Sport, Education and Society

ISSN: 1357-3322 (Print) 1470-1243 (Online) Journal homepage: https://www.tandfonline.com/loi/cses20

Navigating culturally responsive pedagogy through

an Indigenous games unit

Alison Wrench & Robyne Garrett

To cite this article: Alison Wrench & Robyne Garrett (2020): Navigating culturally
responsive pedagogy through an Indigenous games unit, Sport, Education and Society, DOI:
10.1080/13573322.2020.1764520

To link to this article: https://doi.org/10.1080/13573322.2020.1764520

Published online: 20 May 2020.

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SPORT, EDUCATION AND SOCIETY
https://doi.org/10.1080/13573322.2020.1764520

Navigating culturally responsive pedagogy through an

Indigenous games unit
Alison Wrench and Robyne Garrett
School of Education, University of South Australia, Adelaide, Australia

ABSTRACT ARTICLE HISTORY

Curricula and pedagogies that fail to utilise the cultural resources of students Received 29 October 2019
contribute to educational disadvantage. The health and physical education Accepted 30 April 2020
(HPE) learning area is not exempt from these concerns with calls emerging
KEYWORDS
within Australia to include movement forms and ways of knowing of Culturally responsive
Indigenous and ethnic-minority students. In many respects, these are calls pedagogies; health and
to counter the normativity of Anglo-Saxon middle-class male framings for physical education;
HPE. This paper engages with these concerns and seeks to contribute Indigenous games; Ricoeur;
through reporting on a case study from Australian-based research into narratives
culturally responsive pedagogies (CRP). Utilising Ricoeur’s theorisation of
narrative processes we explore a case study which centres on CRP
informed pedagogical and curricular redesign in HPE. We engage with
discourses of CRP to explore emergent understandings and raise
awareness amongst HPE educators about the possibilities of CRP in
foregrounding culturally informed movement forms and ways of knowing.
We conclude in arguing all HPE educators face an ethical imperative to
take up the challenge of adopting CRP and a broader range of culturally
defined movement forms.

Introduction
Curricula and pedagogical practices that fail to recognise or value the resources students from diverse
cultural backgrounds bring to schooling contribute to educational marginalisation and disadvantage
(Harrison & Skrebneva, 2020; Santoro, 2013; Vass, 2017). Within the Australian context, approximately
4% of students are Indigenous,1 whilst 23% are from non-Anglo-Saxon backgrounds. It is Indigenous
students and particular ethnic-minority background students who are especially vulnerable in terms
of educational disadvantage, alienation and withdrawal from Australia’s Anglo-European centric
schooling systems (Morrison et al., 2019; Rahman, 2013).
These concerns extend to the health and physical education (HPE) learning area. Of significance is
the enduring marginalisation of Aboriginal movement cultures and ways of knowing in Australian
HPE curriculum and, hence, movement experiences of students and teachers, including the
authors. These practices are symptomatic of a broader political impulse to buttress the legitimacy
of ‘white’ Australia, whilst denying Aboriginal sovereignty and concomitantly rendering problematic
the lived experiences of ‘non-white’ citizens (Due, 2008).
Against this backdrop of marginalisation and disadvantage researchers are calling for HPE curri-
cula that include movement cultures and ways of knowing of Indigenous and ethnic-minority stu-
dents (see Dinan Thomson et al., 2014; Macdonald et al., 2009; Pang, 2018; Whatman et al., 2017).
In many respects, these are calls to counter the normativity of Anglo-Saxon middle-class male

CONTACT Alison Wrench alison.wrench@unisa.edu.au School of Education, University of South Australia, GPO Box 2471,
Adelaide 5001, Australia
© 2020 Informa UK Limited, trading as Taylor & Francis Group
2 A. WRENCH AND R. GARRETT

