The implementation of an Australian sports education development strategy into a developing country

Abstract

In 1994 the Papua New Guinea Sports Commission along with the Education Department and sporting bodies acknowledged the difficulties faced by physical education as part of the curriculum and took on the task of providing quality programming. The avenue for this came in the form of the Aussie Sport innovation program, with particular accent on the modified sports. There was a genuine desire to improve the quality of physical education that was been provided in the schools. Instead of targeting all school levels the community schools were the focus. Aussie Sport was the catalyst for this change and the Train The Trainers Workshop was the vehicle for the innovations implementation. This study details the introduction of this Australian sports education strategy into Papua New Guinea, and examines whether a program that has been designed for one cultural and sociological environment can be successfully implemented into another. The deliverers of the workshop are examined as are the project coordinators. The course participants (the trainees) are investigated as are the community school students of two pilot schools. The implementation of the innovation is documented in these two schools and finally the trainees involved in the innovations delivery at these schools are surveyed in order to answer the research questions and put forward conclusions and recommendations.