Defining sport tourism: a content analysis of an evolving epistemology

ABSTRACT

This paper conducts a systematic evaluation of one of the primary journals in the field of sport tourism research since its establishment in 1993. Drawing on extant literature with varying disciplinary approaches, this meta-review traces the development of key concepts and definitions underlying an evolving epistemology connected to sport tourism, as evidenced within the Journal of Sport & Tourism (JS&T). It does so by examining research specific to content previously unexplored. The study first conducted a content analysis based upon a keyword search, focusing on phrases in which sport and tourism appeared together. The study reviewed all texts, including articles, book chapters and editorials (n?=?517), for the years 1993–2014. We then constructed a thematic analysis based upon the most common defining elements found within these texts. These extracted definitions were analyzed according to their paradigmatic elements. Based on these findings, this paper suggests the need to further define the epistemological boundaries of sport tourism for the twenty-first century.     

Aesthetic experience as an aspect of embodied learning: stories from physical education student teachers

In this article we explore aesthetic experience as an aspect of embodied learning with focus on the moving body. Our theoretical framework is mainly based on the work of John Dewey. In the first part of the article we identify our understanding of central concepts and draw some lines to their implication for physical education (PE). In the second part we then use the theoretical framework in an empirical study inspired by the tradition of pragmatism. The aim is to study how physical education student teachers (PETE students) feel when participating in ball game, and how their feelings are related to the moving activity. Empirical data were mainly generated through observations from two ball game lessons and stories written by 16 PETE students. All stories were subjected to a categorical analysis of content. After analysing the empirical material, four categories emerged built on two pair of words: familiar or unfamiliar, and pleased or displeased. In the discussing section of this article, we put forward that moving activities in PE often are regarded as being technical or instrumental. By using an aesthetic perspective on embodied learning, however, we can go beyond that impression and show other dimensions of participation in ball game. It may become an important shift from exploring performance only to studying learning connected to feelings.     

Hegemonic masculinity in sport education: case studies of pre-service physical education teachers with teaching orientations

Previous research had indicated that pre-service teachers (PTs) with coaching orientations reinforced sexism and masculine bias while employing the sport education (SE) model. The purpose of the current study was to examine whether or not and the degree to which SE delivered by PTs with teaching orientations served to combat or reinforce sexism and masculine bias. Participants were two PTs who taught four SE seasons during their culminating internship. The theory of hegemonic masculinity guided data collection and analysis. Data were collected through formal, informal and stimulated recall interviews, passive participant observation, and document analysis. Analytic induction and constant comparison were used to analyze the data. Findings revealed that masculine bias and sexism were largely combatted and rejected during the SE seasons and that the PTs provided a relatively equitable experience for girls and smaller, less physically able boys. Key reasons for the PTs' success included their liberal views about sport, their willingness to confront the prevailing sporting culture and the fact that they taught elementary-aged children.     

Imploding the boundaries of transformative/critical pedagogy and research in physical education and sport pedagogy: looking inward for (self-)consciousness/knowledge and transformation

The purpose of this paper is to analyze the concept of ‘transformative pedagogy’ (TP) in physical education and sport pedagogy (PESP) and research in order to provide an alternative perspective on freedom, justice and the limits of transformation. Although some of the limits of TP have already been pointed out in the literature, such limits have been presented as though originating and having to be resolved out there, in socio-cultural–political contexts. In an attempt to redirect the attention from the social to the personal, this paper points out the possibility of TP's limits being also within critical pedagogues and researchers ourselves. After analyzing three barriers to (self-)consciousness/knowledge (SC/K), two viable methods for developing SC/K and transformation are provided.     

