Townsend, Robert C.Hynard, Michael2026-09-232026-09-232026https://hdl.handle.net/10289/18673This thesis examines how disability education is incorporated within sport- and exerciserelated programmes across Aotearoa New Zealand universities, and what curriculum and institutional mechanisms contribute to its scarcity. Disability education is understood as a pathway for developing graduates’ disability-informed knowledge, skills, dispositions, and judgement, instead of a single topic, awareness activity, or optional area of interest. Using an interpretivist qualitative design, semi-structured interviews were conducted with nine educators and curriculum leaders from seven of the eight New Zealand universities offering relevant programmes. Participants discussed curriculum positioning, learning outcomes, assessment, staffing, partnerships, authentic learning opportunities, and the programme-level conditions that shape disability-related provision. Data were analysed using reflexive thematic analysis, supported by a cross-case comparison and curriculum-theory lens attentive to the intended, enacted, and experienced curriculum, hidden-curriculum signals, ableism, and institutional conditions. The findings indicate that disability education involves more than whether it is present or absent. Across the programme contexts described by participants, disability education was often implicit, episodic, weakly specified, optional, or folded into broader inclusion and equity language. Disability-related learning was evident in dedicated papers, threaded or infused content, guest teaching, placements, community engagement, and individual staff initiatives. Still, these forms did not always create a reliable pathway for all students. Scarcity was produced through several interacting mechanisms: weak curriculum visibility; reliance on individual champions and uneven staff expertise; limited professional development; curriculum crowding, governance, and viability pressures; and uneven access to authentic learning, which depended on staff-held partnerships and community capacity. These conditions meant that disability education could be valued in principle while remaining fragile in practice. The thesis argues that scarcity is best understood as reduced pathway reliability. Strengthening disability education does not require one uniform model across institutions, but the findings suggest that programmes are needed to make disability capability more visible, coordinated, assessed, and sustainable. The study does not assess students’ competence or directly represent disabled students’ experiences. Its contribution lies in providing an educator-informed account of how disability education is positioned within New Zealand tertiary sport- and exercise-related programmes, and in offering curriculumfocused language for future programme review, development, and research.enAll items in Research Commons are provided for private study and research purposes and are protected by copyright with all rights reserved unless otherwise indicated.Thesis