framings for HPE. Our paper engages with these discussions and seeks to contribute through taking a
specific focus on culturally responsive pedagogies (CRP) in HPE.
Drawing on sociocultural understandings of learning, CRP mobilises the proposition that all curricu-
lum and pedagogy, including HPE, are culturally based (Gay, 2002). CRP is not a template for one-size fits
all instructional techniques. Rather it signposts approaches to teaching and learning that draw on the
cultural resources of students to enhance engagement with education (Morrison et al., 2019). The aim is
to foster learning whilst building capabilities and cultural identities (Robinson et al., 2013; Warren, 2018).
A significant body of work has emerged, largely from North America and New Zealand, in relation
to culturally relevant physical education (PE) (see Azzarito & Simon, 2017; Coppola & McHugh, 2018;
Flory & McCaughtry, 2011; Harrison & Clark, 2016) and culturally responsive PE practices (see Culp &
Chepyator-Thomson, 2011; Flory, 2017; Robinson et al., 2013; Salter, 2000; Young & Sternod, 2011).
Collectively, this work provides guiding principles for designing HPE curriculum and pedagogical
practices that promote learning within the context of and mediated by culture.
CRP, however, is yet to establish a strong presence in Australian policy and practices for addressing
educational disadvantage experienced by Indigenous and ethically-minority background students
(Morrison et al., 2019). The research this paper is drawn from sought to address the absence of a
‘theoretically informed and empirically substantiated Australian version of CRP’ (Morrison et al.,
2019, p. v). This paper is informed by these contextual concerns and seeks to raise awareness
amongst HPE educators about the possibilities and potential of CRP to foreground culturally informed
movement forms and ways of knowing.
In the remaining sections of the paper, we provide an outline of the research before introducing
the case as a ‘narrative inquiry’ informed by the theorisation of Ricoeur (1988, 1991). We then present
and analyse the case, which centres on CRP informed pedagogical and curricular redesign in HPE. We
conclude in arguing all HPE educators face an ethical imperative to take up the challenge of adopting
CRP and a broader range of culturally defined movement forms.

The research
The research project this paper draws on investigated how CRP might be developed within main-
stream classrooms in the middle-years of schooling2. The research was conducted over three years
(2017–2019), involving twenty teachers from schools with substantial enrolments of Indigenous stu-
dents, located in Adelaide, South Australia. Selection of teacher participants was purposeful in that all
were noted within their school communities as being committed to improving learning outcomes for
Indigenous students.
A systematic professional learning programme for participating teachers incorporated the collec-
tive reading of CRP research literature, the orientation of possible inquiries into practice and design-
ing inquiry questions. Following this preparation, teachers engaged in curriculum/pedagogical
redesigns, taught new curriculum units and implemented practitioner inquiry approaches. Aca-
demics, including the authors, provided support as critical friends without judgement throughout
all phases of the project. It must be noted that CRP represented ‘new ground’ for teacher participants
and academics alike. Discussions about readings, existing practices, student needs and contextual
factors were, hence, important for all in clarifying understandings about CRP and identifying possibi-
lities for pedagogical redesign. Participating teachers were supported in collecting data that provided
evidence of impact, student engagement and learning. They were also supported in analysing data,
theorising results in relation to CRP perspectives and constructing presentations about their findings
and implications for future practices.
The research project incorporated individual teacher interviews as powerful conversations
(Burgess, 1988). Questions addressed motivations for participation, pedagogical and curricular rede-
sign, practitioner inquiry and new learning. Biographical and experiential information generated from
these interviews and presentation materials was collated and constructed as narrative portraits. This
paper presents and discusses the narrative portrait of Jake, an HPE teacher.
 SPORT, EDUCATION AND SOCIETY 3

Jake’s narrative portrait was developed from words and language he used in interviews and pres-
entation materials developed to inform others about his experiences and learning. Our intention
was to let Jake speak for himself in narrating his story (Dowling Naess, 2001). In writing Jake’s narrative
portrait we engaged in dynamic and creative processes of thinking with and through discourses
(Richardson & St. Pierre, 2005) of CRP. In doing so we considered discourses that informed how and
why Jake spoke as he did and the significance of these to (re)configurations of narrative identities.
We acknowledge that in constructing and working with Jake’s narrative portrait we were influenced
by our own subjectivities and available discursive resources around socially critical pedagogies and CRP.

