title: Integrating education for sustainability into secondary science classes: Practices and perceptions of New Zealand teachers

authors: Gundersen, Mandy

abstract: Global challenges like climate change and biodiversity loss necessitate a collective shift towards sustainable living. Education for Sustainability aims to equip students with the essential knowledge, skills, attitudes and agency to meet sustainability goals and forge a better future. It is a holistic approach, yet single-subject school structures at the secondary level mean it must be integrated into subjects such as science. However, there is limited research, particularly in New Zealand, on how this integration is practiced in secondary science classes.

Grounded in an interpretivist paradigm, this study interviewed five New Zealand secondary science teachers to understand their conceptualisations of sustainability and sustainability education. It explored how their understanding was translated into practice through detailed descriptions of lessons and units. The study provides insights into how these teachers integrate sustainability across junior science, the new National Certificate of Educational Achievement Level One science standards, and senior science subjects, while also elaborating on the benefits they believed students received and the challenges they faced in this integration.

This research found that these New Zealand teachers had a broad understanding of sustainability and recognised key components of sustainability education. They saw sustainability as a way to make science engaging and to develop scientific literacy among their students. To incorporate sustainability into science, they had all designed units which included place-based approaches, integrated topics, considered multiple perspectives, and interwove mātauranga Māori, or New Zealand indigenous knowledge. The boundaries of science as a subject, senior-level assessment requirements, and the time needed for some sustainability-focused activities were noted as challenges to sustainability’s integration.

The research recommends that for the effective integration of sustainability, support is required, particularly regarding teacher education and the provision of resources that exemplify sustainability in science. Furthermore, curriculum and assessment changes designed to incorporate sustainability must remain clear about the required science content to ensure students are robustly prepared for senior science studies.

text: Integrating education for sustainability into secondary science classes: Practices and perceptions of New Zealand teachers Global challenges like climate change and biodiversity loss necessitate a collective shift towards sustainable living. Education for Sustainability aims to equip students with the essential knowledge, skills, attitudes and agency to meet sustainability goals and forge a better future. It is a holistic approach, yet single-subject school structures at the secondary level mean it must be integrated into subjects such as science. However, there is limited research, particularly in New Zealand, on how this integration is practiced in secondary science classes.

Grounded in an interpretivist paradigm, this study interviewed five New Zealand secondary science teachers to understand their conceptualisations of sustainability and sustainability education. It explored how their understanding was translated into practice through detailed descriptions of lessons and units. The study provides insights into how these teachers integrate sustainability across junior science, the new National Certificate of Educational Achievement Level One science standards, and senior science subjects, while also elaborating on the benefits they believed students received and the challenges they faced in this integration.

This research found that these New Zealand teachers had a broad understanding of sustainability and recognised key components of sustainability education. They saw sustainability as a way to make science engaging and to develop scientific literacy among their students. To incorporate sustainability into science, they had all designed units which included place-based approaches, integrated topics, considered multiple perspectives, and interwove mātauranga Māori, or New Zealand indigenous knowledge. The boundaries of science as a subject, senior-level assessment requirements, and the time needed for some sustainability-focused activities were noted as challenges to sustainability’s integration.

The research recommends that for the effective integration of sustainability, support is required, particularly regarding teacher education and the provision of resources that exemplify sustainability in science. Furthermore, curriculum and assessment changes designed to incorporate sustainability must remain clear about the required science content to ensure students are robustly prepared for senior science studies.

year: 2025

title: Eke panuku, eke tangaroa! How Black Ferns 7s athletes navigate Instagram and inspire the next generation in Aotearoa

authors: Keet, Thandiwe Maia

subjects: Gender

abstract: This thesis considers the role of Instagram in the lives of players on the New Zealand Black Ferns 7s rugby team, and audience engagement with players’ social media accounts. Using a mana wāhine methodology, this study explores how Black Ferns 7s players utilize and navigate Instagram, through mixed-methods enquiry, including a social media analysis of 8 players’ accounts, interviews with 3 Black Ferns 7s players, and talanoa sessions with members of the women’s rugby community in the Bay of Plenty, supplemented by input from Black Ferns players and fans via direct messages on Instagram. The quantitative social media analysis identified 4 key themes in players’ Instagram posts: achievement, team & rugby, life outside rugby, and culture & vulnerability. The analysis reveals that players post the most regarding their “team & rugby”, generating an “athlete first” self- representation. It finds a statistically significant difference in the thematic content of Instagram posts based on squad seniority and the number of followers a player has. Followers were found to engage most with posts regarding “achievement”, and the least with posts regarding “culture and vulnerability”.
The interviews elaborate upon these quantitative differences by highlighting why athletes specifically use Instagram, insights into Black Ferns aspirational team dynamics, and the importance of a player’s life outside of rugby. The thematic analysis also reveals the digital economic and collective labour involved in producing social media content as a member of this team, and what it means to be culturally “authentic” online in Aotearoa. It reveals the unique elements generated by the team-sport context of this study, including intra-team differences in social media usage. Furthermore, hauora, Indigenous role modeling, and Tall Poppy Syndrome emerge as factors particularly unique to the cultural context within which this study takes place. The discussions culminate in the establishment of a layered understanding of the external, internal, and individual factors which shape Instagram posting habits, and the features which most significantly impact why audiences follow the curated displays Black Ferns 7s athletes provide online.
This project contributes to international literature on sportswomen’s use of social media, demonstrating the powerful ways that players support one another in what, when, and how they post, and the importance of cultural identity in Māori and Pasifika players’ social media engagement. It further reveals the importance of team culture in shaping individual players’ social media and audience engagement. This thesis also highlights the significance of sporting and cultural histories and intersectional identities in digital self-representation and fan engagement with sportswomen’s social media usage.

