Bevan Erueti

Assessment deadlines are a core component of academic structure in higher education, intended to promote time management, accountability, and fairness (Kennette and Rivers 2024; Nickels and Uddin 2...

Four decades of research on the health effects of ‘connection to nature’ identifies many wellbeing advantages for young people. Yet this literature has developed largely without reference to biophysical evidence about mass biodiversity loss, the degradation of marine environments and climate change. As these interlocking planetary crises progress, children will be more likely to witness the marine environments they learn about degrade or disappear as they grow up. Improving ocean literacy is important to protect marine environments into the future. However little is known about how learning about ocean degradation affects young people's emotional wellbeing. We undertook qualitative research to investigate how ocean literacy educators in Aotearoa New Zealand view the content they deliver in relation to the emotional wellbeing of young people. Semi‐structured interviews were conducted with 21 key informants from non‐government organisations (NGOs), Ministry of Education funded programmes, university‐community partnerships, youth‐led initiatives and local and national museums and aquariums. Transcripts were analysed using the six steps of Braun and Clarke's (2022) reflexive thematic analysis. Ocean literacy education was described as positively affecting young people's emotional wellbeing through interactive experiences in coastal environments. These provided opportunities for experiencing wonder, curiosity and a shared sense of connection and belonging. Educators reported witnessing distress and overwhelm in young people when some information was delivered. This resulted in educators ‘not focusing on the negative’ and moving straight to solutions young people could take part in. Our findings provide opportunities for re‐imagining ocean literacy education as a space for promoting mental wellbeing, especially when young people have the opportunity to be part of collective experiences that promote joy and wonder. Intergenerational solutions where young people can be supported to take action with adults who work in solidarity with them are also recommended. Further research into how educators can be resourced to acknowledge and facilitate support around young people's negative emotional responses (such as grief, overwhelm and anxiety) is required. Read the free Plain Language Summary for this article on the Journal blog.

Nutrition education (NE) is one of several strategies aimed at enhancing the dietary intake of athletes. This study investigated NE preferences of New Zealand and Australian athletes competing nationally and internationally. Athletes (n = 124, 22 (18, 27) years, female 54.8%) from 22 sports completed an online survey, with responses analysed using descriptive statistics. Teaching techniques considered ‘extremely effective’ were life examples (47.6% of athletes), hands-on activities (30.6%), and discussions with a facilitator (30.6%). Setting personal nutrition goals was important to most athletes (83.9%), along with two-way feedback with a facilitator (75.0%). General nutrition topics considered ‘essential’ were energy requirements (52.9%), hydration (52.9%), and nutrient deficiencies (43.3%). Performance topics considered ‘essential’ were recovery (58.1%), pre-exercise nutrition (51.6%), nutrition during exercise (50.0%), and energy requirements for training (49.2%). Athletes preferred a ‘combination of in-person group and one-on-one sessions’ (25% of athletes), ‘one-on one sessions’ (19.2%) and ‘in-person group sessions’ (18.3%), with only 13.3% interested in ‘exclusively online delivery’. Sessions of 31–60 min (61.3% of athletes) held monthly (37.5%) and undertaken with athletes of the same sporting calibre (61.3%) were favoured by the participants. The preferred facilitator was a performance dietitian or nutritionist (82.1% of athletes), who had knowledge of the sport (85.5%), experience in sports nutrition (76.6%), and credibility (73.4%). This research provides novel insights into the factors that need to be considered when designing and implementing nutrition education for athletes.

The majority of Indigenous health models do not directly acknowledge that health is a contested political space. Providing a Foucauldian analysis, this article suggests a function of biopower is to naturalise discourses such as the poor Māori health statistic to appear based on factual evidence and thus are apolitical. Employing Foucault’s triad of power—sovereign, disciplinary and biopower—to understand the genealogy of Māori health, this article proffers mana motuhake (Māori political self-governance) as an appropriate health analytic because it, first, identifies Indigenous health as political and, second, because it recognises the disempowering role that colonialism has played in relation to Māori biopolitical self-governance. Hence, we suggest Māori health will be enhanced by mana motuhake and that research underpinned by Indigenous agency and self-governance resists biopower. The article references two Ageing Well National Science Challenge–funded research projects because they innovatively fundamentalise mana motuhake and politics to Indigenous health.