Narrative inquiry
Narratives bear a potential to render intelligible personal meanings and ‘narrative truths’ as opposed
to historical facts and empirical generalisations (Tanggaard, 2009). In working with Jake’s narrative,
we were, hence, cognisant of potential to trouble traditional narratives of HPE, which work to margin-
alise Aboriginal and non-European movement cultures and ways of knowing. We were also mindful
of potential to generate connections for others in relation to narrative inquiry, CRP and HPE.
Whilst multiple theoretical perspectives around narrative inquiry have informed HPE research (see
Dowling et al., 2015), criticism suggests narrative approaches are simplistic (Wilson, 2015) and/or
over-deterministic (McNay, 1999, 2000, p. 2007). Mindful of this criticism we adopted Ricoeur’s theor-
isation of processes of narrating and narrative identity. A central premise underpinning Ricoeur’s
theorisation (1988, 1991) is that the inherent reflexivity of narration allows us to configure separate
events into coherent assemblages, construct explanations and engage in meaning-making. More-
over, meaning-making, self-understanding and evaluation occur referentially to existing and familiar
narratives, including cultural storylines (Wilson, 2015).
Robertson’s (1975) proposed three mimetic functions of narrative informed our analysis of inter-
view transcripts, presentation materials and Jake’s narrative portrait. Mimesis one refers to a prefig-
urative phase where narrators draw on familiar storylines or the parameters of what is already known
within life-worlds and cultural landscapes (Venn, 2006). In constructing Jake’s narrative portrait, we
attended to existing cultural meanings or discursive resources, which framed the parameters of
understandings he drew on in positioning himself as an HPE teacher.
Mimesis two involves creative processes of selecting, ordering and (re)configuring experiences,
feelings and, hence, sense of self (Ricoeur, 1988; Venn, 2006). Our analysis focused upon Jake’s
descriptions of experiences and emergent ways of relating. We also considered the ways in which
these informed various (re)configurations of his and others’ narrative identities.
The third memetic function draws on previous memetic phases and involves the refiguration of
identity of the individual or collective in ways that give form to a coherent yet dynamic narrative iden-
tity (Ricoeur, 1988; Venn, 2006). This function underpinned our analysis of storylines Jake narrated as
he (re)configured and eventually substantiated his culturally responsive teacher identity and pro-
jected this into the future.
Ricoeur’s theorisation of mimetic functions informs our presentation of Jake’s narrative in four
parts, interspersed with our voices. Our intention is to respect Jake’s voice, whilst also discussing
and reflecting upon intersecting narratives and theoretical perspectives (Chase, 2005). Part 1 of
Jakes narrative reflects the working of Mimesis 1. Parts 2 and 3 exemplify Mimesis 2 and Mimesis
3 is foregrounded in Part 4.

Part 1: As a PE Teacher I’ve always got on with Indigenous students

I’ve always got along with Indigenous students, so when the school needed to replace the SAASTA3
coordinator they asked me. I also teach Aboriginal Education, Special Education and Physical Edu-
cation (PE).
4 A. WRENCH AND R. GARRETT

With the SAASTA role, I’ve done some professional development in cultural competency. It’s been
an eye-opener, but I already knew much of that stuff. I know some Indigenous students find it hard,
whether its community stuff or cultural things. At home, they have internet but not necessarily time
to work on school tasks and submit on time. They eventually hand work up, but it’s too late. They get
‘smashed’ because of the grade they receive, then next time they’re too embarrassed to hand their
work up.
From teaching Indigenous year 11 and 12 students, I know my students work but they fear failure,
they would say ‘shame’. One of my Indigenous students has started most tasks, but rather than finish
any, she’ll work on them all, because she’s too scared to hand anything up. At the last minute, she’ll
hand all her work up and she’s like ‘I don’t want to know my grade. I don’t care, just tell me if I pass’.
Others say ‘I don’t care. I just want a grade, I don’t want to see what I did, I don’t care about my spel-
ling’. I try and connect with them and adapt how I work with them, but probably not enough.
A prevailing narrative suggests many HPE teachers feel ill prepared to meet the needs of students
from diverse, including Indigenous, backgrounds (see Culp & Chepyator-Thomson, 2011; Robinson
et al., 2013; Young, 2010). As a point of differentiation, Jake’s narrative emphasises positive relation-
ships and appreciative understandings of life circumstances that impact on Indigenous students’
engagement with schooling. Empathy and caring for students are distinguishing characteristics of
the HPE teacher Jake understands himself to be.
Empathy together with caring about Indigenous students are integral to CRP (Gay, 2002; Vass,
2017; Warren, 2018). In Jake’s narrative, these materialise in his reflection about factors that impact
on student success and his positioning as an understanding teacher. His narrative resonates with
calls made by Robinson et al. (2013) for the HPE teacher to position themselves ‘as an ally’ who under-
stands the ‘day-to-day cultural landscapes’ of Indigenous students’ life-worlds. Within the context of
post-colonial and settler Australia, this positioning as the ‘knowing’ HPE teacher is not necessarily
neutral or straight forward. Of concern is the possibility that Jake’s ‘knowing’ is informed by grand
narratives ‘that perpetuate … essentialised and ahistorical understandings of Indigenous peoples’
(Moodie & Patrick, 2017, p. 439).
SAASTA, for instance, is reflective of sport-based initiatives constructed as solutions for managing
problematised or marginalised young people (Parker et al., 2019). This logic extends to community
and school-based initiatives for young Indigenous Australians. Argument is made that participation
in sport is a ‘natural fit’, inherently beneficial and means for building physical, social and mental
health as well as connections to community (Coppola & McHugh, 2018; Sheppard et al., 2019).
These understandings are informed by the premise that sport, including as delivered in HPE, is a
neutral, egalitarian and field-levelling institution (Robinson et al., 2013). Mimesis 1 helps us appreciate
that Jake validates his narrative identity as a ‘knowing’ HPE teacher through working with Indigenous
students in the SAASTA programme.
Discourses of sport similarly contribute to the narrative of Australia as a successful multi-cultural
and egalitarian nation (McDonald, 2016). Such is the hegemony of this narrative that it renders invis-
ible ways by which sport has contributed to the racially-based, classed and gendered social construc-
tion of post-colonial Australia (Faquharson & Marjoribanks, 2006; Tatz & Tatz, 1996; Wrench & Garrett,
2017). Moreover, when this narrative draws on discourses of biological reductionism it ties Indigen-
ous students to presumptions of natural sporting ability and by association suggestions, they are
inherently non-academic (Sheppard et al., 2019).
Whilst initiatives such as SAASTA aim to engage Indigenous students in schooling through sport,
there is little evidence to verify panacea status. Critique suggests these programmes are premised on
deficit understandings and fail to utilise or develop the cultural resources of Indigenous participants
(Coppola & McHugh, 2018; Sheppard et al., 2019). Jake’s narrative gives an indication of the ‘knowing’
HPE teacher whose good intentions are informed by a grand narrative of sport as a panacea. Pro-
fessional learning associated with the research project, however, provided Jake with means to inter-
rogate some of his taken-for-granted understandings as well as engage in curriculum and
pedagogical redesign informed by CRP. We return to Jake’s narrative about his inquiry into practice.
 SPORT, EDUCATION AND SOCIETY 5

