogical approach I strive to ensure that all ākonga can find a sense of belonging within physical activity.
I have taught for 15 years now and have seen many kids who brought notes and excuses at the start of each year. Working together with them to find joy and a sense of belonging drives every conversation and interaction I have with them. I try to work together with them to help find their own joy and sense of belonging in the PE classroom. Now, as a kaiako, I often feel the greatest sense of achievement, when a kid stops bringing the notes and has found their place.
More recently, one of the things I have recognised is that my approach to building a sense of belonging tended towards homogeneity. I hadn’t considered that for my ākonga Māori, how I viewed a sense of belonging might have been seen as foreign or alien. It became apparent that for my ākonga Māori, a sense of belonging was not tied to a context or a concept or things that you could add to the ‘tool kit’. It also couldn’t occur unless I created an environment where culture was valued and sustained. This was no longer good enough.
As PE kaiako, we need to +1 our game. Learning more expansively about mātauranga Maori will build confidence and momentum. Māori knowledge and understanding has many layers and as a Pakeha kaiako it is a worldview that I may never fully understand or grasp. However, one of our most critical tasks is firstly acknowledging that a Māori worldview exists and second, that it needs to be integrated into our teaching practice where it can live and breathe. The relationship between mātauranga Māori and western knowledge does not need to be competitive or steeped in conflict. Looking for complimentary or alternative ways of viewing the learning experiences can only act to deepen the learning for our ākonga.
FROM SOMEWHERE IN THE MIDDLE:
Some of the things Heemi and Amy have learned about PE and where to next.
Even now, reading each other’s experiences has proven enlightening and confronting. We would acknowledge that our lived realities were so different and almost seem like they don’t belong in the same space. Co-teaching can be one of the great levelling agents in education. It can help teachers to recognise that their assumptions, positions or views might be wrong or different or foreign.
In 2020, Amy and I were fortunate enough to co-teach an English and PE module. Amy would probably characterise it as ‘Heemi’s dreams coming true’, but experience has taught me that it was probably the other way around. This wasn’t the first time I had been in this situation with PE and Amy had experiences connecting to a range of other learning areas. What we began to discover was that our worldviews and theories of practice started to impact both our teaching practice and professional skill development in learning design. Our module involved different types of physical activities including waterfalls, canyoning, the Hakaimata hike and zoom exercise sessions (thanks to the RONA). Being kaiako meant that both Amy and I had to demonstrate ako in a way that ensured our ākonga recognised that some things might be just as challenging for us as them. As well as this, our ākonga needed to understand that who they are mattered and that their values, views and perspectives were important and understood. We were able to use physical activities and movement to engage our ākonga, to support critical thinking and reflection through inquiry and have fun.
The tricky part as educators is that often these activities, and especially ‘Māori activities’ are meant to carry the whole of our efforts to provide a culturally sustaining learning experience for ākonga. The cultural identities of our ākonga are intimately affected by our practices in the classroom. What we do know, is that while the Māori activity is a good addition, on its own it will never be enough. It doesn’t matter if we find the holy grail of Māori activity. It will never suffice. We can recognise that often in the act of incorporating these activities in our lessons, we assume that Māori will engage when something Māori is put in front of them.
In PE, the realm of te ao kori has provided a deep and rich connection to te ao Māori. Arguably, our engagement with te ao kori has been to supplant the Māori activities into our lessons while negating the experiential aspects of mātauranga Māori. Perhaps we are doing the Māori activity but without a Māori frame of reference to explore the why, how, what, who and so on. In doing these activities are we thinking in a Māori way or viewing the world as Māori? Often the result is then, a real struggle to genuinely bridge the gap between aspects of te ao kori and the integration of mātauranga Māori in practice.
The integration of mātauranga Māori should be viewed as more than a single context, idea or value. Starting with contextually bound activities provides an access point, however, this then must be followed up by experiential learning opportunities where mātauranga Māori has a chance to be seen, heard, felt and understood. Connecting our understanding of mātauranga Māori to the notion of ‘in, through and about movement’ we are able to begin to see the potential for mātauranga Māori to permeate our programmes of learning in new and interesting ways.
“We learn IN movement by developing physical skills and experiencing enjoyment.”
- Here we are considering ways to highlight the importance of enjoyment, performance and participation. With a mātauranga Māori lens we might consider:
- Contexts which reflect Māori experiences or understandings.
- Relying on culturally sustaining pedagogies through which experiences are student centered and authentically connected to the lives of our ākonga.
- Māori values or social norms in relation to the enjoyment of and participation in physical activity, designing experiences that connect with whānau or mana whenua.
- Māori concepts or beliefs as they relate movement or physical development.
“By looking at different perspectives THROUGH our participation in movement, we are able to develop a range of capabilities.”
