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In recent years, socially critical scholars have argued that love, as a moral basis for socio-critical work, should not be colorblind or power blind and that marginalized populations may understand caring within their sociocultural context, creating spaces for youth and teachers to challenge the racism, sexism, class exploitation and linguicism imposed on their communities. While there is advocacy of love in education and physical education, there is little research that aims to explore how pre-service teachers' (PSTs') conceptions change across time. The aim of this study was to explore PSTs' changing perceptions of love as they worked in an activist sport project with youth from socially vulnerable backgrounds. Participatory action research framed this four-semester research project. Participants included the lead researcher, four PSTs and 110 youth. Data collected included the following: (a) the lead researcher's field notes; (b) collaborative PSTs' group meetings; (c) PSTs' generated artifacts; and (d) PSTs' focus groups and interviews. Data analysis involved induction and constant comparison. The PSTs understood that love was represented by the following: (a) creating democratic spaces for students to care for each other and their community; (b) trusting and understanding the students, and dreaming possible futures with them; (c) being the best teacher in order to facilitate students' learning; and (d) making sure all students are included. We concluded that the PSTs' embodied experiences of oppression and the reflexive experience lived in the activist approach created a space for the PSTs to see themselves in the youth, reconnect with their own identity and develop empathy and love for the diverse youth.

Public health policy and interventions seek to arrest declining physical activity rates in childhood. Two prominent settings for intervening in childhood physical activity are schools and the home. This paper critically examines how these two spaces are constructed in a way that leads to different physical activity outcomes for children in their early primary years. We draw on child-centred ethnographic fieldwork conducted with a cohort of Year 1/2 (5–8 years) students in a public primary school in Australia over a six-month period, and as well as on Bourdieusean concepts of field, capital, and habitus. The results show that many participants perceived the home to be a much safer environment for physical self-expression compared to physical education and the school playground. The way these spaces are constructed leads to the privileging of certain physical activity habitus (PAH), while some children must manage a divided habitus across these settings, which can increasingly create internal tensions over time. We conclude with a call to utilise theoretically informed approaches to better understand the complex processes occurring across the spaces, and to utilise this insight to develop more nuanced efforts to engage children in physical activity. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

During the first few months of the pandemic, professional sport around the globe stopped, as competitions and leagues were cancelled, postponed, or went into hiatus while sport administrators scrambled to work out ways to reboot their product in a COVID-19 world. Sport media outlets were faced with the task of reporting on sport and filling the void for fans in the absence of any live content. This article is concerned with the content, both in quantity and quality that fans of women's sport could consume in those first months. In the context of the current "boom" in women's professional sports, we draw on the analysis of two online sport media sites to consider the narratives of female athletes that fans had access to. The findings suggest that during the beginning of the pandemic sport stories about women were largely erased and replaced by those appealing to a very different fan market. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The intersection of sport and education is a potentially powerful site for the production of class and gender. This paper examines how the relationship between sport and education can also serve to (re)produce ideas about "race". Drawing on research conducted during my time as a coach of the first XV rugby team at an elite private school in Australia, I consider how whiteness creates the "other". In particular I highlight how, despite their absence, the Pacific Island "other" is (re)produced through stories that coaches share during training. These stories revolve around the themes of the "natural", fear and violence and commodity. As themes they resonate with a larger meta-narrative that informs dominant "white" culture on Pacific Islanders in Australia. Such stories have the power to shape students' subjectivities, both of themselves and Pacific Islanders. Deconstructing the white-stream narrative identifies sport settings in education as important pedagogical sites where "race", class and gender are learned. As such, there is a need to utilise critical pedagogical approaches in the education of sports coaches.

