Social Justice,Sport, and Sociology: A Position Statement

ABSTRACT

Amidst widespread inequality, advocates of sport and physical activity have proposed ways in which sport might support those on the social, economic, and geographic margins. In this essay, we consider the place and role of sport in responding to various forms of inequality, and reflect upon its place in pursuing social justice. In so doing, we bring a perspective of critical sociology to the question(s) of whether and how sport can play a role in responding to inequality. Our main argument is that sport has had, and continues to have, a place and role in the pursuit of social justice, but only in so far as sport’s advocates are willing and able to differentiate between justice and charity. To build this case, we draw on the differentiation between the dominant and transformative models of sport for development.     

Social Justice,Sport and Racism: A Position Statement

ABSTRACT

Despite common claims that society is “post-racial” and that sport is apolitical, issues of racial injustice continue to permeate sport and recreational institutions. Drawing insight from critical race theory, we articulate a vision of social justice oriented toward illuminating and addressing issues of racial injustice in sport and recreation. In particular, we highlight pressing matters of racial injustice in sport at the elite, competitive levels, as well as community and recreational settings. We also discuss contemporary examples and strategies for resisting racial injustice, noting the challenges and difficulties associated with various approaches. In doing so, we hope to provide direction for scholars and activists in fighting for social justice with respect to racism and racial inequality in sport.     

Servant Leadership in Sport for Development and Peace: A Way Forward

The field of sport for development and peace (SDP) has been growing exponentially, with many organizations and academics embracing the possible contribution that sport can make to development. To date, leadership in sport for development and peace has not been conceptualized. Perhaps due to the missions of sport for development and peace organizations, many of which focus on helping marginalized individuals, the leadership style needed to effectively guide a sport for development and peace organization may be different than that which is needed to lead other types of sport organizations. In this article, we advance that servant leadership, which is predicated on follower care and development, can be a highly effective leadership style in sport for development and peace. Through a series of propositions, we opine that servant leaders in sport for development and peace will empower followers, lead to more sustainable and effective organizations and participant outcomes, facilitate psychological needs satisfaction, and diffuse issues of power and control. Future research directions stimulated by the propositions are also discussed.     

Sport,Homelessness, and Capability: Voices from the Street

ABSTRACT

To what extent does soccer increase the capability of the homeless and those living on the street? This study addresses this question by focusing on the ways in which the Homeless World Cup and Street Soccer (Scotland) have impacted upon the lives of some individuals. Primary source data obtained from a series of interviews are situated within Sen’s capability approach to social choice theory. The implications of the study contribute to policy by supporting the idea that sport can contribute as a resource of hope through the development of capability that impacts upon life chances and choices. It adds to a growing number of applied studies of sport that have critically used the work of Sen and it advances the way in which this body of work has been utilized in sport and related areas.     

Physical Education,Citizenship, and Social Justice: A Position Statement

ABSTRACT

This article examines the complex but seldom articulated relationship of primary physical education, citizenship, and social justice. We argue that to conflate physical activity and sport with physical education in unacknowledged ways may serve to perpetuate the status quo. More significantly, the current emphasis on activity through competitive sport in the teaching of physical education in primary schools is both reductive and educationally limiting, affecting not only teachers’ professionalism but the wider educational experience of young people. The trend towards competitive sport at the expense of a broader educational experience further represents a potentially serious omission: an abrogation of responsibility on the part of schools in England and Wales to meet the statutory requirements of the Education Reform Act (1988). On the thirtieth anniversary of the Act, we adopt a novel approach, utilizing Foucauldian ideas, to examine movements in the development of policy and understand the contemporary context as a means to suggest more propitious ways forward.     

Social Justice,Character Education,and Sport: A Position Statement

ABSTRACT

In this article, we suggest that character education in sport contexts can promote social justice. After defining key terms, we suggest that rethinking competition and the nature of team relationships is required to build a team culture responsive to concerns for social justice. The character of the team provides a nexus within which to develop individual character, which is elaborated in terms of four types of character: moral, civic, intellectual, and performance character. To promote commitment to social justice, character educators can focus on three elements of moral character: moral reasoning, the circle of moral regard, and moral identity. Within civic character, three themes are elaborated: human dignity, full participation, and accountability. The dimensions of critical thinking, willful ignorance, and prioritizing the marginalized are discussed in relation to intellectual character. Performance character is discussed in relation to an ethic of excellence. Finally, conclusions for character educators are elaborated.     