text: Eke panuku, eke tangaroa! How Black Ferns 7s athletes navigate Instagram and inspire the next generation in Aotearoa This thesis considers the role of Instagram in the lives of players on the New Zealand Black Ferns 7s rugby team, and audience engagement with players’ social media accounts. Using a mana wāhine methodology, this study explores how Black Ferns 7s players utilize and navigate Instagram, through mixed-methods enquiry, including a social media analysis of 8 players’ accounts, interviews with 3 Black Ferns 7s players, and talanoa sessions with members of the women’s rugby community in the Bay of Plenty, supplemented by input from Black Ferns players and fans via direct messages on Instagram. The quantitative social media analysis identified 4 key themes in players’ Instagram posts: achievement, team & rugby, life outside rugby, and culture & vulnerability. The analysis reveals that players post the most regarding their “team & rugby”, generating an “athlete first” self- representation. It finds a statistically significant difference in the thematic content of Instagram posts based on squad seniority and the number of followers a player has. Followers were found to engage most with posts regarding “achievement”, and the least with posts regarding “culture and vulnerability”.
The interviews elaborate upon these quantitative differences by highlighting why athletes specifically use Instagram, insights into Black Ferns aspirational team dynamics, and the importance of a player’s life outside of rugby. The thematic analysis also reveals the digital economic and collective labour involved in producing social media content as a member of this team, and what it means to be culturally “authentic” online in Aotearoa. It reveals the unique elements generated by the team-sport context of this study, including intra-team differences in social media usage. Furthermore, hauora, Indigenous role modeling, and Tall Poppy Syndrome emerge as factors particularly unique to the cultural context within which this study takes place. The discussions culminate in the establishment of a layered understanding of the external, internal, and individual factors which shape Instagram posting habits, and the features which most significantly impact why audiences follow the curated displays Black Ferns 7s athletes provide online.
This project contributes to international literature on sportswomen’s use of social media, demonstrating the powerful ways that players support one another in what, when, and how they post, and the importance of cultural identity in Māori and Pasifika players’ social media engagement. It further reveals the importance of team culture in shaping individual players’ social media and audience engagement. This thesis also highlights the significance of sporting and cultural histories and intersectional identities in digital self-representation and fan engagement with sportswomen’s social media usage.

year: 2022

title: The Attempted Grobalization of Parkour by the Fédération Internationale de Gymnastique

authors: Puddle, Damien

abstract: On December 3rd, 2018, the 82nd Congress of the Fédération Internationale de Gymnastique (FIG), voted to include parkour as the FIG’s 8th gymnastic discipline. Unlike, trampoline and acrobatic gymnastics, which became gymnastic disciplines following the agreed dissolution of their respective federations, parkour’s inclusion followed two years of unilateral and ultra vires development of competitive showcases. Despite athlete participation in FIG-organized parkour competitions, the global parkour community has been largely opposed to parkour under FIG, especially its attempts to include parkour in the Olympic programme. This situation catalyzed the federating of the international federation Parkour Earth. However, all attempts by the global parkour community to halt the FIG’s appropriation of parkour have proved unsuccessful to date. Digital ethnographic work conducted during the controversy and the authors’ experiences as key protagonists in the formation and administration of Parkour Earth highlights the politics, influences, and power struggles between the different stakeholders. With help from Ritzer’s theory of grobalization it is clear that the FIG is attempting to grobalize parkour to grow its power and profits, and the IOC is enabling, and to some extent complicit in this process. This has implications for the parkour community and other long-standing gymnastic disciplines.

text: The Attempted Grobalization of Parkour by the Fédération Internationale de Gymnastique On December 3rd, 2018, the 82nd Congress of the Fédération Internationale de Gymnastique (FIG), voted to include parkour as the FIG’s 8th gymnastic discipline. Unlike, trampoline and acrobatic gymnastics, which became gymnastic disciplines following the agreed dissolution of their respective federations, parkour’s inclusion followed two years of unilateral and ultra vires development of competitive showcases. Despite athlete participation in FIG-organized parkour competitions, the global parkour community has been largely opposed to parkour under FIG, especially its attempts to include parkour in the Olympic programme. This situation catalyzed the federating of the international federation Parkour Earth. However, all attempts by the global parkour community to halt the FIG’s appropriation of parkour have proved unsuccessful to date. Digital ethnographic work conducted during the controversy and the authors’ experiences as key protagonists in the formation and administration of Parkour Earth highlights the politics, influences, and power struggles between the different stakeholders. With help from Ritzer’s theory of grobalization it is clear that the FIG is attempting to grobalize parkour to grow its power and profits, and the IOC is enabling, and to some extent complicit in this process. This has implications for the parkour community and other long-standing gymnastic disciplines.

year: 2023-01-01