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Section One: The Fundamentals
A) What do we know about sport? What are common assumptions we make about sport and society?
Being a part of a sport or a team inevitably promotes teamwork or unity. As a part of a team playing a sport, you must maintain adequate communication with all players, achieve goals together and individually, build trust between each other, and support each other in the game and out of the game. Alongside teamwork during the game to achieve success, sports also promote teamwork outside of the game. As a member of a team you will be celebrating achievements together, practicing together, and learning how to grow and become better from losses among other things. However, this is not the case for everyone. Some individuals experience what is known as ‘othering’ or simply not feeling like part of the ‘family’ that a sports team is commonly made out to be. Like many things in life, sports teams can unconsciously or consciously have cliques or groups of people that solely hang out with each other. This can cause someone to isolate themselves, as they may not feel as though they are have friends or are close with their teammates.
Exercise 3: Notebook prompt
What are some other metanarratives about sport that you are familiar with? Find an image or video clip or draw something yourself that captures this idea…
So what? Why does any of this matter? Does it matter? As something we grow up with – live with – play through – we don’t often interrogate the meanings of sport, and perhaps we don’t want to.
But being aware of these assumptions and metanarratives is especially important, I would argue, because of the centrality of sport to our everyday lives, the role that sport plays in shaping our childhood and worldviews and….. [finish that thought]
| How it reinforces the way we view ourselves and our identities. There is a common perception of sports, where some people consider it solely based on hard work or talent, however there is so much more. People also need to consider how cultural expectations, privileges, and systemic barriers tie into sports as well, as this is arguably the most important facet to consider. Another meta-narrative that I am aware of is the debate between talent versus hard work and effort. I believe this all matters because by recognizing how many factors influence sports, and being able to critique them, we can challenge these societal perceptions and advocate for increased equity and inclusivity. |
B) What is social justice?
Exercise 4: Padlet Prompt
Think back to the last section and try to look at some of the ideas we discussed differently. How might sport and social justice actually co-exist?
Record any images, video clips, or gifs you added to the padlet and identify a point of intersection between sport and social justice (can be an issue or a barrier or a debate or something you would like to explore in more depth in this course) . Screenshot or paste in your response below.
| When looking at the inter