‘The kids are pumped!’: Teachers’ Perceptions of the ‘Pau Te Hau’ High-Intensity Interval Training Programme

Abstract

This article examines generalist teachers’ perceptions of Pau te Hau, a classroom-based high-intensity interval training (HIIT) programme implemented in primary schools in Aotearoa New Zealand. In response to critiques of school-based HIIT as health-centric and instrumental, the study foregrounds teacher sense-making to explore how movement practices are understood, enacted and valued within everyday classroom contexts. Drawing on an interpretivist, sociocultural and culturally responsive theoretical framework, Pau te Hau is conceptualised not as a fitness intervention but as a learning ecology in which movement, digital technologies and Mātauranga Māori operate as mediating resources shaping participation, engagement and wellbeing. The programme comprised 10–15 min HIIT sessions delivered two to three times per week over nine weeks during class time (N = 401 students; mean age 10.6 ± 1.1 years; 17 classes; six schools), facilitated by generalist teachers (N = 17) and supported by a purpose-built app, heart-rate monitors and Indigenous narratives (pūrākau). Semi-structured interviews were conducted with teachers, and thematic analysis revealed that the programme was widely perceived as a catalyst for building student capabilities and confidence. Teachers did not experience Pau te Hau as merely a time-efficient strategy for improving fitness. Rather, they interpreted it as a pedagogically meaningful practice that supported student agency, self-regulation, leadership and readiness to learn. Mātauranga Māori functioned as both a pedagogical and epistemic resource, providing cultural grounding and relational meaning for movement, although teachers’ varying levels of cultural confidence shaped enactment. Digital technologies acted as sociocultural mediators, enhancing motivation and collective engagement while also introducing familiar pedagogical tensions. This study contributes to discourse about physical activity interventions by reconceptualising classroom-based HIIT as a culturally grounded, socio-culturally mediated pedagogical practice and contributes to wider debates on physical activity, Indigenous knowledge integration and technology-supported movement in schooling.