Deficit discourses of Indigenous high school students in physical education and school sport and the benefit of a strengths based alternative

This paper reports the positive aspects of participation in physical education (PE) and school sport by Indigenous students as part of the wider findings of a doctoral study carried out at three Australian Capital Territory (ACT) government secondary schools. Data was collected from Indigenous students using group interviews and figurational sociology was used to interpret the findings. Central to figurational sociology are long-term processes and power relationships and it is contended that deficit understandings are inextricably linked to these kinds of relationships between individuals and groups. In particular, the research drew upon the figurational concepts of established and outsider theory (Elias & Scotson, 1994). This study found that Indigenous students were predominantly portrayed according to deficit understandings in both PE and in school sport. This research is important because it connects with a key idea of the Australian Curriculum Health and Physical Education (AC HPE) (ACARA, 2015). This key idea being a ‘strengths based approach’. The paper concludes by identifying opportunities for Indigenous perspectives to be included in the AC HPE according to a strengths based perspective and also highlights related topics for future research. This paper is particularly relevant to primary and high school educators. Introduction The purpose of this research is to demonstrate how perspectives of Indigenous students at three government high schools in the Australian Capital Territory (ACT) can inform Physical Education (PE) curricula and school sport utilising a ‘strengths based approach’ (ACARA, 2015). Such an approach is used to inform the AC HPE (ACARA, 2015) and acknowledges that all students have personal resources that they can utilise in meeting the achievement standards of this curriculum. In contrast to this key idea, Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander peoples have historically been portrayed by non-Indigenous Australians according to deficit understandings (Nakata, 2007). Indeed, a consistent framing of Aboriginal identity as deficient is established across different sites of representation (Fforde et. al., 2013). Sport and PE as two of the more significant sites of representation of Aborigines make significant contributions to the discourse of deficit. The story in sport is that Aborigines are athletic and disadvantaged. Over-representation in certain sports proves disadvantage and confirms Aboriginal identity in deficit terms. Pre-service HPE teachers not surprisingly hold images of Aborigines as athletic and disadvantaged. They consistently use deficit words such as problem, disadvantage, impoverished, unhealthy, bad, welfare, dependant, fragmented, violent and even uncivilised to describe Aborigines (Bamblett, 2016). This firmly places Aborigines as an out-group in comparison to the pre-service teachers. An out-group offering little of value. 35 Learning Communities | Special Issue: 2017 30th AChPER International Conference | Number 21 – November 2017 It is stated in the AC HPE that “the curriculum recognises that students have varying levels of access to personal and community resources depending on a variety of contextual factors that will impact on their decisions and behaviours” (ACARA, 2015). It is these personal and community resources of Indigenous students that this paper is most concerned with and how these have the capacity to benefit all Australians. Such a possible benefit relates to the purposes of the Melbourne Declaration on Educational Goals for Young Australians (MCEETYA, 2008) in making education more relevant for all Australians. The aim of this paper is to draw attention to the assets that the Indigenous student participants in this research possessed and illustrate how these can help all students experience PE and School Sport (PESS) in more meaningful ways. The research question for this study being how can the ideas of the Indigenous student participants and Indigenous knowledge generally be used to add value to contemporary PESS provision? Literature review During the mid-1950s a form of PE emerged termed ‘PE-as-sport-techniques’ with a skills based approach to games and sports being a primary focus (Kirk, 2010). According to Kirk (2010), PE teachers teach ‘PE-as-sport-techniques’ by repetition of practices that are abstract or modified versions of related sports. Rarely are sports taught in their entirety or holistically other than sometimes at the end of a topic or unit of work. Within this model of PE, instruction frequently does not progress beyond an introductory level with similar content repeated over and over again (Kirk, 2010). This form of PE is dated and has not adapted to global societal change (Kirk, 2010). As such, it is limited in its relevance through being restrictive and because of its Eurocentric focus, where content that is primarily British or American is almost