Part 2: Redesigning HPE curriculum and pedagogy

I was dreading this project and put it off until as late as possible. However, I realised it’s about the
students, their learning and trying to do something for them. Once I started, analysed my teaching
and looked at student learning, I really enjoyed the process and it all seemed to work.
I had a Year 9 class with 21 students, 9 girls and 12 boys. Two Indigenous students, four English as
an Additional Language or Dialect (EALD) students and one on a Negotiated Education Plan (NEP).
Student engagement and participation in practical lessons was a major challenge. For my action
research, I wanted to steer away from traditional HPE approaches that are teacher directed. I had
an idea that a way to engage students was to incorporate cultural aspects from their lives and
have students play a major role in teaching and learning. My action research focused on how peer
teaching an Indigenous games unit could influence participation and engagement. I’d previously
developed an Indigenous Games unit using the Yulunga4 games resource and re-designed it in
line with Kaupapa Maori model or principles of CRP.
Key points of the Kaupapa Maori are: power is shared, culture counts, learning is interactive and
dialogic, connectedness is fundamental to relations and there is a common vision of excellence. I
attempted to share power and ensure all would feel safe and valued by negotiating with students
the ‘rules of engagement’ and expectations about participation. Applying the principle of ‘culture
counts’ students explored family backgrounds, health and physical activity practices and the
influence of culture on these. I wanted to highlight diversity in cultural backgrounds and increase stu-
dents’ cultural awareness.
I started the unit by having students explore the Indigenous map of Australia before narrowing the
focus to local Kaurna people. I next modelled teaching games from the Yulunga resource and then
handed the reins over to the students. Students worked in groups to select a game, locate and share
information about where it was traditionally played, with what, who by and skills or knowledge devel-
oped. Student cooperation was an established expectation for peer teaching, post-activity discus-
sions and reflections. My data included journal entries, significant teaching moments, student
work and assessment samples.
Tai, an Indigenous student, was the focus of my engagement, participation and learning data. Tai’s
a talented sports person but was totally disengaged in HPE. I think he found we were doing ‘the same
old stuff’, it was boring and not challenging. Teacher directed, learn some skills, practice, then apply in
game situations. In practical classes, he would just do silly things like run around and climb the goal
posts. If he didn’t want to do something he would sit out or crack the ‘shits’.
In class, he’d mope around or be the attention seeking class clown. He was too ashamed to
present to the class and getting any form of writing from him was impossible. He’s quite capable,
doesn’t write well but can speak his mind and knows what he’s talking about.
Jake’s narrative bumps up against a taken-for-granted narrative that sport as a curriculum focus in
HPE promotes the inclusion of all students, including those from diverse cultural and ethnic back-
grounds. Where all curriculum is cultural (Gay, 2002) sport brings specific cultural understandings
and practices to HPE. Significantly, these tend to privilege an Anglo-Saxon middle-class male
student norm (Dowling & Flintoff, 2018). Engagement and inclusion of all students are not necessarily
guaranteed.
Jake, as the ‘knowing’ HPE teacher, was initially a reluctant research participant. However, once he
engages with provocations presented by CRP he begins to consider taken-for-granted narratives of
HPE. He troubles traditional, routine practices and concomitant classroom relationships in terms of
general student disengagement and reluctant participation. From Ricoeur (1988), mimesis 2 is
evident in Jake’s narrative of professional turnaround and concomitant merging of his life story
with a broadened range of narratives. Of specific interest are the interconnections between his nar-
rative and the narrative he constructs for Tai, an Indigenous student.
There is no universal Australian Indigenous student experience of mainstream schooling.
However, Jake’s narrative framing of Tai reflects key findings from previous research. Noteworthy
6 A. WRENCH AND R. GARRETT