Opportunities and challenges facing NGOs using sport as a vehicle for development in post-apartheid South Africa

Post-apartheid South Africa manifests poor social indicators with over half the population living below the poverty line and the worst levels of inequality in the world, with much work needed to overcome the skewed legacy of apartheid. Sport suffered in this system resulting in unequal access to sporting facilities and opportunities, meaning many South Africans cannot exercise their right to play. Despite this legacy, sport can fulfil a vital developmental role in alleviating some of these issues. The state has a major role to play but it must be supported by civil society and non-governmental organisations (NGOs) who have the ability to deliver in situations where government has struggled. This article researches the opportunities and challenges NGOs encounter when using sport for development within the education system, in post-apartheid South Africa. This study used a qualitative approach to collect data on the opportunities and challenges encountered by two NGOs based in Cape Town that use sport as a means of development, but in markedly different ways. The study suggests that NGOs face a variety of conceptual, technical, logistical and organisational challenges using sport in schools and should enact certain measures to reduce resistance from educators and ensure successful programmes. The interaction between NGOs, schools and the state Department of Education is a complicated process that presents obstacles and opportunities. Nevertheless, despite these challenges it is clear NGOs can support schools in South Africa to optimise their physical activity programmes in the backdrop of a stagnating education system and a lack of sporting support from the government. NGOs in an educational setting such as schools operate in what Houlihan has identified as a crowded policy space. Yet, the observations in this study suggest that, particularly in the context of education, a partnership policy model of NGO work is preferred.     

‘Rings on the water’: examining the pedagogical approach at a football program for detained youth in Sweden

Abstract

Studies indicate that sport within youth institutional settings can be beneficial (e.g. learning social skills) or problematic (e.g. social exclusion) depending on how they are structured, delivered and, ultimately, experienced by students. In this article, we examine the experiences of students and staff in an educational sport program at a Swedish all-male youth detention home (ages 16–20) in order to increase understanding of the pedagogical approach of a sports-based program for detained youth. Drawing on interviews with both students and staff, we identify and elaborate four aspects of the program—building a pedagogical platform, ‘seeing’ and meeting students, creating a supportive environment, and thinking beyond the institution—that were collectively represented to initiate and guide a process of growth and change for students. We discuss how these aspects of the program’s pedagogical approach, in contrast to deficiency-based approaches, can provide a useful framework for delivering sport in ways that can benefit detained youth and other young people in socially vulnerable situations.     

Selling out (in) sport management: practically evaluating the state of the American (Sporting) Union

When teaching in Sport Management programs professors are often forced to respond to the actions and teachings of professionals in the field. According to the study by Kincheloe & Steinberg many of these normalized and, indeed celebrated, behaviors are actions that are part and parcel of the ‘recovery movement’ which (re)inscribe new forms of colonization, sexism, racism, classism and so on. Given that these performances are often considered ‘good business practice’, it is now more important than ever to challenge these conventions in what has been termed the post-neoliberal moment.

This paper, therefore, analyzes and explains how the mundane recycling of borrowed thought has seeped into America's collegiate educational system—particularly in sport management programs. It does so through a critical examination of Amber's educational and pre-professional experience as an intern for various sporting constituencies. Further, we examine the disguised precedence and obligatory requisites of the sporting industry, which use exploitative and manipulative marketing tactics to fabricate a hyperreal milieu of sporting production and consumption. Given this context, the project at present seeks to (re)evaluate just what we, as teachers, owe our students as they venture into an economy facing ‘hard times’.     

Reflecting on the moral bases of critical pedagogy in PETE: toward a Foucaultian perspective on ethics and the care of the self

In teacher education and in physical education teacher education (PETE), the possibilities and pitfalls of critical pedagogy (CP) for transforming society have been frequently debated. From these debates, it has become quite clear that the lines separating ‘technocrats’ from ‘radicals’ are so strongly drawn that limit the advance of PETE. In the spirit of collegiality, we offer an alternative approach to CP based on Foucault's genealogical work on the History of Sexuality. It promotes a pedagogical perspective toward the development of ethics and the care of the self. We argue that this approach, far from discrediting what non-critical pedagogues do, can not only advance the practice of CP, but also open up new ways of conceptualizing PETE that are worth considering both by critical pedagogues and by the members of other pedagogical camps. We discuss the implications of this approach in the personal, social–professional and political spheres.     