Truth commissions,education, and positive peace: an analysis of truth commission final reports (1980–2015)

ABSTRACT

Transitional justice and education both occupy increasingly prominent space on the international peacebuilding agenda, though less is known about the ways they might reinforce one another to contribute towards peace. This paper presents a cross-national analysis of truth commission (TC) reports spanning 1980–2015, exploring the range of educational work taken on by one of the most prominent forms of transitional justice. We find that TC engagement with education is increasing over time and that TCs are incorporating the task of ‘telling the truth about education’ into their work. However, when TCs engage with education, they tend to recommend forwards looking reforms, for instance decontextualised human rights and peace education. We argue that this limits the contribution that TCs might make towards positive peace by failing to use their backwards looking, truth telling work to insist on transformation in the educational sector.     

From the dominant engineering education perspective to the aim of promoting service to humanity and the common good: the importance of rethinking engineering education

ABSTRACT

Recognising the broader role and impact of engineering in contemporary society makes it necessary to rethink engineering education to strengthen its purpose of service to humanity and to the common good. From this perspective, future engineers need a more comprehensive education that is not only bound to the technical area but also incorporates critical reflection and ethical education. With the objective of facilitating the process of rethinking engineering education, the present study analyses the official mission of Portuguese higher education institutions offering engineering courses to identify current engineering education conceptions and the importance attached in them to the service to humanity view. The results reveal that the dominant conception is centred on the economic view of engineering and of the engineer. These results reinforce the need to build a new perspective that strengthens the role of engineering as a service to humanity, social justice and the common good.     

Deconstructing neoliberalism in global citizenship discourses: an analysis of Korean social studies textbooks

ABSTRACT

This study explored ways in which official social studies textbooks in South Korea promote global citizenship given the dominant neoliberal ideology in the field of education. Employing soft versus critical global citizenship education (GCE) and critical discourse analysis, this study analyzed 12 middle-school (seventh to ninth grades) social studies textbooks that are mandatory in Korean public schools. The findings of this study demonstrate the prevalence of a neoliberal agenda and nationalist rhetoric in the global citizenship discourses in the textbooks. We discussed the extent to which themes for GCE including globalization, cultural diversity, peace, sustainability, and associated skills and dispositions were instrumental in perpetuating neoliberal economic values and nationalism while marginalizing social justice and multiculturalism in official textbooks.     

A Path Worth Taking: The Development of Social Justice in Outdoor Experiential Education

This article examines the influences promoting social justice in the field of outdoor experiential education. The philosophical foundations of outdoor adventure including the work of John Dewey and Kurt Hahn are considered in light of social justice education. The historical evolution of social justice activism within the professional community is analyzed. Other influential trends including the development of outdoor programs sensitive to social justice concerns, the cross fertilization from other related fields, and the demographic and economic imperatives to transform the field are described. The methodological fit between outdoor experiential education and social justice education is the final influence presented. The article concludes that potentials for social justice education within the outdoor experiential education field create an imperative for inclusion.     

Providing Consultation About Boundary Dilemmas to Paraprofessional Staff Working With People With Severe Psychiatric Disabilities

ABSTRACT

Social justice has been suggested as a possible global moral framework for school psychology. It is, however, culturally understood and research suggests that the engagement with “social justice” in school psychology has been largely limited to a U.S. context. This project sought to extend international understandings and practices of social justice in school psychology. A thematic analysis of nine interviews with educational psychologists based in England was conducted. Social justice was defined as complex, and participants suggested it is important to educational psychology practice in part because of current cuts to public services and educational reforms. Findings also indicated a role for social justice consultation, building relationships, and engaging with broader macrolevel work to enact a social justice agenda. We discuss these findings in relation to previous literature, concluding that our research begins to document the seeds of a broader social justice agenda in school psychology.     

Realising the school science curriculum

Abstract

This article identifies historical, pedagogical and epistemological problems which distance the school science curriculum from social questions, and issues of social justice more specifically. Drawing on a critical realist approach it addresses these problems and aims to demonstrate that social justice lies at the heart of inquiry in science in schools.     