are experiences of alienation, discouragement and disaffection, which culminate in withdrawal and
resistance (Rahman, 2013). Such is Tai’s disaffection and disengagement from schooling, he actively
resists participation in practical and theoretical HPE classes. Given his athletic talents, HPE is a space
where Tai might be expected to excel and be positioned as a capable student. Jake’s narrative, thus
far, gives evidence of the interrelationship of mimesis 1 and 2, within Ricoeur’s three-fold relation of
mimesis. He brings familiar and known parameters of HPE, together with well-established expec-
tations about Tai into dialogue with possibilities for a re-designed Indigenous games unit applying
principles of CRP.
The research project and associated professional learning introduced teacher participants to a
range of literature and approaches around CRP. Jake drew upon Kaupapa Maori, which developed
as transformative praxis for advancing Maori schooling and educational outcomes, Maori culture
and identities (see Bishop, 2008; Salter, 2000). From Salter (2000) key principles of Kaupapa Maori
are concerned with student autonomy and decision-making in relation to content, participation
and meaning-making. Further to this, Maori cultural knowledge is valued, affirmed and authenti-
cated. Teaching and learning are integrated with attendant connectedness and reciprocity
between teachers and students. Participation in schooling, hence, incorporates close connections
to families and reflects the cultural practices of the community. The focus is on the collective achieve-
ment of common goals with educational processes articulating with Maori political, social, economic
and spiritual aspirations.
Santoro (2013) and Bishop (2008) contend that these principles can inform pedagogical practices
for countering the marginalisation of the cultural resources Indigenous and other ethnically diverse
students bring to their schooling. We return to Jake’s narrative to explore outcomes of teaching an
Indigenous games unit within a mainstream HPE class that included Indigenous and EALD students.

Part 3: What happened when Tai smiled

When I told the class that we would be doing an Indigenous games unit Tai’s attitude and our
relationship changed. Exploring the Indigenous map of Australia5 and Kaurna6 culture proved impor-
tant for Tai. Most students had never previously seen the map but for Tai it was ‘his’ map. He loved
these activities and stood up in front of the class for the first time with absolutely no behaviour
problems.
Before the unit, I felt Tai was often misunderstood. He was a bit of a lone wolf and no one wanted
to work with him. As soon as I put Tai in a group, you’d see eye rolling. But once he spoke about the
Indigenous map and that he was from Narungga Country7 on the York Peninsula, the other students,
especially the EALD students wanted to know more. They loved the stories, like ‘wombat holes and
how you get wombats out’. Tai told them that as he was the smallest in his family, he’d go down the
wombat hole and his uncle would hold his legs and another uncle would hold his uncle.
When Tai presented, he was calm, not overly loud or confident but students listened and were
respectful. Tai explained well and his demonstrations of the game was awesome. He was my teaching
assistant helping me with pronunciation of words and explanations of games. He had fun, was
smiling and laughing, which normally he didn’t do. When Tai started smiling the other students
wanted to work with him and he worked well with them.
Formative assessment for the unit addressed participation and a presentation about Indigenous
games. Tai got a B for that and a B+ for his peer teaching. Previously he’d not submitted anything,
so this was phenomenal. The unit after the Ingenious games was Soft-Crosse8 and Tai was
amazing again. His attitude and participation continued, his grade for the practical part was an A.
Jake’s choice to teach the re-designed unit through Kaupapa Maori principles of valuing culture,
supporting student decision-making and working towards common goals gives an indication that he
recognised and valued cultural knowledge, language and meaning-making associated with Indigen-
ous games. In doing so aspects of ‘culture that the dominant system has sought to marginalize for so
long’ (Bishop, 2008, p. 457) are brought into the HPE classroom and playing field. Traditionally, games
 SPORT, EDUCATION AND SOCIETY 7