Exploring the organizational capacity and organizational problems of disability sport clubs in Germany using matched pairs analysis

Previous research examining people with disabilities has mainly looked at participation barriers and has formulated implications for sport providers; however, the supply side has been largely neglected. The purpose of this study was to explore the organizational capacity and organizational problems of clubs that provide sport for people with disabilities (referred to as ‘disability sport clubs’). The conceptual model of organizational capacity was used as a theoretical framework. Within a German sport club sample (n = 19,345), a sub-sample of disability sport clubs (n = 521) was identified. The idea was to compare disability sport clubs with other sport clubs; however, comparing a small sub-sample with a large rest-sample may inevitably lead to statistical significance. Therefore, a matched pairs analysis was applied. Since disability sport clubs were significantly larger in terms of members and sports and were located in bigger communities, statistical twins were identified in the dataset that were similar in size and location. The results showed that clubs providing sport for people with disabilities are not specific disability sport clubs. Evidently, these are large multi-sports clubs that have greater capacity for catering for older adults and low-income people, for strategic planning, and for establishing relationships with other institutions in the community than their statistical twins. The regression results indicated that strategic planning significantly contributed to the reduction of several organizational problems of disability sport clubs. The findings have implications for policy makers, club management, and sport management scholars.     

Mind games: The inclusion of trivia as a sport in the Pan Pacific Masters Games

This case follows Shane Walters, who was successful in his proposal to have trivia included as a sport in the Pan Pacific Masters Games. Shane is now tasked with planning, programming, and delivering a sport programme, as well as marketing the programme to potential participants. The case is particularly relevant for courses that cover event planning, event marketing, and event tourism. The case is applicable to both undergraduate and postgraduate courses.     

Images of the Body from Popular Culture: Engaging Adolescent Girls in Critical Inquiry

The purpose of this paper is to highlight how I use images from teen magazines to engage girls in critical inquiry about the body. This process is about co-constructing bodily knowledge and reflecting critically on this knowledge. The analysis is broken into three main parts: (a) tapping girls' interests; (b) helping girls name how they experience their bodies; and (c) using images to critique dominant stories of the body. Within each of these sections, I will foreground the process by looking at the curricular tasks as well as the verbal engagement through which the girls and I negotiated the tasks together. The data are used to illustrate the pedagogical possibilities of engaging girls in critical inquiry on body. I conclude the paper by discussing the pedagogical possibilities for studying the body with adolescent girls that emerged and reflect critically on the struggles involved in the process of engaging girls in critical inquiry.     

The experience of watching baseball games in Korea: an analysis of user-generated content on social media using Leximancer

The current study explores international tourists’ experiences of watching professional baseball games in Korea. Total 152 reviews posted by tourists on TripAdvisor were analyzed through Leximancer, a computer program used in the qualitative content analysis. The software identified three dominant themes of tourist experiences: the distinctive atmosphere of Korean professional baseball games, the diverse services in the stadium, and fanatical cheering behavior for the team. Moreover, it revealed that international tourists were generally positive toward the culturally distinctive style of Korean professional baseball games. This study suggests that the professional sports of a travel destination can be a form of providing international tourists with pleasurable experiences and a way to learn about the distinctive Korean baseball culture.     

Commentary on research into learning in physical education: towards a mature field of knowledge

In this commentary, I consider each of the papers in this special issue in regard to their contribution to a debate on the nature of learning in physical education (PE). I also discuss how we might take this aspiration further by moving beyond a ‘mere’ debate over learning theories to a knowledge building process in which knowledge claims are ‘tested’ against their compatibility (or non-compatibility) with other ‘knowings’. In this regard, I introduce the idea of vertical integration or compatibility as a consideration for building a more mature field of study of learning in PE.     

