Pedagogies of Social Justice in Physical Education and Youth Sport

The potential ramifications of the COVID-19 pandemic global shut down on physical education providers and youth sport coaches may be particularly severe due to substantial cutbacks on many of their normal activities. This population faces unique challenges in engaging in “virtual learning” given the physical nature of their job, potentially leading to sedentary lifestyle, weight gain, and the development of depressive mood disorders. This commentary aims to explore options to mitigate worsening of stress, depression, physical inactivity, and social disconnection in youth sport coaches following the guidelines of the American College of Sports Medicine (ACSM) and to call attention to this vulnerable demographic which has been substantially impacted by the COVID-19 pandemic.

Download Full-text

Teaching for Student and Societal Wellbeing in HPE: Nine Pedagogies for Social Justice

Frontiers in Sports and Active Living ◽

10.3389/fspor.2021.702922 ◽

2021 ◽

Vol 3 ◽

Author(s):

Göran Gerdin ◽

Rod Philpot ◽

Wayne Smith ◽

Katarina Schenker ◽

Kjersti Mordal Moen ◽

...

Keyword(s):

Social Justice ◽

Physical Education ◽

School Health ◽

School Curriculum ◽

Health And Physical Education ◽

Global Migration ◽

Health And Wellbeing ◽

Whole School ◽

Social Inequities ◽

Societal Level

We currently find ourselves living in precarious times, with old and new social inequities on the rise due to the challenges associated with an unprecedented rise of global migration and neoliberalism, amplified in our post COVID-19 world. Research has demonstrated that there is a high correlation between inequality at the societal level and the overall health and wellbeing of individuals within those societies. We believe that school health and physical education (HPE) has a significant role to play in addressing and acting on social inequities that impact on the wellbeing of both students and society as a whole. Based on the findings of an international research project called EDUHEALTH which explored pedagogies for social justice in school health and physical education (HPE) across Sweden, Norway and New Zealand, this paper aims to highlight the addressing of (in)equality and student wellbeing through HPE practice. In particular, the paper presents nine different but complementary pedagogies for social justice that we believe can improve individual, collective, and societal wellbeing. We conclude by proposing that, if adopted across a whole school curriculum, these nine pedagogies for social justice could form the basis of a holistic school-wide community approach aimed at improving both student and societal wellbeing.

Download Full-text

Researching social justice and health (in)equality across different school Health and Physical Education contexts in Sweden, Norway and New Zealand

European Physical Education Review ◽

10.1177/1356336x18783916 ◽

2018 ◽

Vol 25 (1) ◽

pp. 273-290 ◽

Cited By ~ 8

Author(s):

Göran Gerdin ◽

Rod Allan Philpot ◽

Lena Larsson ◽

Katarina Schenker ◽

Susanne Linnér ◽

...

Keyword(s):

Social Justice ◽

New Zealand ◽

Physical Education ◽

School Health ◽

Neoliberal Globalization ◽

Health And Physical Education ◽

Physical Education Teacher Education ◽

Paper Record ◽

Social Justice Teaching ◽

Equitable Outcomes

The way school Health and Physical Education (HPE) is conceptualized and taught will impact on its ability to provide equitable outcomes across gender, sexuality, ethnicity, religion and social class. A focus on social justice in HPE is pertinent in times when these ideals are currently under threat from neoliberal globalization. This paper draws on data from the initial year of an international collaboration project called ‘Education for Equitable Health Outcomes – The Promise of School Health and Physical Education’ involving HPE and Physical Education Teacher Education researchers from Sweden, Norway and New Zealand. The data in this paper record the researchers’ presentations and discussions about issues of social justice and health as informed by school visits and interviews with HPE teachers in the three different countries. The analysis of the data is focused on what is addressed in the name of social justice in each of the three countries and how cross-cultural researchers of social justice in HPE interpret different contexts. In order to analyse the data, we draw on Michael Uljens’s concepts of non-affirmative and non-hierarchical education. The findings suggest that researching social justice and health (in)equality across different countries offers both opportunities and challenges when it comes to understanding the enactment of social justice in school and HPE practices. We conclude by drawing on Uljens to assert that the quest for social justice in HPE should focus on further problematizing affirmative and hierarchical educational practices since social justice teaching strategies are enabled and constrained by the contexts in which they are practised.

Download Full-text