Kirsten Petrie

Primary teachers, policy, and physical education

This article focuses on the challenges arising for primary school teachers who have responsibility for teaching physical education (PE) and who are working in particularly complex and contestable policy contexts. In New Zealand provision of physical education is identified as occurring amidst multiple, and not necessarily compatible, sets of expectations, associated with government priorities, initiatives focusing on children’s health, sport, and improved national achievement outcomes. This article examines the contemporary educational policy landscape, and the effect constantly shifting policy initiatives have on teachers’ work in physical education in primary schools. Key themes characterizing primary PE teaching/teachers’ situation currently centre on pressures to adhere to policies that have stricter accountability measures, the utilization of ‘external providers’, limited time for teacher learning and what appears to paralysis by policy. Discussion considers possible alternative approaches to the development of policy that would arguably better support teachers of physical education in primary schools.

Creating Confident, Motivated Teachers of Physical Education in Primary Schools.

This paper analyses the impact of a nationwide one-year physical education (PE) professional development (PD) programme on 25 generalist classroom teachers from 10 primary schools in New Zealand. This research specifically explores how a year-long PD programme, focused predominantly on general pedagogical strategies, supported in-service generalist teachers to use of pedagogies previously reserved to the classroom to enhance their PE practice, reconceptualise the place and purpose of PE, and shifted their perceptions of themselves as teachers of PE. Interviews, questionnaires, lesson observations and document analysis were used to investigate the impact a PD programme had on teachers’ knowledge and practices in PE. This research specifically explores how a year-long PD programme, focused predominantly on general pedagogical strategies, supported in-service generalist teachers to explore how the use of pedagogies previously reserved to the classroom support them to enhance their PE practice; to reconceptualize the place and purpose of PE, and shifted their perceptions of themselves as teachers of PE. It is concluded that generalist teachers benefit from PD opportunities that allow for the transfer of pedagogical strategies and skills from the classroom to the PE context. However, these learning opportunities should be balanced and connected with opportunities to develop content knowledge associated with PE.

Health and physical education in Aotearoa New Zealand: an open market and open doors?

Internationally, recent research has indicated that the health and physical education (HPE) curriculum has become at least to some extent ‘an open market’, with rapid growth in the number of external providers and diversity of resources targeted towards schools and teachers. This research acknowledges that the programmes and instruction offered by external organisations represents a significant change to the HPE landscape, albeit alongside an absence of research-based knowledge about the nature and extent of involvement of external organisations in the provision of HPE. The study examines and ‘maps’ the changing landscape of provision of HPE in Aotearoa New Zealand by exploring the number and type of HPE-associated programmes and resources ‘available’ to schools nationwide. It reveals an abundance of players in the ‘HPE market’. Analysis of data explores the composition of the providers, programmes and resources. Discussion considers the implications of the data in relation to HPE curriculum and pedagogy; who is deemed a legitimate teacher of HPE; and how policy and provision appear to be shaped by government and corporate voices.

HPE in Aotearoa New Zealand: the reconfiguration of policy and pedagogic relations and privatisation of curriculum and pedagogy

This paper centres on research that investigated the contemporary policy, curriculum and pedagogical landscape of Health and Physical Education (HPE) in Aotearoa New Zealand, in the light of increasing impressions that provision was moving to an ‘open market’ situation. Publicly available information sourced via the Internet was used to examine the public and privately funded initiatives, programmes and resources targeted towards the provision of HPE across all phases of education. The data arising revealed an array of government and non-governmental agencies and organisations acting as producers of resources and deliverers of HPE-related programmes in schools. It also clearly pointed to structural convergence between government and non-government sectors. This paper locates the findings from the research amidst developments in policy relations and networks spanning education, health and sport, and presents a theoretically oriented critical re-examination of the structural reconfiguration of contemporary HPE in Aotearoa New Zealand. Analysis brings together insights from Ball and Junemanns work on policy networks and Bernsteins theorising of the social construction of discourse to explore linkages between policy and pedagogic relations, and the discourses and practices in HPE. Attention is directed to the significance of changes in the nature of both the Official Recontextualizing Field and Pedagogic Recontextualizing field, and the connections between the two fields. Changes in the recontextualizing fields are discussed in relation to official pedagogic discourse of HPE and the pedagogic discourse of reproduction. This analysis brings to the fore prospective curriculum and pedagogic implications of new policy networks and new networks of providers associated with provision of HPE in schools. Discussion acknowledges potentially varied readings of contemporary developments and addresses the opportunities and challenges for teachers and teacher educators in Aotearoa New Zealand and internationally.

