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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]

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]

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 draws on two ethnographic research projects in Japanese university sports clubs to examine the role alcohol plays in the social and cultural education of students. Over the course of a four-year membership, the university sports club is a site where members learn to negotiate drinking. This negotiation is demonstrated by the range of strategies members employ when engaging in one of the many official drinking parties that punctuate the university sports club calendar. Knowing how to drink is seen as an important byproduct of being a member and this knowledge is acquired via the pedagogical relationships established between junior and senior members. On graduating university Japanese students are literally expected to become full members of society and it is the habitus related to social interaction (including drinking) rather than that related to sport, which has enduring capital. Alcohol plays a central role in many aspects of Japanese social interaction and the university sports club is a site par excellence for the training in and mastery of such skills. [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. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Sport, including club activities in Japanese schools and universities, occupies an important place in educational curricula; but is it imbued with what Bourdieu suggests are guaranteed capital properties? That is, can sport and physical education help to accrue capital, and can such capital become cultural and economic capital? Further, is this capital similar to that resulting from academic education? Although western culture recognizes Cartesian differentiation, mind and body are seen as one in the Japanese understanding of the individual, unified by the concept of spirit (this is different to the concept of soul). Recognizing this concept of the body is crucial in addressing the question of transferring educational (in this case physical) capital into forms of cultural capital. This article investigates the responses of members of a Japanese University Rowing club when addressing questions dealing with various uses of the body in rowing and perceived opportunities for future employment. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]