Approaches to Social Inequality in the Sociology of Sport

Sport, by its very nature, produces and reveals inequalities in terms of physicality and athletic performance. In social terms, however, sport has often been considered the great social leveller. This paper considers the production and reproduction of social inequality in sport in regard to the development of ideas and research about social inequality in the sociology of sport. Specifically, inequality in sport is considered in terms of the progression from reflection to reproduction to resistance theses and the progression from categorical to distributive to relational levels of analysis. The paper concludes with a consideration of some ways in which sport may be involved in the production of social equality.     

Virtual(ly) Athletes: Where eSports Fit Within the Definition of “Sport”

Electronic sports, cybersports, gaming, competitive computer gaming, and virtual sports are all synonyms for the term eSports. Regardless of the term used, eSports is now becoming more accepted as a sport and gamers are being identified as athletes within society today. eSports has even infiltrated higher education in the form of an intercollegiate athletic sport, as two university athletic departments have made eSports an official varsity sport where scholarships are provided to collegiate eSports athletes. Thus, the intertwining of eSports and university athletics brings into question whether eSports should be considered sport by broader society. This article provides a brief history of eSports, a further developed definition of eSports, and a comparison of eSports to traditional philosophical and sociological definitions of sport. The purpose of this article is to provoke thought on the academically accepted definitions of sport and debate whether eSports should be considered a sport. Attention will be given to the following components of sport: play, organization, competition, skill, physicality, broad following, and institutionalization.     

Investigating grit variables and their relations with practice and skill groups in developing sport experts

Grit, the tendency to work hard toward long-term goals, maintaining effort and interest over years despite failure and adversity, has predicted several achievement outcomes. However, minimal work has examined grit within a sport expertise development framework, and specifically its association with deliberate practice (DP) in sport. Participants, 250 athletes (109 female; M_age = 23.40, SD = 10.14), completed the 12-item Grit Scale, practice measures, and reported their skill level (local to international). Factor analyses confirmed a 10-item two-factor model for use in our sport sample: consistency of interests (CI; 6 items; α = .81) and perseverance of effort (PE; 4 items; α = .75). A full latent variable model controlling for age showed PE significantly predicted weekly amounts of DP and engagement in mandatory and optional practice contexts; CI was inversely associated with threats to athletes’ sport commitment. Among senior athletes, both Expert and Advanced skill groups had higher PE levels than a Basic/Intermediate group, ps < .05. The tendency to work hard toward long-term goals seemingly enables athletes to persist with practice activities that are pivotal to expert sport development.     

Pedagogy,Sport Pedagogy,and the Field of Kinesiology

The term pedagogy has become ubiquitous in the field of kinesiology, and sport pedagogy is now firmly established as a credible academic subdiscipline. Notwithstanding the fact that our European colleagues had been using the terms pedagogy and sport pedagogy for many years (see Crum, 1986; Haag, 2005), the English-speaking world of kinesiology has only relatively recently embraced the terms. Increased use, however, does not necessarily equate with coherent or shared understandings of what the terms mean. Accordingly, the purpose of this article is to do some “languaging” (Kirk, 1991; Postman, 1989) to shed some light on the meanings of pedagogy and sport pedagogy and in so doing perhaps stimulate further consideration of their use in kinesiology. I will argue for a notion of pedagogy that is generative in enabling us to think about the process of knowledge production and reproduction across the many subdisciplines of kinesiology, including, but not limited to, sport pedagogy. Finally I will consider the notion of pedagogical work as providing a useful concept for analyzing the contribution of sport pedagogy to understandings related to how we come to know about physical activity, the body, and health.     

Articulation Visibility at Two-Year Colleges

Articulation between two-year colleges and universities provides a critical opportunity for potential students. Most institutions declare their support of articulation; however, the visibility of this support to potential students is inconsistent at best. Articulation agreements that are visible and easily understood by potential students serve as a motivation to the pursuit of higher education. Conversely, the lack of a complete, visible path to a baccalaureate degree is a powerful deterrent to enrollment. For this study, articulation is a coordinated effort and process to support efficient transfer between institutions of higher education. (DeMott, 1999 DeMott , J. ( 1999 ). Seven steps to articulation success . High School Magazine , 6 , 22 – 24 . [Google Scholar]). The purpose of this study is to explore the general visibility of existing articulation opportunities at two-year colleges. The visibility of articulation agreements is a critical practical factor in their potential positive impact on student behavior and success.     

ARTICULATION AND TRANSFER ISSUES IN COMMUNITY COLLEGE ART PROGRAMS IN ILLINOIS

This study documents trends and issues pertaining to articulation and transferabil‐ity of students in art programs at community colleges in Illinois to 4‐year institutions. There has been a discernible lack of consensus and data regarding the current state of articulation in art, both institution‐specific and statewide. Many problems arise when art students attempt to transfer from community colleges to 4‐year institutions. A survey was conducted among selected art faculty at Illinois community colleges to seek relevant information. The findings of this study may direct collaboration between community colleges and 4‐year institutions for purposes such as facilitating transfer and articulation in art.     