and play had been used to prepare Indigenous children for pastimes and daily life, including econ-
omic, political, social and cultural aspects (Edwards, 2009; Robertson, 1975; Salter, 1967). However, as
established above, a lasting impact of the assimilation imperative of colonial and settler Australia has
been the marginalisation of culturally valued and defined Indigenous movement forms (Edwards,
2009). Consequences include the omission of Indigenous games and movement forms from
various iterations of Australian (H)PE curricula (Whatman et al., 2017; Williams, 2018).
Pedagogical practices such as using the map of Indigenous languages and Country9 as well as
incorporating Kaurna language were also significant. The map, for instance, represents a means for
displacing the authority of colonial-settler histories and understandings of Australia, which work to
deny Indigenous sovereignty and concomitantly Indigenous knowledges and ways of being (Harrison
& Skrebneva, 2020). The importance for Tai, who lives away from Country, was in bringing connec-
tions to Narungga Country and, hence, to his family, relations and forebears into his schooling. Poten-
tial, hence, arises for building a stronger sense of self and belonging (Harrison & Skrebneva, 2020).
The explanatory framing of mimesis 2 is evident in Jake’s narrative about using guiding principles
of Kaupapa Maori to jettison hierarchical power relations, whereby he had sole authority for teaching
and learning, in preference for negotiation with students and shared decision-making. Specifically,
Jake deployed pedagogical practices that directly involved students in dialogue as well as coopera-
tive and interactive experiences. These included students working together in using the Yulunga
games resource to research the cultural significance of games, location in Country and in preparation
for peer teaching, playing games and reflection. These pedagogical practices supported different
types of relationships and connections to movement or games experiences, culture and each
other. Of consequence is how these practices of CRP created the space to explore culture, relation-
ships and sense of self beyond those enabled in traditional sports/games units.
Mimesis 2 also provides an explanatory framing for Jake’s reconfiguration of Tai’s narrative iden-
tity, including his positioning in class as an authoritative and valued class member. Jake moves
beyond parameters of ‘low expectations’ to consider Tai’s positive relationships with learning activi-
ties, fellow students and himself as the HPE teacher. The subsequent (re)configuration of Tai’s narra-
tive identity traces a path of ‘becoming’ that shifts from being disengaged, and/or misunderstood to
be knowledgeable, capable, engaged and valued. We return to Jake’s narrative to explore the broader
impact on student engagement, curiosity and participation.

Part 4: Culture, pedagogies relationships and more

I’ve previously worked with Tai in Aboriginal Education but learnt more about him through this unit.
I’m not sure whether his perception of himself has changed, but he seems more positive and told me
about the things he’d like to do. I’d like to use ‘yarning circles’10 and actually chat with him and the
class to learn more about how they think and their reflections about experiences.
My EALD students really enjoyed the cultural focus and learning about other cultures. However,
they told me they’d like to talk about their own cultures as well. They made links between Indigenous
games and games and/or sports we play today. It’s increased motivation, engagement, participation
and they feel more valued. I think I need to do a World Games unit not just an Indigenous Games unit.
Some female students, privileged kids with Western backgrounds, were at the back, yawning, dis-
engaged, not interested in the cultural focus. They told me they weren’t interested in learning about
someone else’s culture’, the background of games or why traditionally they were played. They didn’t
contribute information about family activity and health practices. However, they loved the indepen-
dence and ownership of their learning, but then two were absent on the day they were to present
their game.
I learnt that you’ve got to give students ownership of their learning. Previously I was too scared to
let them have a go, see where the lesson would go. I think my lessons were too structured and that
limited students’ learning. I needed to give students more choice about what they did. The games
unit was about them becoming independent learners and taking ownership of their learning.
8 A. WRENCH AND R. GARRETT