Laying the foundations for physical literacy in Wales: the contribution of the Foundation Phase to the development of physical literacy

Background: The Foundation Phase in Wales is a play-based curriculum for pupils aged 3–7 years old. Children learn through more holistic areas of learning in place of traditional subjects. As such, the subject of physical education in its traditional form no longer exists for pupils under the age of 7 in Wales. In light of the role of physical education in developing physical literacy and in particular the importance of this age group for laying the foundations of movement for lifelong engagement in physical activity, the disappearance of physical education from the curriculum could be deemed to be a concern.

Purpose: The purpose of this study was to explore the Foundation Phase as a naturalistic intervention and examine its contribution to the development of physical literacy.

Participants and setting: Participants included year 1 pupils (N?=?49) aged 5 and 6 from two schools in contrasting locations. A smaller group within each class was selected through purposive sampling for the repeated measures assessments (N?=?18).

Research design and methods: A complementarity mixed-method design combined quantitative and qualitative methods to study the Foundation Phase as a naturalistic intervention. Quantitative data were generated with the Test of Gross Motor Development-2 administered to the sample group of children from both schools as a quasi-repeated measure, the physical competence subscale of the Pictorial Scale of Perceived Competence and Social Acceptance and the Leuven Involvement Scale for Young Children. Qualitative data were generated throughout the study from the analysis of video and field notes through participant observation. Data from the mixed methods were analysed through complementarity to give a rich insight into pupils’ progress and experiences in relation to physical literacy.

Results: Overall analysis of the data from TGMD-2 showed significant improvements in the Gross Motor Quotient and Locomotor skills from T1 to T3, but no significant improvement in object control. Data from qualitative methods were analysed to explore processes that may account for these findings. Video and field notes complement the quantitative data highlighting that children were developing their locomotor skills in many aspects of their learning. Observations using the Leuven Involvement Scale indicated that children had high levels of involvement in their learning and apparent in video and field notes was pupils’ motivation for movement. Paired sample t-tests (N?=?18) conducted on the Harter and Pike perceived physical competence six-item score subscales (T1 and T3) indicated a significant difference in the mean perceived physical competence scores on the six-item scale between T1and T3. Qualitative data explored pupils’ confidence for movement in many areas of learning.

Conclusion: The combination of quantitative and qualitative data indicates that the Foundation Phase is an early childhood curriculum that lays the foundations of physical literacy with the exception of aspects of the physical competence, specifically object control skills. Although these skills only contribute to psychomotor aspects of physical literacy they are strongly associated with later engagement in physical activity. The development of specific physical skills such as object control skills may need more specialist input with early childhood pedagogy teachers trained in motor development to see significant improvements.     

‘You look like a machito!’: a decolonial analysis of the social in/exclusion of female participants in a Colombian sport for development and peace organization

Abstract

This article critically explores the relationship between the gendered nature of sport in Colombia and girls and young women’s social in/exclusion in football (soccer) through the lived experiences of female participants involved in a local Sport for Development and Peace (SDP) organization. Building on 6 months of ethnographic fieldwork and Lave and Wenger’s theory of Community of Practice (CoP), I explore the complex and connected gendered social elements that constrain girls and young women’s participation. Analyzing these processes and mechanisms through a decolonial lens, I reveal the existence of colonial residues that perpetuate and reinforce females positioning as peripheral actors in sport. The findings demonstrate how female participants are required to negotiate spaces with contradictory gendered meanings and confirm that social transformation within masculine structures is difficult to achieve. This research encourages SDP researchers to further engage with decolonial theory.     

An analysis of the attraction and holding power of motor skill stations used in a mastery motivational physical education climate for preschool children

Background: The template for the current study was the project conducted by Rosenthal [1973. “An Ecological Study of Free Play in the Nursery School.” Doctoral diss., Wayne State University] where she investigated the attraction and holding power of various learning centres during free play in a naturalistic preschool setting. Rosenthal’s most significant conclusion was that the characteristics of individual settings were more significant predictors of free play than demographic variables.