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.     

Interrogating Positive Youth Development Through Sport Using Critical Race Theory

ABSTRACT

Sport has the potential to serve as a context in which youth can develop as players and people. Positive youth development (PYD) through sport is a prevalent strength-based approach that aims to promote life skills acquisition in youth participants. The purpose of this article is to demonstrate the utility of critically interrogating PYD through sport using critical race theory (CRT). Select key tenets of CRT serve as analytical tools that can highlight potentially problematic assumptions that underline current approaches to PYD through sport. Interrogation of PYD through sport using CRT exposes its limitations in theory, research, and practice. This race-centered perspective can help to reimagine sport coaching for positive development from a more socially responsible, critical praxis.     

‘Make money,get money’: how two autonomous schools have commercialised their services

ABSTRACT

Using the stories of two autonomous public schools in Australia, this paper demonstrates how commercialisation can simultaneously position schools as both consumer and for-profit producer. Drawing on Foucault's articulation of discourse as that which constitutes and makes available what is possible to be said, done and imagined, the paper illustrates how the current marketised articulation of education is allowing for new possibilities of commercialisation in schools. Together these stories demonstrate that there are creative ways that these schools have embraced their autonomy, while relying on market solutions to acquire the resources they deem necessary for their students and their communities. However, it also shows how these resources and the attainment for them are inextricably constituted by the market orientation of education more broadly and how this presents potential dangers for what schools may be and become as a result.     

Sport experiences of Division I collegiate athletes and their perceptions of the importance of specialization

The purpose of the current study was to investigate Division I athletes’ prior sport participation and athletes’ perceptions regarding sport specialization. Athletes (N = 1041) completed self-report surveys and indicated that participation in their collegiate sport began around nine years of age (M = 9.10, SD = 3.83). Athletes played a large number of sports in elementary and middle school with participation decreasing during high school. For those athletes who specialized in one sport, specialization occurred typically at 12.5 years of age. In addition, athletes past sport background and perceptions of specialization differed depending on their college sport with some sports (i.e., gymnastics) starting participation and specializing earlier than others (i.e., football, cross country, and track and field). Interestingly, no differences existed in past sport experiences or perceptions of specialization dependent on scholarship status or expected playing status. This study supports prior research that early specialization is not a requirement for elite level performance.     

Open-Skilled Sport,Sport Intensity,Executive Function,and Academic Achievement in Grade School Children

ABSTRACT

Research Findings: The present study examines connections among participation in open- and closed-skilled sports; the metabolic intensity of each sport; and executive function (EF), literacy, and math achievement in a sample of 3rd-grade children. Utilizing data from the National Institute of Child Health and Human Development Study of Early Child Care and Youth Development, we categorized 15 youth sports (e.g., soccer, tennis, swimming, running track) as open or closed skilled and assigned them a metabolic intensity value. Results showed that the connection between sport intensity and EF was curvilinear, with a positive association between EF and sport intensity below 25 metabolic equivalents (METs) and a negative association with METs above 25. For math, results differed for the number of open-skilled sports and the intensity of a sport, with higher intensity associated with lower math scores and playing more open-skilled sports associated with higher math scores. Literacy skills were not significantly related to sport participation. Practice or Policy: The preschool years may offer a promising opportunity to encourage participation in both complex and intense physical activity. These findings highlight domain-specific connections among sports and EF and math achievement and offer insight into connections among sport intensity (METs), the type of sports children play, and cognitive development.     

The Psychology of Dynamic Balance and Peak Performance in Sport: Correction Theory

This article introduces a new approach to understanding peak performance and dysfunctional performance in sport, correction theory. Correction theory, based within a control theory and dynamical systems perspective, assumes that dynamic balance (a state in which a robust complex system will self-correct in response to imbalance) underwrites individual functioning. The central thesis presented in this article is that an interdependent relationship exists between peak performance and dysfunctional performance in sport. Peak performance is, in part, a (corrective) response to dysfunctional performance and vice versa. An overview of correction theory is presented, based on two propositions relating to balance. Implications of correction theory for understanding sporting performance are briefly considered.     

Teacher workforce planning: the interplay of market forces and government polices during a period of economic uncertainty

Background:?The labour market for classroom teachers in England is a mixture of free-market capitalism and state workforce planning, interlaced with ideological and political interventions such as the introduction of new routes into teaching and the capping of class size.

Purpose:?The article examines the relationship between the teacher labour market and the economy in order to predict how it will be affected by government's attempt to manage the current economic crisis.

Sources of evidence:?In doing this, it draws upon a data set which tracks teacher supply and demand in England over the last 20 years.

Main argument:?The lack of articulation between workforce planning and the free market in teacher labour is traced across the two economic cycles from the upswing of the late 1980s through the recession of the early 1990s and the recovery of the late 1990s through the so-called ‘goldilocks’ period up to 2008 when the recession, generated by the banking crisis, engulfed the western world. The variations in the market are analysed along with factors impacting on the fluctuations of the teacher labour market

Conclusions:?The article concludes that there has been a lack of articulation between workforce planning and the free market in teacher labour, often exacerbated by the unintended consequences of political decisions. It predicts how this will impact on the workforce as government strategies attempt to reduce the financial deficit and encourage the private sector to stimulate the economy.     