I now know that you need to provide students with time to learn about themselves and their
peers. You also need to make connections with their life-worlds, identities and cultures. Beforehand,
anything to do with culture, I was stand-offish about asking them. Lots of students, including Indigen-
ous students don’t have strong connections to their culture and don’t know things. Often, I too would
feel I didn’t have the knowledge. However, working with students in this unit has been different and
changed our relationships for the better and I’m no longer afraid to ask them questions.
I’ve realised I speak too much. Before, if there was silence, it was awkward, and I’d feel I had to fill
the air up with my talk. I didn’t know whether they were hearing much or what they were thinking. I
assumed they didn’t know what they were doing, even if they did, so I’d butt in and start talking. I’ve
learnt to give students more thinking time and let them work things out. I feel safe, even comfortable
to negotiate rather than always saying what we’re going to do. I know I can now start with my stu-
dents’ lives, their cultures and what health really means to them. I also know that despite what others
think, culturally responsive pedagogies can be incorporated into HPE.
The adoption of socially critical orientations, pedagogical practices and new aspects of HPE curri-
culum can be challenging (Dinan Thomson et al., 2014; Wrench & Garrett, 2015). From Jake’s narrative
this is apparent in the contrasting enthusiastic responses of Tai and EALD students and the antagon-
istic responses of some female students who might be considered privileged through traditional HPE
curricula, practices and relationships.
As Jake narrates, these students appreciated the autonomy of student centred, dialogic learning
experiences, yet openly resisted learning about Indigenous cultures, games and ways of knowing. In
some respects their qualified participation exemplifies maintenance of ‘intellectual and temporal dis-
tance from the lived realities of Indigenous peoples’ (Moodie & Patrick, 2017, p. 440). This positioning
gives form to the complex workings of discourses of racism and the normativity of white Australia. It
is, for instance, not uncommon in Australia to recognise and celebrate Indigenous athletes whilst sim-
ultaneously ignoring uncomfortable ‘truths’ pertaining to sustained and institutionalised disadvan-
tage experienced by most Indigenous Australians (Wrench & Garrett, 2017).
Narrative self-reflection performs both critical and hermeneutic functions (Venn, 2006) as is exem-
plified in Jake’s reflections about student resistance and engagement. His narrative draws on dis-
courses of privilege underpinned by norms of the dominant culture to explain resistance and
concomitant distancing from movement cultures of subjugated Indigenous peoples. Whilst his reflec-
tions about Tai’s experiences and the engagement of the EALD students gives evidence of discourses
of meaningful listening, empathy and caring. These materialise in his commitment to teach a broad-
ened range of movement cultures, to utilise culturally informed ‘yarning’ circles as means for learning
more about his students, and to bring ways of knowing and being associated with their’ life-worlds
into HPE. As Young and Sternod (2011) recommend, Jake makes a commitment to recognising the
cultural resources of students in (re)designing curriculum and pedagogical practices to promote
learning within the context of and mediated by culture.
The critical and hermeneutic functions of narrative self-reflection are also apparent in Jake’s dis-
cussion of professional learning around negotiating and sharing decision-making, talking less and
promoting student ownership of learning. Moreover, he makes links between these pedagogical
practices and building student trust, independence and sense that they are valued members of
his class. For Jake, culture is no longer something to be feared but a resource to be used.
Ricoeur (1992) argues that there is an ethical element inherent to narrative processes. It can be
argued that in narrating his commitment to actioning practices aligned with CRP, Jake constitutes
himself as an ethical teacher. His narrative (re)configuration indicates that he understands that the
HPE teacher he is becoming has pedagogical obligations to Tai and EALD students. Put simply,
Jake ‘gives his word’ to apply principles informed by CRP to make a difference for these students
in socially just ways.
Butler (2005) similarly contends that our capacity for ethical responsiveness is contingent upon
our relationships with others. She argues that ethics requires us to engage with ‘unknowingness’
rather than operating from presumptions of knowing ourselves and others. As Jake’s narrative
 SPORT, EDUCATION AND SOCIETY 9

portrait reveals it is precisely at points of not knowing, of not being the HPE teacher in control that
students could take responsibility for participation, learning and engagement with the cultural land-
scape of Indigenous games. Jake’s ‘unknowingness’ is a factor in the emergence of Tai as a valued,
knowledgeable and engaged participant and entreaties by EALD students to bring their cultures
into HPE. In taking risks with his teaching, including speaking less, providing students with choices
and responsibilities, Jake’s sense of self as an HPE teacher diverges from a self, informed by the domi-
nant discourses of HPE.
Jake’s reconfiguration of his narrative identity as an ethical HPE teacher is contingent upon a
number of events, actions and relationships. These include the parameters of experience in teaching
HPE, professional learning experiences around CRP, pedagogical practices informed by principles of
Kaupapa Maori, relationships to and between students and restructured learning environment. By
way of the third mimetic function, which relates back to the first and second, Jake narrates processes
of becoming that substantiate his (re)configured sense of self as an ethical, ‘unknowing’ and culturally
responsive HPE teacher.

