The Future of Sport Philosophy in Higher Education Kinesiology

ABSTRACT

Massengale’s Trends Toward the Future of Physical Education (1987) makes no reference to the existence of the philosophic inquiry of physical activity within higher education kinesiology programs—even though the sub-discipline had been formalized by academics in the early 1970s. In contrast, Massengale and Swanson’s The History of Exercise and Sport Science (1997) dedicated a chapter to sport philosophy’s development, including a prognosis of its future. Since then, there has been tremendous growth in the sub-discipline, including an increase in publication outlets, stand-alone monographs, and the creation of academic associations globally. Yet this growth has not necessarily secured sport philosophy’s place in higher education curriculum. In this article, we briefly review the history of philosophic inquiry into physical activity and review previous predictions of the sub-discipline’s future before offering our own prognostication of its future in higher education.

KEYWORDS:

• Kinesiology
• physical education
• sport philosophy

Notes

1. The terms “physical education,” “exercise and sport science,” and “kinesiology” will be used within the context of each idea, whether that is historical usage or within quotes. We will use the modern term “kinesiology” when presenting our own ideas. We recommend reading Slowikowski and Newell’s (1990) article to trace the philology of “physical education,” “exercise and sport science,” and “kinesiology.”

2. We will use the monikers “sport philosophy” or “the philosophy of sport” throughout the article in reference to the philosophic inspection of movement activities in general, including sport, recreational activities founded in movement, activities considered games, playful activities, and dance, as well as philosophic inquiry into addressing issues related to health, physical well-being, and other body-centric practices.

3. The steering committee for this scholarly society originally consisted of philosophers and physical educators, not specifically trained sport philosophers (Kretchmar, 1997, p. 191).

4. The IAPS 2014–2015 membership includes representatives from every continent except Antarctica, and the IAPS conference has been held in many locations outside the United States, including several European universities as well as Japan, Australia, and Brazil.

5. The following examples are not intended to be all-inclusive lists; we apologize to those we unwittingly did not reference.

6. JPS, SEP, and Fair Play are specific journals dedicated to the dissemination of sport philosophy scholarship. However, other discipline-specific journals (in print and online) exist globally (i.e., Japan, the Czech Republic, Poland), and other more general kinesiology journals, such as Quest, also publish a share of sport philosophy essays. Therefore, this is a conservative estimate of scholarship production.

7. Simon (1991, 2004, 2010) authored the first three editions. The fourth edition includes the co-authors of Torres and Hager (Simon, Torres, & Hager, 2014).

8. See Hopsicker and Jirásek (2014) for further detail on the international scope of the discipline.

9. http://universityethics.psu.edu/values-culture.