- Here we are considering ways in which ākonga develop the capabilities necessary to take on different perspectives. This may involve learning about or experiencing a different perspective in order for the learning to stick. With a mātauranga Māori lens we might consider:
- The role of Māori values or beliefs (tikanga) in shaping an understanding of the world, as well as how these values or beliefs are contrasted against other, non-Māori, frames of reference.
- The role of oral traditions in the transmission of perspectives.
- Utilising Māori activity or te ao kori as a way to immerse ākonga in experiences while aligning these experiences with Māori conceptual frameworks.
- Engaging with Māori scholars, kaumatua, mana whenua or whānau to share their perspectives.
- Design experiences in partnerships with Māori that enable students to see physical activity, movement or participation from the perspective of Māori.
“By learning ABOUT how and why people move, we come to understand what influences our own and others’ movement, as well as what has an influence on movement settings and trends.
- Here we might be considering ways in which the biophysical and socio-cultural are explored and connected to self and others. With a mātauranga Māori lens we might consider:
- The role of complementary understandings from te ao Māori which help to explore or explain the biophysical or socio-cultural in new or different ways.
- Thinking about the intersection between western knowledge and mātauranga Māori. It’s not about finding an equivalent, but exploring concepts or ideas which lead to a new or different understanding of both the biophysical and socio-cultural.
- Māori values related to movement and how tikanga might affect the way in which movement is performed, received, accepted or understood.
Another way of viewing the integration of mātauranga Māori might be as follows:
The diagram depicts the key elements to consider when integrating mātaranga Māori into your programmes of learning. The outer circle indicates that culturally sustaining pedagogies must be the foundation of our teaching practice and that the development of relationships is critical to the success of ākonga, particularly ākonga Māori. The inner circles relate to aspects that should be considered looking to connect mātauranga Māori to learning experiences. The table below is an extraction of the idea presented in the diagram. You can find a link to the table here.
As educators, the heightened sense of responsibility and obligation related to the status of mātauranga Māori in our learning programmes is likely to be interesting, confronting, rewarding, challenging, confusing and liberating. That is to say, that each school, each kaiako and each community will experience mana orite me te mātauranga Māori in different ways and with varying degrees of success. From the middle ground, we hold a unique position. We are able to push the boundaries of what is possible, to innovate, trial and implement. While most of what we have shared relates to a secondary context, the ideas permeate every experience a child has with PE, through their journey in education. We might think about the new entrant child still growing an understanding of their own body and the natural way in which movement forms every part of their being. Or the prepubescent tween fighting awkwardness and social constructs, forming identity and making sense of the emerging teenage world. Or the young adult, not quite a teen and not quite an adult. Their relationship with movement and physical activity has been influenced and constructed on the numerous experiences they have had through their schooling – come what may, they are almost certainly set for life. All of these children deserve to have experiences that reflect their uniqueness and value. They are entitled to kaiako that know and understand them and that are willing to do what it takes to see them succeed.
The important work for every PE teacher is to realise they have the ability and power to affect the lives of their ākonga in profound ways. We know better now than we did before, but we need to find a way to keep moving forward. Our work with mātauranga Māori is not about throwing everything out that we are already good at or that we have sorted. It’s about creating some parity in a relationship which, to date, has really been a relationship for one. The terms of our relationship with physical education need to be adjusted in order to make room for and honour our other partners in this work. As we do so, fewer ākonga will be disconnected and we will find greater success and a renewed satisfaction in our mahi.
Some Final Thoughts from Heemi
My relationship with physical education has well and truly transformed. I owe that, in part, to my wife. Even before I became a teacher, we would often talk about school, look at health and physical education resources and I was even subjected to the odd educational video (played in a VCR) about menstrual cycles or human anatomy. Our relationship is such that we were able to share this part of her experience in a way that allowed me to begin to form my own new experiences with PE. The other significant factor in shifting my understanding and perspectives about physical education was my move to Hobsonville Point Secondary School. It wasn’t so much the school, although that has had a profound impact on my teaching and view of education. It was being surrounded by amazing PE educators, all of whom loved their craft and embraced innovation and newness. They willingly shared, collaborated and learned alongside me. I never felt ‘othered’ or as if I didn’t get it. I had positive and mana enhancing interactions with PE teachers and academics all of whom have impacted my view about what it means to be a part of a physical education experience. (There are too many to name, but you know who you are – thank you!!!) Much to Amy’s dismay I’m sure, one of my greatest PE teaching moments was with Tome Chan Chui in our co-taught module MJ1000. This is where I think I realised the true potential of integration and connected learning experiences. I felt like a PE teacher and I’m sure Tome started to feel a little bit like an English teacher.
I take heart in the fact that, despite everything, I now see the whānau filter functioning again in my life which has restored some sense of balance and connection to physical activity. So much so, that when my whānau found out that I was on the board of PENZ the general consensus was – what the hell! We had a laugh, I shrugged it off and got to work.
Grassroots Education 