Developing Disability Sport: The case for a critical pedagogy

As a key stakeholder in the development of physical culture and the promotion of inclusive practice, the university sector has the capacity to contribute extensively to expanding and enhancing provision for disability sport at the local, regional and global level.1-3 Such activity is, in part, predicated on nurturing students as critical practitioners able to challenge established patterns of thinking about disability and traditional models of activity provision. This criticality should inform approaches to programming and promotion of inclusive practice both as part of the university physical activity portfolio and in the practitioner’s subsequent work with local, regional and international stakeholders. It should also equip students to challenge the systemic inequities increasingly characteristic of competitive disability sport in local and global settings.4-6 This paper reports on a small scale action research project, which sought to explore the impact of one University’s adoption of a critical pedagogy approach to teaching and learning through a level 6 elective module. The research identified that placement learning provided an impetus for the students to engage in more critical reflection and the notion of a ‘lived experience’ through the range of elements of the module was essential in developing students’ ability to question and challenge established ways of working. It also considers implications for adopting critical pedagogic approaches to teaching and learning for students, academics and administration