Skip to search boxSkip to navigationSkip to main content

Looking beyond what's broken: towards an appreciative research agenda for physical education and sport pedagogy

  • Eimear Enright
    ,
  • Joanne Hill
    ,
  • Rachel Sandford
    ,
  • Michael Gard
  • University of Queensland
    ,
  • Loughborough University
    ,
  • Southern Cross University
Research Output:
Contribution to journal
Article
 Peer-review

Abstract

Despite the volume of research devoted to the many ills that beset the pedagogical field of physical education and sport, we begin by arguing that there has been insufficient attention given to the way scholars conceptualise change and imagine bringing it about. In particular, we point to a tendency within the field to prioritise problems—what’s broken—and suggest that this tendency harbours a self-fulfilling logic. Although somewhat oversold by some of its advocates, we then draw on Appreciative Inquiry (AI) as a potential intellectual resource for new agenda setting in physical education and sport pedagogy (PESP) research. AI invites researchers to prioritise the positive in the research contexts they study with a view to discovering and generating stories about success that research participants and scholars alike might build on.We argue that an appreciative agenda calls for more flexible and open communication about the start and imagined end points of our research, and a greater emphasis on collaboration that takes seriously the capacity of research participants to be the authors of change and the source of new directions in PESP inquiry.

Publication Information

Output type

Research Output:
Contribution to journal
Article
 Peer-review

Original language

English

Pages from-to (Number of pages)

Pages 912-926

Journal (Volume, Issue Number)

Sport, Education and Society (Volume 19, Issue 7)

Publication milestones

  • Published - 22/04/2014

Publication status

Published - 22/04/2014

ISSN

1357-3322

Publication IDs

  • handle.net: 10547/622328
  • Scopus: 84912529499

Access to documents

Publication metrics