Purpose: The purpose of this study was to follow Rosenthal’s design within a physical education setting to answer three key questions; (i) across lessons, what is the extent and range of engagement across different activity stations, (ii) which activities have a stronger or weaker attractiveness in terms of enticing children to practice, and (iii) which activities have stronger or weaker holding power in terms of their capacity to sustain engagement?

Participants and setting: The participants in this study were 12, four-year-old children (10 boys, 2 girls) who attended a daycare centre that serves mostly African American children. The children participated in a biweekly motor programme promoting motor-skill instruction over a ten-week period (～600 minutes). The mastery motivational climate of the programme was based on achievement goal theory and included six to eight motor-skill stations designed to promote locomotor and object-control skills, core balance, spatial awareness, as well as leg and arm strength.

Methods: All sessions were videotaped using two wall-mounted cameras located in the top corners of the play area. The total and percentage of time each child spent directly engaged ‘in’ each station was determined, as well as source (self, peer, or teacher) responsible for redirection of activity. Attraction power was measured as the number of different children who visited a station at least one time during a lesson, while holding power was measured as the mean time per focal child entry. Deductive analysis was then conducted by systematically looking for similarities or differences between each activity’s attraction/holding power and those elements suggested by Rosenthal that would lead to satiation or prolonged engagement.

Findings: The data on initiation and termination showed that 86.1% of station entries were spontaneously instigated by the children themselves, where on average they visited 4.43 different stations per 30-minute session. The most attractive settings were characterized by having elements of novelty, authenticity, and appeared to match the skill of the children. There was a wide range of setting differences in holding power, extending from just a little under a minute’s average stay at kicking stations, to involvement lasting four times as long at jumping stations. Holding power was rooted in the extent to which the activity stations were built for success, had the potential for modification, and provided frequent indicators of progress.

Conclusions: The major findings from this study would be that inter-setting variation is perhaps a more appropriate target for consideration in the design of learning tasks than is inter-individual variation, because settings are considerably more amenable to teacher control than are individual personalities. Implications for the design of tasks in physical education are included.     

Tracing the origins of athlete development models in sport: a citation path analysis

Reviews of the sport psychology literature have identified a number of models of athlete development in sport (Alfermann & Stambulova, 2007; Durand-Bush & Salmela, 2001). However, minimal research has investigated the origins of knowledge from which each model was developed. The purpose of this study was to systematically examine the influential texts responsible for providing the basis of athlete development models in sport. A citation path analysis of the sport psychology literature was used to generate a knowledge development path of seven athlete development models in sport. The analysis identified influential texts and authors in the conceptualization of athlete development. The population of 229 texts (articles, books, book chapters) was selected in two phases. Phase 1 texts were articles citing seven articles depicting models of athlete development (n=75). Phase 2 included texts cited three or more times by Phase 1 articles (n=154). The analysis revealed how the scholarship of Benjamin Bloom (1985) has been integrated into the field of sport psychology, and how two articles appearing in 1993 and 2003 helped shape present conceptualizations of athlete development.     

Sports tribes and academic identity: teaching the sociology of sport in a changing disciplinary landscape

Using data from 15 semi-structured interviews with UK-based early/mid-career academics, this paper offers an empirically informed assessment of how lecturers teaching/researching the sociology of sport are managing their careers in a changing higher education landscape. Those interviewed were involved in the delivery of sociological content to a range of sports-themed courses with the interviews focusing on the changing fashions in studying sport (including a rapid increase in enrolment on certain sports-themed courses), and on the nature of the relationships with colleagues working in the same area (i.e. sport), but who teach/research it from a different discipline. The paper draws upon the processes of individualisation which lay at the root of reflexive modernisation to better understand the lived experiences of those interviewed. Using the metaphors of tribes, doors and boundaries, I assess the extent to which those interviewed felt there were opportunities for an interdisciplinary pedagogic approach to ‘sport’. The paper explores the relationship between the sociology of sport and its parent discipline (i.e. sociology) and where it might feature in a future (post-disciplinary?) landscape.