Maureen Legge

Outdoor learning in Aotearoa New Zealand: voices past, present, and future

Many of the principles and practices that have influenced outdoor education in Aotearoa New Zealand find their genesis in the United Kingdom and North America. In recent times, many of these foundational assumptions have been called into question. This paper highlights how emerging ‘local’ voices are questioning and reframing how outdoor education is conceptualised and practiced. In large part this is due to a sense of distinctiveness borne from the bicultural foundations that underpin governance and policy-making. This paper explores how outdoor educators are developing pedagogies that acknowledge the particularities of our context, particularly the bicultural foundation of Aotearoa New Zealand. The paper highlights how social and cultural influences shape educational policy and how outdoor educators are responding, both theoretically and practically, to meet the needs of learners in an increasingly diverse society.

Te Ao Kori as Expressive Movement in Aotearoa New Zealand Physical Education Teacher Education (PETE): A Narrative Account.

A unique aspect of Aotearoa/New Zealand physical education is the inclusion of Maori culture in the form of te ao kori. Te ao kori translates to mean the world of movement and is represented by the interpretation of indigenous movement, games and pastimes. Participation in te ao kori means the sports-based normative frame of reference for physical education is removed. What constitutes physical education is challenged by a movement discourse firmly grounded in Maori culture. In this paper I include historical detail about te ao kori and reflect on a ‘snapshot story’ drawn from my autoethnographic research about teaching te ao kori to physical education teacher education (PETE) students. The story is derived from eleven years of field experiences with PETE students in a gymnasium setting and is focused on te ao kori as expressive movement and dance. The story stands as an example of practical theorising important for pedagogy because it is the experiential case material on which pedagogic reflection is possible.

Outdoor Education in Rural Primary Schools in New Zealand: A Narrative Inquiry.

ABSTRACT This research examines teaching outdoor education in two rural primary schools in Aotearoa New Zealand. The aim was to give ‘voice’ to how outdoor education is taught, programmed and understood. Underpinning the research was the question: what factors enable/constrain teachers’ ability to implement outdoor education? The findings suggest: confusion about outdoor education terminology and the educative purpose of school ‘camps’; schools ‘do what they have always done’, particularly when decisions about outdoor education contexts are dominated by senior management; financial restrictions; and teachers feeling ill-prepared in terms of safety management because of their limited pre-service and post-service teacher education. This research highlights that what to teach, how to teach and where to teach outdoor education needs more consideration and attention for teachers to be better informed about safe outdoor practices and quality pedagogy in, for and about the outdoors.

Case study, poetic transcription and learning to teach indigenous movement in physical education

This article describes a case study designed to investigate some of the consequences of physical education teacher education (PETE) coursework to discern how students reinterpreted those experiences into their professional practice. In particular the article examines PETE student learning when teaching Māori 1 content, te reo kori – the language of Māori movement, in the context of Aotearoa New Zealand secondary physical education. Te reo kori required the PETE students to teach less familiar Māori movement subject matter and cultural knowledge, while stepping in and out of their dual role of student, and teacher. Interviews, participant observation and field notes were the sources of data. Special attention is given to the use of poetic transcription to place key PETE participants’ experience in a social and historical context; to give voice to their emotions, vulnerabilities, and actions; and to reveal something of their perceptions and practices.

A Pākehā Woman’s Journey Towards Bicultural Responsibility in Outdoor Education

This chapter highlights the application of being culturally responsive in outdoor education teaching and learning. The author draws on her lived experiences with Māori (indigenous people of Aotearoa New Zealand) to give insights into being a Pākehā (Māori term for people of European descent) woman taking a deliberative stance to include indigenous experience in the context of outdoor education in physical education teacher education (PETE). Legge uses personal narrative and stories as evidence to reflect on the inclusion of cultural experiences and the implications for Māori, the PETE students, and herself. The author draws conclusions with the recognition of some principles for outdoor educators who may be uncertain about engagement with indigenous perspectives in outdoor education.

Researching social justice and health (in)equality across different school Health and Physical Education contexts in Sweden, Norway and New Zealand:

The way school Health and Physical Education (HPE) is conceptualized and taught will impact on its ability to provide equitable outcomes across gender, sexuality, ethnicity, religion and social class. A focus on social justice in HPE is pertinent in times when these ideals are currently under threat from neoliberal globalization. This paper draws on data from the initial year of an international collaboration project called ‘Education for Equitable Health Outcomes – The Promise of School Health and Physical Education’ involving HPE and Physical Education Teacher Education researchers from Sweden, Norway and New Zealand. The data in this paper record the researchers’ presentations and discussions about issues of social justice and health as informed by school visits and interviews with HPE teachers in the three different countries. The analysis of the data is focused on what is addressed in the name of social justice in each of the three countries and how cross-cultural researchers of social justice in HPE interpret different contexts. In order to analyse the data, we draw on Michael Uljens’s concepts of non-affirmative and non-hierarchical education. The findings suggest that researching social justice and health (in)equality across different countries offers both opportunities and challenges when it comes to understanding the enactment of social justice in school and HPE practices. We conclude by drawing on Uljens to assert that the quest for social justice in HPE should focus on further problematizing affirmative and hierarchical educational practices since social justice teaching strategies are enabled and constrained by the contexts in which they are practised.