Should primary school PE be outsourced? An analysis of students’ perspectives

ABSTRACT

Primary classroom teachers are increasingly moving to the side-line as physical education (PE) is outsourced to external providers. Although there are many critiques of external providers, few studies draw on primary school students’ perspectives. This study calls on data from semi-structured focus group interviews with 24 students from four New Zealand primary schools to convey their perspectives on whom they prefer as their teachers of PE. Data were analysed through the constant comparative method within the concepts of inclusion and exclusion from the perspective of critical social justice. Three themes are presented and discussed: (1) ‘Classroom teachers are better because they know us’; (2) ‘External providers are better because they know sport’; (3) ‘Classroom teachers should teach PE; External providers should teach sport’. The findings highlight the importance of listening to students’ perspectives. We argue that classroom teachers should play a central role in teaching primary PE with assistance from external providers and HPE specialists to offer all students a socially just, inclusive, and equitable learning experience.

KEYWORDS:

• Critical social justice
• outsourcing PE
• student perspectives
• classroom teachers

Disclosure statement

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

Notes

1 Pākehā is a Māori word referring to New Zealanders having European descent.

2 Māori is the indigenous people of New Zealand.

3 Briefly speaking, the Treaty of Waitangi is an agreement between the English and Māori. It takes its name from Waitangi where it was first signed on February 6^th, 1840. Now the day is a public holiday in New Zealand.

4 Eight learning areas in the NZC 2007 are English, the arts, health and physical education, learning languages, mathematics and statistics, science, social science, and technology.

5 New entrants mean that children who are in year 0 begin primary school in the second half of the year and move into year 1 the following year.

6 Regional sports trusts are organisations. They work with physical activity, sport, recreation, and health sectors to organise and distribute funding to local sports organisations, schools, clubs, and community groups to promote healthy lifestyles.

7 The New Zealand Ministry of Education uses deciles (numbers 1-10) to target funding for state and state-integrated schools. Schools rated as decile 1 have the highest proportion of students from low socio-economic backgrounds. Schools rated as decile 10 have the lowest proportion of these students. Deciles will be eliminated gradually from January 2023 and replaced by the Equity Index.

Additional information

Notes on contributors

Cheng Deng

Cheng Deng was a doctoral candidate studying at the University of Auckland, New Zealand, from 2015 to 2022. His research interest is around primary school physical education, sport and health.

Rod Allan Philpot

Rod Philpot is a Senior Lecturer in the Faculty of Education and Social Work, University of Auckland, New Zealand. His research focuses on social justice pedagogies in physical education teacher education, school health and physical education.

Maureen Legge

Maureen Legge was a Senior Lecturer and Program Leader of Bachelor of Physical Education in the Faculty of Education and Social Work, University of Auckland, New Zealand. Her research focuses on teacher education, outdoor education, cross-cultural understanding, and physical education using autoethnography and narrative inquiry.

Alan Ovens

Alan Ovens is an Associate Professor and Discipline Leader of the Sport, Health and Physical Education Discipline Group at the University of Auckland. His research focuses on the interacting themes of education, well-being and human movement.

Wayne Smith

Wayne Smith is retired and is now awarded an Honorary Academic appointment at the Faculty of Education and Social Work, University of Auckland, New Zealand. His research focuses on human movement studies.