Abstract:
Australia's education system has undergone major reform with the introduction of the staged Australian Curriculum during the early part of the 2010s. One of the subjects designated for development in the Australian Curriculum was Health and Physical Education (HPE). The aim of this research was to examine the understandings, attitudes and intentions of regional secondary physical education (PE) teachers in relation to the Australian Curriculum: Health and Physical Education (AC:HPE).
A qualitative research approach utilising narrative inquiry (Clandinin and Connelly, 2000) was approved by the relevant ethics committees to gather data from teachers in secondary schools in NSW and Victoria. The choice of locations offered an opportunity to gather data from two different education systems. Conversations were conducted in 2016 with HPE teachers from two regional secondary schools in Australia. Narrative inquiry allowed for the collection and investigation of the participants’ stories and beliefs and allowed the HPE teachers to express their understandings and experiences while they were engaged in the curriculum change process.
To analyse the narratives, Smith and Sparkes (2008) twin lens approach of “The Story Analyst” and “The Story Teller” was used as a framework. The conversations from the participants include the capacity of the HPE teachers in understanding the AC:HPE, their attitude towards the AC:HPE and their intent with regard to implementing the AC:HPE within their school practice. From the conversations obtained consideration was then given to HPE teachers’ lived experience in curriculum change.
This presentation developed from this research will convey and discuss the HPE teachers’ accounts of their lived experience of curriculum change in understanding and implementing the AC:HPE. Explorations will focus on the findings from the narrative inquiry - HPE teachers’ reading and understanding of the AC:HPE, their attitude towards education change and their intent with regard towards the implementation of the AC:HPE.
This study was significant in that it occurred at a unique time in Australia’s education system with the realisation of the nation’s first national curriculum. It contributed knowledge to an area of HPE research that has, in the past, received little scholarly attention. Furthermore, it gives insight into the mind-sets of HPE teachers early in the process of curriculum development.