Ordinary and Extraordinary Stories from Aotearoa New Zealand: A Teacher Educator's Autoethnographic Account of the Struggle to Be Bicultural

Abstract

This article explores the use of autoethnography to investigate and exemplify work as a Pākehā (read European) teacher educator working with undergraduate physical education students in the context of the indigenous Māori culture in Aotearoa New Zealand. To show the author's world and understanding of it, she brings the reader into contact with familiar or unfamiliar events via excerpts from ‘snapshot’ stories, written using writing as a method of inquiry — ‘snapshots' because each story captures a few images and informs from the standpoint of a close-up photograph. Moving back and forth from the character of researcher to the character of participant, the author's intent is to disclose how her participation in the coursework activities she designed for an undergraduate physical education degree, have challenged her cultural identity and ways of knowing. While some might take issue with the topics or dismiss them as subjective, the research shows how autoethnographic dialogue, with and through the author, can highlight cultural, educational and sociological agendas that may have remained hidden from view.