Enabling or limiting: the role of pre-packaged curriculum resources in shaping teacher learning

Pre-packaged curriculum resources that are purportedly designed to support teachers to deliver physical education in primary school settings have become prolific internationally. While both teachers and teacher educators use curriculum resources extensively, there has been little exploration into the effectiveness of resources in supporting teacher learning. The use of curriculum resources in one PD programme is used to illustrate the extent to which resources mediate teacher learning, acting as enablers and limiters for changing teacher practice, potentially both reskilling and deskilling teachers. The design and use of curriculum materials needs to be re-imagined in order to better support teacher learning.

Architectures of practice: constraining or enabling PE in primary schools

ABSTRACT To the outside observer, physical education in many primary schools, both in Aotearoa New Zealand and internationally, continues be practised in ways that students of the 1970s would recognise. The only significant change would arguably be the introduction of an increased regime of testing, and a narrower focus on physical health agendas. This is despite a large body of research, curriculum developments, and professional learning opportunities that have advocated for changing programmes and pedagogical practices to ensure that physical education is relevant and inclusive for all learners. I employ the theories of practice architectures and ecologies of practice that are detailed extensively in Kemmis, Wilkinson, Edwards-Groves, Hardy, Grootenboer, Bristol [2014. Changing practices, Changing Education. Singapore: Springer] and ecologies of practice [Kemmis, S., C. Edwards-Groves, J. Wilkinson, and I. Hardy. 2012. “Ecologies of Practices.” In Practice, Learning and Change, edited by P. Hager, A. Lee, and A. Reich, 33–49. London: Springer] to examine what constrains and enables transformative approaches to physical education in primary schools. In unpacking the cultural-discursive, material-economic, and socio-political arrangements that hold particular primary school physical education practices in place, I search for illumination about how to transform the conditions that reproduce particularly practices and the expense of transformative practice.

Working towards inclusive physical education in a primary school: ‘some days I just don’t get it right’

ABSTRACT Background: In Aotearoa New Zealand, as it is internationally, there is a desire to ensure physical education is inclusive of all students regardless of their abilities. Yet, medical discourses associated with disability continue to position students who are perceived as not having the capacity to participate fully in traditional physical education programmes as the teacher’s ‘helper’, ‘helped’, or ‘helpless’. As a result, these students may have negative experiences of physical education and this can impact on future involvement in movement-related activities within school and community settings. Methodology: Drawing on the data from a larger critical participatory action research project, we explore how one primary school teacher, Joel, attempted to work more inclusively within physical education. Specifically, we draw from personal journaling, student work and records of dialogical conversations to shed light on Joel’s experiences. Conclusion: Joel’s experience demonstrates that there is not one singular solution to inclusion within physical education and it is a combination of actions that support this process. In Joel’s case, this included becoming a reflexive practitioner, getting to know his students, being receptive as opposed to respective to difference in positive ways rather than seeing this as limiting, working imaginatively to reconsider what constitutes learning in physical education, and sharing ownership for curriculum design and learning with his students. Working in this way illustrates how a multi-layered approach can make a difference to how all the students in a class experience inclusion, including students positioned as disabled.