Background: The Aotearoa New Zealand population is ageing accompanied by health and social challenges including significant inequities that exist between Māori and non-Māori around poor ageing and health. Although historically kaumātua (elder Māori) faced a dominant society that failed to realise their full potential as they age, Māori culture has remained steadfast in upholding elders as cultural/community anchors. Yet, many of today’s kaumātua have experienced ‘cultural dissonance’ as the result of a hegemonic dominant culture subjugating an Indigenous culture, leading to generations of Indigenous peoples compelled or forced to dissociate with their culture. The present research project, Kaumātua Mana Motuhake Pōī (KMMP) comprises two interrelated projects that foreground dimensions of wellbeing within a holistic Te Ao Māori (Māori epistemology) view of wellbeing. Project 1 involves a tuakana-teina/peer educator model approach focused on increasing service access and utilisation to support kaumātua with the greatest health and social needs. Project 2 focuses on physical activity and cultural knowledge exchange (including te reo Māori--Māori language) through intergenerational models of learning.Methods: Both projects have a consistent research design and common set of methods that coalesce around the emphasis on kaupapa kaumatua; research projects led by kaumātua and kaumātua providers that advance better life outcomes for kaumātua and their communities. The research design for each project is a mixed-methods, pre-test and two post-test, staggered design with 2–3 providers receiving the approach first and then 2–3 receiving it on a delayed basis. A pre-test (baseline) of all participants will be completed. The approach will then be implemented with the first providers. There will then be a follow-up data collection for all participants (post-test 1). The second providers will then implement the approach, which will be followed by a final data collection for all participants (post-test 2).Discussion: Two specific outcomes are anticipated from this research; firstly, it is hoped that the research methodology provides a framework for how government agencies, researchers and relevant sector stakeholders can work with Māori communities. Secondly, the two individual projects will each produce a tangible approach that, it is anticipated, will be cost effective in enhancing kaumātua hauora and mana motuhake.Trial registration: Australia New Zealand Clinical Trial Registry (ACTRN12620000316909).Registered6 March 2020.

Māori (indigenous people of New Zealand) athletes who participate in elite-level sport are a very diverse social group, many of whom function adaptively in the high echelons of sport in Aotearoa New Zealand society and on the world stage. This article proposes one major question: how do Māori athletes weave their Māori identity publicly and privately in a global sporting context? Utilizing an amalgamation of Kaupapa Māori theory, 1 ^1. A research paradigm and methdology that positions Māori epistemology at the fore. View all notes critical race theory and narrative inquiry approaches exposes a negotiation of ethno-cultural identities in both public and private ways. The narratives of Māori elite athletes identify how they experience ethno-cultural identity through the implementation of tikanga Māori 2 ^2. A word that describes the correct Māori procedures and conventions as a general guide in Māori traditional customs. View all notes and Matauranga Māori (Māori knowledge and cultural practices) and how these practices impact on their identities as Māori, athletes, New Zealanders and a team in the public domain of the Olympic and/or Commonwealth Games. The private rituals and personal explorations of ethno-cultural identity by Māori athletes in elite-level sport were also revealed. Both the public and private expressions of Māori identity were described and explained through a Māori concept referred to as mauri (individual life force), and the elements of ethno-cultural identity were visually represented as Te Whariki Tuakiri or the identity mat. The use of culturally appropriate concepts and metaphors provides a more in-depth and sensitive picture of what influences ethno-cultural identity for Māori athletes in elite-level sport in a way that will benefit Māori athletes and their ethno-cultural communities in general.