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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 intersection of sports and social justice, health and wellness exists between the two. Both sports and social justice use inclusivity, empowerment, and advocacy to cultivate health and wellbeing. To reduce health inequities, ensuring there are accessible sports programs with safe environments, while also promoting representation for all is essential for bridging these gaps. Using sports as a platform to inspire and raise awareness for social issues can generate meaningful and significant change, prioritizing wellness and equity. Sports in general can be used to implement community building, cultural pride, trauma recovery, etc. especially for marginalized populations. |
C) Social Justice Reading
(note: this activity is optional!)
D) KINESIOLOGY AND SOCIAL JUSTICE
Exercise 5:
Exercise 6:
What are the implications of bodies-at-risk discourse and the refusal to understand the health gap from a social justice perspective, according to the authors of this article?
| Some implications of the bodies-at-risk discourse are that the people that fit into this category (minority groups or those that are marginalized) are seen as an issue or a problem that requires fixing. The blame is placed on these individuals by the public health agenda, as they have failed to follow health norms and guidelines. This then makes them the ‘problem’ and thus the ‘solution’ of research interventions. This concept is framed by a deficit model that is re-claiming and re-identifying race in derogatory terms, while keeping ‘whiteness’ as what is considered the norm. This concept is seen as the master narrative to promote further mainstream intake of fitness and health. |
Section Two: Sport Feminism
Exercise 7: Notebook Prompt
What is feminism? What does it mean to you? Choose one of the images below and explain how it captures your understanding of feminism (or find one that does speak to you and paste this into your pressbook with an explanation of why it matters to you.
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This image captures my personal understanding of feminism. Feminism is women striving to even the playing field, however I believe there is a lot of misconceptions when people hear the term ‘feminism’. Society deems feminists as man-haters, or women trying to put themselves above men when in reality you just believe that people of all genders should have equal rights. I read a quote once, that helped me understand what it means to be a feminist and I want to share that here: “Feminism isn’t about making women stronger. Women are already strong. It’s about changing the way the world perceives that strength.” (G. D. Anderson, 2014)
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Exercise 8: Notes Prompt (optional)
NB: Cornell notes is a great resource that teaches effective notetaking. Unfortunately, our system can’t save notes taken in the H5P app, so this is fully optional.
Exercise 9: Crossword Activity
Exercise 10: Padlet Prompt
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My word cloud revolved around feminism, including various related terms from the article such as:
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| In the past, the problem with women’s sports was that they did not have a proper foundation. The National Women’s Hockey League (NWHL) as it was known in the past, was not set up for success. The players weren’t getting enough money and there were limited sponsorships. Once they rebranded to the Professional Women’s Hockey League (PWHL), they began getting paid well and they began receiving sponsorships. An example of the change made can be seen when the PWHL played a game at the Bell Center in Montreal after rebranding and sold out the arena. Another reason I think that this is not a temporary change is that the PWHl made their games more accessible through live-streaming on platforms like YouTube. To quote Brianne Jenner of the Ottawa Charge, “When I used to coach camps and asked kids to name their favourite hockey players, 8/10 answers used to be male players. Now it’s 10/10 female players. We’ve erased the stigma that women’s hockey and sports isn’t cool. Hopefully it transcends into other parts of women’s lives and industries.” (2024)
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