Conclusion
This paper reported on a case study that explored practices of CRP within HPE. Specifically, it provides
an account of research conducted within the Australian context and, hence, backdrop of educational
disadvantage experienced by Indigenous students (Morrison et al., 2019). Principles of CRP were
central to the larger research project and the paper. Calls for the inclusion of broader forms of phys-
ical expression and ways of knowing than found in normative Anglo-Saxon middle-class male fram-
ings of HPE provided an additional framing. Whilst Ricoeur’s theorisation of narrative processes
informed analysis and meaning-making.
General findings indicate the centrality of culture, including the dominant culture, to learning
experiences, pedagogical practices, and identity work of teachers and students in HPE. A key prop-
osition from Macdonald et al. (2009) reinforced in this paper is that all curricular and pedagogies are
culturally based. As the paper reveals changing the cultural framings of HPE curricular and pedago-
gical practices has consequences for relationships and processes of becoming.
The paper also highlights possibilities enabled through a curriculum redesign and the utilisation of
CRP. Specifically, this was in relation to applying principles of Kaupapa Maori in teaching an Indigen-
ous games unit, which led to altered structures, practices, ways of being and relating in HPE. Centring
and valuing Indigenous culture through games whilst making connections to Country and language
had a significant impact on Tai, an Indigenous student. This was evident in his engagement, learning
and ways of relating to the curricular content, other students in the class and to Jake his HPE teacher.
As previous research has indicated, students know they are valued, respected and belong when their
culture is centred and evident in their classrooms (Bishop, 2008; Moodie & Patrick, 2017; Salter, 2000).
The significance of this extends to requests by EALD students for the inclusion of games from their
cultures and life-worlds in HPE.
Whilst this paper reports on a unique case, transferable significance for HPE educators (Smith,
2018), is evident in terms of impact on relationships enabled by culturally responsive approaches
and practices. Noteworthy, are transformations in Jake, the HPE teacher’s relationship with students,
relationships between students, students’ relationship to HPE curriculum, their learning and senses of
self.
Ricoeur’s (1988, 1991) three mimetic phases provided a means for appreciating the significance of
these transformed relationships and processes of becoming. This is most evident in how Jake, over
time and through a range of experiences, reconfigures his own narrative identity as an ethical,
‘unknowing’ and culturally responsive teacher. He substantiates this through interrelationships
between his own narrative identity and (re)configurations of Tai’s narrative identity.
We agree with Jake, that ‘CRP can be incorporated into HPE’. However, as his narrative portrait
reveals, this is not necessarily easy or straight forward. Such is the hegemony of an Anglo-Saxon
10 A. WRENCH AND R. GARRETT

middle-class, male norm in framing HPE and concomitant reinforcement of ‘otherness’ around ‘race’,
resistance is a real possibility. Moreover, as a recently released research report reveals, racism and
religious intolerance by both teachers and students is widespread in Australian schools (Priest
et al., 2019).
Indigenous, together with ethnically diverse students have a right to feel valued, culturally con-
nected and supported in all aspects of schooling (Rahman, 2013). We argue that the ethical impera-
tive facing all HPE educators, including ourselves, is to take up the challenges of adopting CRP and a
broader range of culturally defined movement forms. If we are truly committed to reducing margin-
alisation and alienation in HPE then the (re) configuration of teaching HPE as a physical, intellectual,
social, emotional and political undertaking is an ongoing imperative.

Notes
1. Writing from the Australian context we use the term Indigenous in discussing issues and experiences as these
relate to Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander (ATSI) students in their heterogeneity.
2. Middle-years of schooling in Australia incorporates primary and secondary school classes where students are
young or early adolescents (Garrett & Wrench, 2011).
3. SAASTA refers to the South Australian Aboriginal Sports Training Academy, a sporting and educational program for
Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander senior secondary students. The premise being that sport builds skills, confi-
dence and connections to culture and schooling (Department for Education, 2018).
4. The Yulunga games resource is a collation of Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander games from all parts of Australia
(Edwards, 2008).
5. Map of Australia that attempts to represent to represent all the language, tribal or nation groups of Indigenous
people of Australia.
6. Kaurna people are the original inhabitants of Adelaide and the Adelaide Plains, South Australia. Jake and Jai’s
school is located on Kaurna lands.
7. Narunnga people’s Country or traditional lands are located throughout Yorke Peninsula, South Australia.
8. Soft-Crosse is a modified version of lacrosse.
9. Country encapsulates an interdependent relationship between individuals and their ancestral lands and seas that
is sustained by cultural knowledge, histories and language (Harrison & Skrebneva, 2020).
10. Yarning circles are used for dialogue that enables learning, passes on of culture, and builds relationships.

Acknowledgements
This research was drawn upon data funded by the Australian Government through the Australian ResearchCouncil’s Dis-
covery Projects funding scheme (Project ID: IN170100017 Lester-Irabinna Rigney and Robert Hattam ‘Toward an Austra-
lianculturally responsive pedagogy’). The views expressed herein are those of the authors and are not necessarily those of
the AustralianGovernment or Australian Research Council.

Disclosure statement
No potential conflict of interest was reported by the author(s).

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