There are systemic and longstanding inequalities in sport participation for culturally and linguistically diverse (CALD) migrants. Drawing on theoretical foundations of critical pedagogy and social justice education, as well as a public sociology perspective, this paper examines the development of an action research (AR) project to support the co-creation of inclusive climates in sports clubs in CALD communities in Melbourne, Australia. We use artefacts from collaborative sessions, interviews, and surveys to analyse the AR's impact on participating community sport leaders' awareness and practice. The findings indicate how the collaborative process of assessing clubs' diversity and inclusion climates affected participants' awareness of inequities and exclusionary practices, and how the co-creation of strategies for change brought together diverse perspectives. We reflect on the implications and limitations of the AR for research practice aimed at promoting equitable social inclusion for CALD migrants in community sport. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This paper examines the usage of "race" in high school physical education textbooks in Australia. In particular, it examines the concept of biological "race" in connection with human performance in sport. DNA studies do not indicate that separate classifiable subspecies (races) exist within modern humans. A content analysis of physical education textbooks in Australia suggests that they are sites that continue to perpetuate myths of "race" and the "science" related to it. As such the utilization of biological "race" as a variable for athletic performance naturalizes embedded biases, is anti-scientific and is potentially indicative of other racist practices within education. Further this commonsense understanding of biological "race" continues to develop uncritically and unchecked. University students in the fields of exercise science and physical education generally develop from students who excelled in high school physical education (PE). The power of curriculum and pedagogy result in the reproduction of biological "race" that has become reified in the field of physical education. (Contains 1 table.)

In Australia and New Zealand recognition of Polynesians is almost exclusively defined by their physicality. Sought after for size and strength on the sporting field, excellence in sport is arguably regarded as a life goal in itself. This paper will examine how this situation arose and the implications for Polynesians living in Australia. For a working-class community struggling with rapidly diminishing job opportunities and a high cost of living, sport is increasingly regarded as the only avenue out of poverty. With comparatively low rates of educational achievement keeping many in "blue collar" jobs, there are consequences for health and health literacy, particularly with regard to obesity-related illness and premature mortality from otherwise preventable diseases. This paper will discuss the findings of two studies: an ethnographic project exploring the rugby life histories of 15 Polynesian men in Melbourne and qualitative interviews with 67 Polynesians in Sydney and the Hunter region about their perceptions of health and lifestyle. It will argue success in sport is inextricably bound up with cultural pride and identity. The sporting domain therefore has the potential to allow a migrant minority a "voice" in other areas of civic engagement. In this way, rather than a sporting career coming at the expense of an education, participation and achievement in sport should provide a background to improving culturally targetted programs around improving outcomes in education and health awareness.

Four and a half years after Jerry Brown won Oakland voters' trust to become the city's first 'strong mayor,' Oakland residents are giving their city charter another look. A Charter [...]

Air travel is a key factor in Super Rugby and can have a negative influence on players' performance and well-being. The aim of this study was to identify the current practice to reduce the effects of air travel and to understand the rationale behind these interventions. "Travel managers" from eight Super Rugby teams were interviewed and answered a questionnaire. A qualitative description was performed to identify common themes and differences between participants' answers. To protect the privacy and identity of the participants, all data have been de-identified and represented as two fictionalised amalgams (Bob and Peter). The rationale behind each intervention appeared to be based on a mix of anecdotal, practice and, occasionally, literature, confirming that scientific findings are not always easily translatable to applied settings. Two different approaches, clinical (Bob) and holistic (Peter), were identified. Even if both characters acknowledge that travel variables are too many to control, it appears that team culture and practices are perceived as important as biological interventions in controlling the negative effects of travel on players' performance and well-being. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Wild swimming is currently experiencing a surge in popularity as people avowedly attempt to reconnect with the natural world. Previous research has positioned wild swimming as a solitary pursuit whereby individuals retreat from society to connect with or overcome nature and better themselves. This article draws on an ethnographic examination of a wild swimming group in Australia and reveals that while being in nature and personal fulfillment are key motivations for these wild swimmers, it is the social interactions that facilitate a deep engagement with their local "bluespace." We argue that rather than swimming away from the world, by "wayfaring" together these swimmers become connected to their environment, and each other, simultaneously. Such findings indicate potential social, health, and environmental benefits of collective wild swimming. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

