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The Cook Islands secondary school’s curriculum Oraanga e te Tupuanga Meitaki | The Health and Well-being Curriculum (OTM | HWC) derives from the New Zealand Curriculum (NZC). While a western education system is based on the concept of building human capital, which conflicts with Pacific Indigenous education values, The OTM | HWC has been adapted to include Cook Islands values and philosophies. Despite a well-intentioned curriculum, the implementation may face additional challenges, with resourcing and teacher recruitment. The design and delivery of the OTM | HWC has the potential to educate the whole person, but students experiences may differ from intended outcomes. With this in mind, the aim of this research is to understand the potential that a culturally relevant Physical Education (PE) curriculum has to empower young people. This research therefore asks: 1) How has the OTM | HWC been adapted and implemented in Rarotonga, Cook Islands? 2) How is culture utilised within the curriculum and how did this play out in schools? 3) What challenges might be present with respect to the design and delivery of PE programmes? As this thesis is grounded in Development Studies and draws from theories of Sport for Development and PE for Development, of particular interest is understanding from a gendered perspective how PE can facilitate empowerment in Rarotonga. This research is a qualitative case study. Fieldwork was undertaken in two secondary schools in Rarotonga, both of which follow an NZ model of education in the senior school, with students gaining the NZ qualification the National Certificate in Education Achievement (NCEA). Methods of data collection consisted of classroom observations, semi-structured interviews, informal conversations, focus groups and a fieldwork journal. In total 25 participants were interviewed. Through the application of a culturally relevant empowerment framework, which was the theoretical lens by which the findings were deliberated, this resea

There is a plethora of development literature, both academic and policy oriented, that problematises female-headed households in normative ways, positioning them as socially isolated, stigmatised, lacking in agency and poor, equated with the ‘feminisation of poverty’. Through positioning female-headed households as ‘other’ there is also a notable lack of regard for the diverse socio-political and cultural context which within female-headed households reside. By situating this research within a feminist postdevelopment framework, and through the use of participatory methodologies and the articulation of individual biographies of the development experience, this dissertation seeks to re-position our understanding of the development experience of female-headed households. Drawing on the case of Samoa, this study demonstrates how fa’asamoa (the Samoan way), inclusive of fa’amatai (customary system of governance), the feagaiga (brother/sister relationship) and the practice of fa’alavelave (demonstrating love and concern), all support the welfare and wellbeing of female-headed households, including any children born of these households. They also afford women in female-headed households a certain level of voice and agency. The thesis further highlights that the category of female-headed households was not well understood within Samoa because neither villagers nor policy makers labelled women in this way. Rather, women were recognised in relation to the cultural framework of fa’asamoa which situates them in terms of their position within their family, their natal village and the wider community. This illustrates the importance of culture when attempting to frame the development experiences of female-headed households in any part of the world. Development researchers and practitioners need to seriously question just how useful the practice of categorising and labelling is to Development Studies. In highlighting the problematic nature of universal labels and categories, this