New Zealand physical education teachers' knowledge and teaching of Olympism.

The philosophy of Olympism is integrated into The New Zealand Curriculum (Ministry of Education, 2007) through the four underlying concepts of the Health and Physical Education Learning Area. These links can be specifically identified in the concept of Attitudes and Values (Culpan, 2008b; Culpan, Bruce & Galvan, 2008; Thorn, 2010). Therefore, the aim of this research was to provide an insight into the knowledge that New Zealand secondary physical education teachers have about Olympism and their experiences teaching it. An interpretive, mixed-methods, methodology was used, with the research being conducted in two parts. Part One consisted of a survey that 12 participants completed. Part Two consisted of interviews with five of the 12 participants from Part One. All of the participants were Physical Education Head of Departments from secondary schools in the Christchurch region. The research showed that all 12 participants had heard of the term Olympism, however, only three participants identified as teaching it. In Part Two, the participants showed some general understanding of Olympism, however, they were unable to give a clear and concise definition. They thought that the development of moral character was an important part of physical education and could see that Olympism could be used to develop this. Participants could see implicit links between Olympism and the curriculum; those who taught Olympism did so using a wide variety of implicit and explicit approaches. This research highlighted that Olympism does have a presence in physical education; however, considerable work needs to be done to ensure that this is consistent and effective. From this research, I suggest a focus on pre-service and in-service education, the updating of resources and development of a daily lesson framework to improve the teaching of Olympism in secondary physical education in New Zealand