Competency,epistemology and pedagogy: curriculums holy trinity

In this era of heightened calls for accountability and standards, clear visions of competence are more necessary than ever and, moreover, these planned products of education need explicit articulation. Such articulation falls within the purview of the formal curriculum and it is with this that the present article concerns itself. It draws on a past Ontario, Canada curricular initiative, The Common Curriculum, as the vehicle through which to examine the difficulties inherent in spelling out a conception of competence. Such difficulties, it is argued, stem from the inextricable link between definitions of competence and their associated epistemological and pedagogical implications.     

No title for this poem

Researchers in sport psychology have devoted much energy to understanding the elusive relationship between anxiety and athletic performance. As new theories are being forwarded in the sport anxiety literature, it is important that they be tested in conceptually and methodologically sound environments. The present review examines conceptual and methodological issues in sport anxiety research, especially focusing on the inverted-U hypothesis, multidimensional anxiety theory, and catastrophe theory. Issues discussed include the correlational versus causal nature of the inverted-U hypothesis; the lack of differentiation among anxiety-related terms such as anxiety, arousal, and stress; the need for a multidimensional conception of anxiety; the assumption that perceived physiological arousal is typically considered negative affect by researchers; the need to utilize appropriate measurement and operational definitions of performance; and the use of intraindividual anxiety scores. Statistical issues related to investigation of multidimensional anxiety and catastrophe theories are also addressed.     

Sophistic ethics in the technical writing classroom: Teaching nomos,deliberation, and action

Drawing on arguments by Carolyn Miller, Steven Katz, and others, this essay claims that teaching ethics is particularly important to technical writing. Next, the essay outlines a classical, sophistic approach to ethics based on the theories and pedagogies of Protagoras, Gorgias, and Isocrates. This sophistic approach emphasizes the Greek concept of nomos, internal and external deliberation, and responsible action or articulation. The final section of the essay discusses possible problems and pedagogical applications of sophistic ethics in the contemporary technical writing classroom.     

The Future of Sport Philosophy in Higher Education Kinesiology

ABSTRACT

Massengale’s Trends Toward the Future of Physical Education (1987) makes no reference to the existence of the philosophic inquiry of physical activity within higher education kinesiology programs—even though the sub-discipline had been formalized by academics in the early 1970s. In contrast, Massengale and Swanson’s The History of Exercise and Sport Science (1997) dedicated a chapter to sport philosophy’s development, including a prognosis of its future. Since then, there has been tremendous growth in the sub-discipline, including an increase in publication outlets, stand-alone monographs, and the creation of academic associations globally. Yet this growth has not necessarily secured sport philosophy’s place in higher education curriculum. In this article, we briefly review the history of philosophic inquiry into physical activity and review previous predictions of the sub-discipline’s future before offering our own prognostication of its future in higher education.     

Sport for all in postcolony: Is there a place for indigenous games in physical education curriculum and research in Africa

Abstract

The sport-for-all movement currently evident in many countries of the world is often touted as a self-evidently desirable means of achieving physical fitness on a global scale. But is sport truly a veritable route to collective wellbeing or some fantastic aggrandisement of a Western canon? This article challenges the cherished myth that sport is essentially meant for all regardless of context. The discursive background of sport for all was viewed through the lens of political economic relations and the dominant discourse of recreation and leisure. To be sure, sport for all has the ring of commonsense viewed from the North, yet it has a different resonance when examined from the South: it is a big, staggering plot to repress and diminish the cultural significance of the indigenous games of Third World people. This article takes stock of the lessons from the Dar es Salaam Sport for All project and stresses the need for African countries to resist any homogenising sport discourses premised against the reclamation of discursively constituted local games and indigenous physical education pedagogy. It argues that precolonial African games need not be uprooted from the physical education curriculum for colonial sports to roost, as these games have locus standi where Western sports stand. It suggests the need for deconstructive discourses that are conducive to the renovation and institution of indigenous African games as a step towards maintaining cultural distinctiveness and deconstructing totalising images of physical education curriculum content.     

In search of phronesis: recognizing practical wisdom in the Recognition (Assessment) of Prior Learning

This article argues that greater understanding of the Aristotelian concept of phronesis or practical wisdom would make an important contribution to the conceptualization and implementation of Recognition (Assessment) of Prior Learning (RPL/APL) in formal education contexts. However, there is a need to identify phronesis empirically so that RPL assessors can identify it and RPL candidates can articulate it. Extracts from the qualitative data of two separate research projects are presented to show examples of phronesis. These extracts also show the difficulties associated with its articulation and identification. It is argued that even if phronesis cannot be accredited for RPL purposes, it should be taught and discussed in the curricula of adult education and RPL portfolio development courses to show the importance of this form of knowledge and reasoning and the different forms it might assume in formal education and life contexts.