exclusively taught (Fitzpatrick, 2009). At the individual teacher level, this kind of PE aligns well with the personal biographies of PE teachers and in particular their strong associations with sport (Green, 2000; McKay, Gore & Kirk, 1990). At the same time that ‘PE-as-sport-techniques’ became popular in many industrialised nations, the multi-activity curriculum also emerged, comprising individual physical activities or sports taught separately as short units of work (Drummond & Pill, 2011). In common with ‘PE-assport-techniques’, the multi-activity curriculum has persisted and is the leading framework for teaching PE in most developed countries including Australia (Capel & Blair, 2007; Drummond & Pill, 2011; Tinning, 2005). This popularity is despite the multi-activity model being recognised almost 30 years ago as not allowing students enough time to develop content knowledge and skills before moving from one activity to another (O’Connor, 2006). Other limitations of the multi-activity approach are that students can be excluded because of ability, or gender and content is often poorly related to the full versions of the games and sports that occur outside of school (Hastie, 2003; O’Connor, 2006; Tinning, 2010). The development and writing of any curriculum is biased, because the values of writers and others of influence tends to be what is most highly valued (Dinan-Thompson, 2009; Ennis, 2003; Penney & Glover, 1998; Wright 1996). In other words, curriculum writers have relative power (Elias, 1978) in deciding what is, and what is not included, as well as what becomes privileged knowledge. According to Ennis (2003), in constructing PE curricula, writers choose what knowledge is most important for students to learn and this content comprises privileged and marginalised knowledge (Macdonald & Tinning, 1995; Tinning, 2004). Privileged knowledge includes science-based content such as ‘motor skills’, ‘biomechanics’ and ‘exercise physiology’, as well as ‘fitness’, and ‘team sports’ with marginalised knowledge being dance and ethnic perspectives including Indigenous games and sports (Tinning, 2004). Similar to curriculum writers teachers also have relative power (Elias, 1978) through being able to have some autonomy over what they teach. It was found in the wider research that this study draws from, that explicitly teaching Indigenous content has been a stated requirement 36 Deficit discourses of Indigenous high school students in physical education and school sport and the benefit of a strengths based alternative | John Williams & Lawrence Bamblett in PE curricula or generic educational policy documents at each of the three schools since the mid-1990s (Williams, 2016a). However, Aboriginal and Torres Strait Island games were found to be rarely or never taught in PE at each school (Williams, 2016b). Method Figurational sociology was used to inform the research design and as the theoretical framework to understand the findings. Fundamental to figurational sociology is the concept of the figuration which contends that all people exist in interdependent relationships and have varying degrees of power according to the nature of the different associations that they are part of (Elias, 1978). These relationships are subject to planned and unplanned processes that occur over time. Within the overarching doctorate research the figuration that was examined was the interdependent people and processes that are involved in providing PESS at the three schools. In this paper, our focus is on the Indigenous students as part of this figuration. However, it is noted that these students do not exist in isolation within the figuration but are inextricably linked by relational ties to other ‘key players’ within this PESS figuration such as principals, executive HPE teachers, classroom HPE teachers and Indigenous Education Officers (IEOs). The non-Indigenous ‘key players’ in the wider research were found to have a monopoly share of the power resource within the figuration (Williams, 2016b). Before data collection, ethics approval was obtained from University of Canberra Human Ethics in Research Committee and the ACT Education and Training Directorate. Data was then collected using semi-structured individual and group interviews at each of the three schools with all participants giving signed consent for their involvement. Transcripts were made for each of the interviews and recurring themes were identified and coded that related to a ‘strengths based approach’. To protect student anonymity and confidentiality each of the three schools is identified in the following section using the letters ‘A,’ ‘B’ and ‘C’. Results and discussion Many of the students liked PE. Most commonly it meant ‘fun and enjoyment’ and it provided opportunities for playing sports and hanging out with friends. ‘Being outside’ was another popular reason why the students liked PE along with being active, health and fitness, skill development, teamwork, and competition. The following responses were typical of many of the students: ... like jus