In recent years, socially critical scholars have argued that love, as a moral basis for socio-critical work, should not be colorblind or power blind and that marginalized populations may understand caring within their sociocultural context, creating spaces for youth and teachers to challenge the racism, sexism, class exploitation and linguicism imposed on their communities. While there is advocacy of love in education and physical education, there is little research that aims to explore how pre-service teachers' (PSTs') conceptions change across time. The aim of this study was to explore PSTs' changing perceptions of love as they worked in an activist sport project with youth from socially vulnerable backgrounds. Participatory action research framed this four-semester research project. Participants included the lead researcher, four PSTs and 110 youth. Data collected included the following: (a) the lead researcher's field notes; (b) collaborative PSTs' group meetings; (c) PSTs' generated artifacts; and (d) PSTs' focus groups and interviews. Data analysis involved induction and constant comparison. The PSTs understood that love was represented by the following: (a) creating democratic spaces for students to care for each other and their community; (b) trusting and understanding the students, and dreaming possible futures with them; (c) being the best teacher in order to facilitate students' learning; and (d) making sure all students are included. We concluded that the PSTs' embodied experiences of oppression and the reflexive experience lived in the activist approach created a space for the PSTs to see themselves in the youth, reconnect with their own identity and develop empathy and love for the diverse youth. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This paper examines the positive role of sport in building social cohesion and the accrual of social and cultural capital for many young Pasifika men. In the process, we also critique the disciplinary discourse, underpinned by bio-racism and commodification, which is enacted on the bodies of Pacific Island men in the context of post-colonial, neoliberal, Australia. This results in over-representation in the rugby codes, manual labour, the security industry, and in prison. Of specific interest to this paper are the ways in which certain spaces, and the means to occupy them, become naturalised. This naturalisation serves to obscure the actual regulatory, and at times exploitative, function of sports; instead positing them as exemplars of individualism and self-governance. In positioning neoliberalism as the reengineering, rather than simply the deregulation, of the state, sports such as rugby enact considerable disciplinary power over the bodies of a minority ethnicity. We refer to this diversion from conventional working class employment opportunities as 'sportfare'. Qualitative data for this paper has been drawn from several independent studies engaging with Pasifika communities in Australia. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This article is based on a larger ethnographic project that examines the construction of gendered identity within a Japanese men's rowing club. For members, notions of masculinity and Japanese identity converge to the point of naturalization. The embodied experience of being a rower is underpinned by the cultural artifacts of hierarchy, social positioning, and group membership. Membership in university rowing clubs somatizes and naturalizes the valued characteristics associated with salary-man identity (duty, loyalty, self-sacrifice, mental and physical endurance) to the point of common sense. The resultant masculine identity is congruent with forms of hegemonic masculinity that are critical for successful employment in company-centered Japan. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Byline: Brent McDonald Sport has undergone major changes due to the influence of globalisation. In the context of Japanese sport the influences of globalisation has created tension between the old position of sport for social integration and the new, market-oriented position (Yamashita, 2006). Whilst tracing some of the globalising influences on professional sport this paper examines how such influences effect identity and practice at a 'grass-roots' level. In examining sport from the 'old school' educational perspective, this paper explores identity and practice at a university men's rowing club. Based on responses and observations the paper finds that, whilst superficially there has been an increase in diversity, practice and identity at this level of sport has remained relatively unchanged.

It has been suggested by some authors that, given the relationship between dependence and vulnerability to exploitation, a shift in coaching away from surveillance and control and towards autonomy-supportive behaviours by coaches will be conducive to athlete welfare. This paper utilizes an ethnographic approach, underpinned by the theoretical position of the later writings of Foucault, to understand the autonomous practices of athletes in a Japanese university rowing club. Of particular interest are the ways in which the relative absence of the coach contributes to athlete autonomy. The long-term sport-education of these Japanese university rowers results in an enduring subjectification that no longer requires the intervention of any coach. At the same time, these Japanese rowers still actively and autonomously engage in practices of the self, expressed in non-strategic, interactional ways. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]