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Te ao Maori is about keeping our traditional Maori stories alive in our current world, respecting Maori tikanga (customs, values, protocols) and treasuring the use ofte reo Maori. It is important to honour the Tiriti o Waitangi as the strongest rationale and framework for guiding our cultural responsibility to Maori (Ministry of Education, 2011). In this paper, I discuss our University of Otago College of Education (UOCE) students'attempts to integrate te ao Maori (the world of Maori) into quality physical education fortamariki (children).
Here is an idea that UOCE second year primary teacher education student teachers carried out as part of their curriculum Physical Education paper. They taught physical education (PE) to tamariki from two local primary schools, St Francis Xavier and St Brigids. The teaching was carried out in four two hour sessions (in the student teachers' workshop classes) at the College of Education's indoor facilities. In UOCE curriculum PE classes, student teachers had learnt about adventure based learning (ABL) and how to include te ao Maori into PE. The student teachers' challenge was to connect te ao Maori with the context of ABL when teaching tamariki.
The ABL learning approach was favourably received by tamariki, where the 'adventure' was in the form of thoughtfully sequenced games and activities with the aim of further developing personal and social skills (Schoel, Prouty & Radcliffe, 1988). The key components, around which games and activities were planned, were fun, trust-building, goal-setting, success for all, challenge and problem-solving. The use of the process of de-briefing and reflection was carried out in the hope tamariki would transfer any new learning to future experiences (Luckner & Nadler, 1992). ABL is a part of the key area of learning (KAL) of'Outdoor Education'and "provides students with opportunities to develop personal and social skills, to become active, safe and skilled in the outdoors, and to protect and care for the environment" (Ministry of Education, 1999, p.47). Even though this session was indoors the student teachers were able to wero (challenge) tamariki to fully participate in valuable learning experiences.
The natural inclusion of "te reo Maori me öna tikanga" (Ministry of Education, 2007, p.9) was to prove to be meaningful for tamariki, with the ABL methodology promoting: manaakitanga (a caring and supportive learning environment);...