Sport and culture connects with Kōtuitui

Issue: Volume 102, Number 3

Posted: 8 March 2023
Reference #: 1HAZpi

Kaiako have been collaborating with Sport New Zealand, Healthy Active Learning advisors and community connectors, New Zealand Football and Māori Football Aotearoa to create Kōtuitui, a sport engagement service that supports ākonga to use the FIFA Women’s World Cup Australia & New Zealand 2023 to better understand culture and collective identity.

The FIFA Women’s World Cup 2023TM is bringing ākonga together to celebrate collective identity.

The FIFA Women’s World Cup 2023 is bringing ākonga together to celebrate collective identity.

For the last 12 months, a group of kaiako across Aotearoa New Zealand have collaborated with Healthy Active Learning advisors and community connectors to help design a set of resources and services that provide ākonga with the knowledge, understanding and capability to connect to cultures other than their own, both in Aotearoa New Zealand and across the globe.  

The kaiako have been working with representatives from New Zealand Football and Māori Football Aotearoa to workshop, test and pilot classroom and club-based learning experiences that deepen ākonga understanding of how interactions change societies, and support ākonga to broaden their knowledge of ngā ahurea me te tuakiri kiritōpū (culture and collective identity). 

Culture and identity  

Paula Hansen, Women’s World Cup legacy and leverage general manager at New Zealand Football, says her sport wants to play its part to support ākonga to be more active, and help connect them to local and global communities.  

“Major sporting events such as the FIFA Women’s World Cup 2023TM coming to Aotearoa New Zealand provide a great opportunity for us all to celebrate, and better understand, our own cultures and collective identities and those of other countries around the globe.  

“We have really enjoyed working with the sector to design Kōtuitui and look forward to supporting kaiako to implement it during terms 2 and 3 this year,” says Paula.  

Kōtuitui involves ākonga exploring how culture and collective identity in Aotearoa New Zealand has been formed and continues to be shaped by people connecting locally.  

Students answer questions such as why whakapapa and tūrangawaewae are important to culture and collective identity in Aotearoa New Zealand, the impact of immigration on this identity, how connecting with one another involves rights and responsibilities, and how our culture and collective identity continues to evolve.  

Ākonga then research how major sporting events provide opportunities to connect with people globally and how these events can help further shape us.  

Other subjects explored include: how sports like football and futsal contribute to identity, and similarities and differences between the cultures of World Cup hosts, and how hosting major sporting events in Aotearoa help to shape our culture and collective identity.  

The learning experiences went through a final testing and review process in term 1, 2023 and are available to kaiako from the beginning of term 2.

Understanding different cultures is a key opportunity from global sporting events being hosted in Aotearoa.

Understanding different cultures is a key opportunity from global sporting events being hosted in Aotearoa.

 

Games support learning  

Meanwhile, New Zealand Football, Māori Football Aotearoa, and the Oceania Football Confederation have designed a set of games for ākonga that support the Kōtuitui classroom learning experiences. From term 2, kaiako can join a community coach education session at a football club or federation to learn about how to integrate the football and futsal games with classroom learning.  

In addition, around 100 selected schools and kura nationally will receive an in-school delivery programme of these games, facilitated by their local regional football federation. All participating schools and kura will be supported to hold a mini world cup festival to celebrate and share their research at the end of their Kōtuitui learning journey.  

Healthy Active Learning regional lead at Sport Canterbury Dean Rouston says, “Our advisors and community connectors have enjoyed working alongside kaiako as Kōtuitui has been developed. We are looking forward to supporting schools and kura in our region as they participate and then run their own festivals.  

“It’s incredibly important that we use the knowledge and experience of kaiako in the development of teaching resources, as this approach helps ensure they are fit for purpose.”  

In Our Backyard 

Kōtuitui is the fifth ‘learning with sport’ topic to be developed as part of the ‘In Our Backyard’ project, which is led by Sport NZ in partnership with the Ministry of Business, Innovation and Employment (MBIE), and four national sports organisations.  

In Our Backyard is developing new opportunities for ākonga to learn with sport as Aotearoa New Zealand hosts a series of major sporting events.  

Sport NZ tamariki lead Karen Laurie says, “In Our Backyard is all about putting young people’s wellbeing at the centre of the way in which sports engage with schools and deepening our collective understanding of how quality sport experiences can support and enhance local curricula or marau-ā-kura.  

“We have been really encouraged by the progress cricket and rugby made in reshaping how they engage with schools and kura as they hosted their women’s world cups and are excited by what New Zealand Football has planned for schools and kura as the FIFA Women’s World Cup 2023TM gets underway,” says Karen. 


Healthy Active Learning

Healthy Active Learning is a joint government initiative between Sport NZ, Te Whatu Ora Health New Zealand, and the Ministry of Education to improve the wellbeing of tamariki and rangatahi through healthy eating and drinking and quality physical activity. 

The 'In Our Backyard' project is supporting more opportunities for ākonga to learn through sport.

The 'In Our Backyard' project is supporting more opportunities for ākonga to learn through sport.

BY Education Gazette editors
Education Gazette | Tukutuku Kōrero, reporter@edgazette.govt.nz

Posted: 6:39 pm, 8 March 2023

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