Dare the Discipline(s) to Build a New Academy: The Future of Kinesiology and Health in Higher Education

ABSTRACT

In the 40th Annual Dudley Allen Sargent Lecture, I dared the field of kinesiology with its various subdisciplines to be at the center of systematic and individual change in the values, behaviors, and functions of higher education. It is not meant to be a harsh critique of kinesiologists, but is rooted in the belief that the field of kinesiology is suited to be daring enough to build a new academy. Influenced by the work of progressive era educational scholar Howard Counts, I highlight five fallacies associated with the function of higher education, then provide five challenges to prompt our field to ontologically reimagine the academy.

KEYWORDS:

• Higher education
• kinesiology
• coronavirus

Acknowledgments

I would like to begin this lecture by acknowledging my creator, my ancestors, and my family. If not for the sacrifices of those who came before me, I would not be here today.

Furthermore, I would be remiss if I did not acknowledge my academic families of fellow Physical Education Teacher Education (PETE) scholars and the number of classmates, professors, students, and mentors I have met at North Carolina Agricultural and Technical State University, The Ohio State University, The University of Texas at Austin (UT), and The University of Texas at San Antonio, as well as in professional organizations like the National Association for Kinesiology in Higher Education. In particular, I would like to acknowledge the impact of my academic fathers, Drs. Samuel R. Hodge and Louis Harrison, Jr., in both my academic and personal lives (Clark, 2019). As we move into the next era of higher education, we must all acknowledge our need for a thriving community of scholars and scientists who are supportive of one another beyond the confines of our academic work.

Before moving forward, I have to give special acknowledgment to Dr. Darla Castelli, whose encouragement during my graduate education to take physical education to the mainstream provides the foundation that inspired this lecture. I will never forget one day in class during my first or second year in the doctoral program at UT, when she challenged the class to think about what it meant to be PETE scholars with an impact that extends beyond our field. It was typical for Dr. Castelli to prompt conversations about PETE in the contexts of educational policy, pedagogy, neuroscience, architecture, and more. Needless to say, Dr. Castelli is an outstanding scientist and an even better teacher.