Enhancing Practice by Rethinking Practice

As interested practitioner/researchers, we often ask primary school–aged children, “What did you learn in physical education today?” Their response usually begins with, “We did . . .” and is finished as they describe the activities, games, or sports they did, such as high jump, cross-country, football, gymnastics, or fitness. When we endeavour to probe a little more about what they learnt about, “You did. . . . and what did you learn?” they stare blankly at us, with a look that suggests we are so stupid because they have already told us and we clearly did not understand them the first time. At the same time, we are equally disturbed by the lessons we frequently observe that have a very explicit learning focus on skills that seem to have little relevance to the present or future needs of children. For example, we recently watched 5and 6-year-olds spend 40 minutes learning the key techniques associated with galloping, and in a similar way we have observed lines of 11-year-olds waiting their turn to high jump. While we recognise that galloping is a functional locomotor skill and high jumping is a core athletic event, we are left pondering if these are the most important skills all children need to be learning? If they are not, then what should we be spending time on in our physical education programmes? How often will these children gallop or use their high jumping skills as they transition through school and into adulthood? Our interactions with teachers (generalist and specialist) do not always help alleviate concerns about the focus of lessons or lack of explicit learning embedded in primary school physical education, and more frequently highlight how focused teachers are on the sports, games, or fitness-based activities that appear to dominate planning for physical education in primary schools. These frequent interactions make us ask: Why is it that students can articulate their learning in maths, reading, and writing, but predominantly only describe their doings when discussing physical education; are we focused on planning for activity as opposed to planning for learning; what is the focus of the learning in our programme, and is this learning important for them now and in their futures; and what do we need to do as teachers of physical education to remedy this situation and change the responses of students? This chapter goes some way to exploring these questions. 13 ENHANCING PRACTICE BY RETHINKING PRACTICE

EPER special issue – Primary physical education

The physical education community has always placed value on the role physical education in the primary school plays in the development of young people. Nevertheless, this phase of education, and specifically physical education delivered in countries where generalists lead learning, has not received the same attention in the literature as the secondary or tertiary phases. Instead, what often appears to occur is that theories and practice from research in secondary and specialist-led physical education is ‘filtered’ down and adapted in order to support understandings and learning in primary school settings. At this time, governments internationally are interested in ‘exploiting’ physical education as a space to achieve a range of political agenda goals, and the voices of people from outside the education spectrum, for example politicians, economists, epidemiologists and celebrity ‘experts’, are ‘heard’ more than researchers whose core business is this field. Therefore we believe it is timely and important to provide some dedicated space to consider primary school physical education, where many well intentioned ‘initiatives’ are targeted. In this special issue we have a collection of six articles that explore a range of issues of contemporary relevance to our field. Gavin Ward and Gerald Griggs explore the memes that have and continue to shape how physical education in primary schools is presented. Building on the work of Tinning (2012), Ward and Griggs suggest that primary school physical education is a cultural practice where the memes of sport as techniques; anyone can teach it; busy, happy and good; and physical education as less important, shape and reaffirm current practices. We celebrate a return to an explicit focus on effective teaching and its contribution to student learning in the paper presented by Ermis Kyriakides and colleagues from the University of Cyprus. Their work makes a unique contribution by focusing on how the thoughtful integration of generic and content-specific teaching practices could be used to enhance teaching effectiveness, and in doing so benefit student psychomotor learning in primary physical education. Melissa Parker and her colleagues from Ireland ask us all to consider how children understand and make sense of ‘their’ in-school physical education experience and what they engage with as

‘Physical education’ in early childhood education: Implications for primary school curricula

Children’s physical education in early childhood settings has always been underpinned by an emphasis on play. This is viewed as foundational for child development (movement education, cognitive growth, socialising functions, emotional development). However, where priorities about childhood obesity prevail, increased ‘prevention’ efforts have become targeted at primary and pre-school-aged children. It could be argued that early childhood education has become another site for the ‘civilising’ of children’s bodies. Drawing on data from a questionnaire completed by 65 early childhood education centres in Aotearoa New Zealand, we examine the play and physical education ‘curriculum’ and what this may mean for pre-school children’s views of physical activity and health. In light of the evidence that suggests pre-school physical education programmes reinforce achievement of a certain restrictive and narrow model of physical health and activity, we explore the implications for primary school physical education. In doing so we consider how teachers of physical education in primary schools may need to reconsider the curriculum to support young children to regain enthusiasm for pleasurable movement forms that are not centred on narrowly perceived notions of the healthy or sporting body.