PHED 681 - Inclusive and Critical Approaches to Sport

This course focuses on critically analyzing the realm and role of sport across various contexts roles in order to identify and destabilize status quo power dynamics related to social identity. From critical analysis and personal reflexivity comes the call to act; thus, this class will also focus on how to apply newfound understandings and awareness of unbalanced power dynamics within relevant working sport settings tailored to individual students’ intended sport occupations (e.g. coach, athletic director, sport information director, operations director, sport communication specialist, sport psychology consultant, etc.). The main forms of social identity oppression examined in the course include racism, sexism, heteronormativity and homophobia, classism, ableism, mental health, and religious minoritization, all informed by the underlying notion of intersectionality, or the idea that groups or individuals are directly impacted by multiple forms of intersecting marginalized social identifiers (Bowleg, 2012). This course operates from the assumption that many practitioners, particularly those who hold dominant, normalized social identity positions (e.g. white, middle-class, heterosexual) are unable to locate themselves within an axis of privilege and power, thus necessitating a disruption of established norms, rules, expectations, discourse, and rhetoric associated with sport contexts. Informed by scholarly sociocritical literature, students will center the multiple ways of knowing that emerge from their critical analyses in order to apply this knowledge, identifying how they might engage in work towards more equitable, inclusive, and diverse sport contexts.

Prerequisites & Notes
NONE

Credits: 3

Academic Catalog

PHED 681 - Inclusive and Critical Approaches to Sport