Neoliberal practices amidst social justice orientations: global citizenship education in South Korea

Abstract

Global citizenship education (GCE) positions itself on the global arena as a transformative social justice oriented educational curriculum that addresses the political, social, economic and cultural inequalities brought about through colonisation and neoliberalism on the global and local levels. Through an exploration of the discourse, design and delivery of GCE in the young nation-state of South Korea, we argue that, in fact, GCE reinforces and maintains the hegemonic ideals of global capitalism; core-periphery global and local relationships; and dichotomous views of poverty and inequalities. We argue that these approaches reflect South Korea’s geopolitical realities, but that attitudes towards GCE in South Korea also reflect its cultural norms and values towards working together towards a common good. Ultimately, we call for a more nuanced approach to GCE scholarship in which we move away from theoretical divisions to practical applications of social justice that work within increasingly capitalist/neoliberal interests for a more inclusive world.     

Parenting Huckleberry Finn

Abstract

We suggest in this paper that attempts to segregate social‐conventional reasoning from the moral domain may represent an artifactual division, one that ignores major philosophic and psychological traditions and cultural constructs regarding the moral self. We address such issues as the individual, social, and relational dimensions of morality; the cultural context of moral development and behavior; and whether morality is solely a matter of justice, harm and welfare considerations, or concerned as well with culturally variable definitions of the good self and the good society, with role obligations, and with caring and affective aspects of human experience. We conclude with a call for continuing narrative and anthropological approaches to the study of moral development in order to reach a fuller understanding of the multiple facets of moral life.     

Responding to children's everyday transgressions in Chinese working‐class families

Social justice education, it is argued, is a form of and essential to moral education, especially for dominant group affiliated students. Under this condition, one of the essential goals of social justice education must be raising an awareness of dominance. The meaning of dominance is discussed and it is argued that overly simplistic conceptions of what dominance means may lead to the mistaken assumption that in order to recognise one's own dominance, one has to reject the values of the dominant group. The distinction between the "dominance of values" and the "values of the dominant group" is suggested but found inadequate. What is required is a critical analysis of the complexity, subtlety and systemic interrelatedness and embeddedness of dominant beliefs, values and standards in western, democratic societies. Without a serious approach to the complexities of dominance, future teachers will not be able to tend successfully to all their students, will not be able to contribute to social justice and will be able to hide all this behind good intentions.     

'Chicana/o Power!'1 Epistemology and methodology for social justice and empowerment in Chicana/o communities

This paper questions the epistemology underlying contemporary, innovative approaches to research. In particular, it is critical of the negative impact that institutions and their epistemological and methodological traditions have on Chicanas os. The paper retells the author's struggles in attempting to employ social justice as a critical measure of the strength of research. Critical race theory helps reveal the necessity and benefits of this approach. Chicana o epistemology then becomes the basis for the development of a new methodological approach to research in Chicana o communities. The method itself is grounded in social justice, both as objective and as process. The most significant contribution of this work is that in attempting to reshape methods through a Chicana o epistemology it addresses the ways in which researchers can effectively participate in community efforts at transformation and empowerment.     

和谐的正义——刑事和解本土化探析

刑事和解作为一种解决刑事案件、恢复被破坏社会秩序的崭新的方式,其核心价值就是体现公平正义、效率谦抑,这充分体现了和谐社会的根本内涵。     

全球化背景下多元文化教育的发展走向

多元文化教育是当下全球化语境对教育的规约以及教育对文化的观照在教育场域中的投射,是一种跨越文化边界的教育,是一种培养与提高人们在多种文化并存的世界文化图景下的跨文化品质的教育活动.多元文化教育反映了人们对社会文化变迁与教育发展轨迹的深刻认识与把握,反映了人们对教育所寄予的促进人类朝着和平、自由和社会正义迈进的美好愿望,是国际教育变革的重要走向.在当今全球化背景下,多元文化教育不断朝着多元、理解、开放的方向发展.     

School Choice and Social Injustice: A Response to Harry Brighouse

In his book, School Choice and Social Justice, Harry Brighouse attempts to show how a properly designed school–choice plan, guided by his liberal theory of social justice, can enhance equal educational opportunity and provide every child with an education for autonomy. In this paper, I argue that Brighouse is overly confident about the egalitarian potential of school choice. He seems to be defending a policy for what it could be, rather than looking at school choice for what it is: a flawed educational reform that makes things worse in terms of social justice. I question Brighouse's notion that the kind of school choice he advocates, one that promotes equal educational opportunity and education for autonomy, is politically feasible.