Japanese adult learners’ experiences in an online social justice and diversity recurrent education program in sport and physical activity

ABSTRACT

The purpose of this study was to investigate Japanese adult learners’ experiences in online recurrent education modules with a focus on race, ethnicity, disability, assessment, and multicultural education to raise social justice and diversity awareness among adult learners, and promote positive change through sport and physical activity. This study employed a descriptive qualitative design using a semi-structured interview approach. The research site was an online recurrent education program in sport and physical activity organised by the Japan Sport Council (JSC). Seven participants (two female and five male) who were members of the JSC and attended the recurrent education modules were conveniently selected for this study. A constant comparative analysis method was used to interpret the data, with three themes emerging from the data: (a) importance of culturally relevant strategies when working with youth with ethnically diverse backgrounds, (b) concept learning about social inclusion in sport and physical activity, and (c) professional learning about assessment and evaluation. The findings indicate the value and impact of social justice and diversity recurrent education for the professional growth of Japanese adult learners, and suggest the need for high quality online facilitation to advance knowledge and professional skills related to diversity, equity, and inclusion.

KEYWORDS:

• Social justice and diversity
• adult learners
• recurrent education

Introduction

The influence of the global crisis linked to the COVID-19 pandemic has spread far beyond the public health sphere and has deeply challenged the fabric of our modern society. Maintaining social and physical distance, including in schools and communities, become commonplace to curtail the spread of disease and disrupted many regular aspects of society including sport and physical activity (United Nations, 2020). Sporting events at the international, national, regional, and local levels were cancelled or postponed. As such, adult learners (e.g. coaches, physical education teachers) were not able to actively teach, coach, or be involved in individual or team activities outside of their homes.

Therefore, in Japan, government agencies such as the Japan Sport Council (JSC) decided to offer various recurrent education opportunities which encouraged adult learners (who hold membership of sport for tomorrow in the JSC) to be involved in a return to organised learning in teaching physical education and coaching youth sport in an online platform (Jourdan, 1980), because of the COVID-19 pandemic. In addition, the JSC set goals and objectives to view the COVID-19 closures as an opportunity to ‘do better’ with offering recurrent education opportunities, instead of resuming regular programming. More specifically, it was important to prepare adult learners who may be able to investigate and solve social issues and concerns, and advance societal relations as well as conditions in relation to social justice and diversity in sport and physical activities (McNeely & Schintler, 2020).

The JSC has historically offered a variety of recurrent education programs about teaching and coaching methods, but not social justice and diversity topics that drive critical thinking, learning, and a problem centred orientation to the recurrent education experience for adult learners (JSC, 2022). The JSC decided to focus on topics of social justice and diversity in recurrent education programs, because COVID-19 has disproportionately impacted certain individuals and groups identified by factors including race, class, and disability, as well as other social justice and diversity reflecting privileges vs inequalities in society (McNeely & Schintler, 2020). Plus, recurrent education helps adult learners develop reflective and critical thinking skills to organise their thoughts about social justice and diversity in sport and physical activities in a clear, cohesive, and convincing manner (Sato et al., 2020). This recurrent education is expected to allow adult learners to identify and grow their practice of social justice and diversity skills in the sport and physical activity realm, in their daily work.

Topics of JSC recurrent education opportunities have ranged from coaching to teaching strategies to meet individual, local, and national needs through sport; and from ethical and moral behaviours in relation to fairness, compassion, honesty, and responsibility. With this range of topics, the facilitator(s) must modify the course content with evidence-based practices including assessment and evaluation in social justice and diversity (Bloom, 1956). More specifically, assessment and evaluation components in social justice and diversity are essential topics to discuss in recurrent education sessions, because research indicates that adult learners (especially physical education teachers and coaches) rarely have the knowledge and skills related to methods for collecting and analysing evidence-based data for youth with diverse backgrounds (e.g. disability), including a lack of understanding of how to make key decisions to improve social justice and diversity regarding sport and physical activities in schools or youth sports (Santos-Meneses et al., 2023).

Additionally, in the recurrent education programs, the adult learners gain competency in culturally relevant practices for meeting unique professional needs that apply to working with diverse populations (Burden et al., 2013; Ladson-Billings, 2014). Traditionally, adult learners have limited opportunities to learn about social inclusion and explore their own unconscious biases, including prejudiced thoughts and stereotypes that may lead to discrimination towards certain ethnic, national or disability groups in sport and physical activity (Haudenhuyse, 2017). Adult learners may also need to evaluate their own attitudes and actions towards marginalised groups, because they may know how to physically include individuals (youth) with disabilities in sport and physical activity, but they may unintentionally separate the students from their peers, or limit their social interactions (Sato et al., 2019). Therefore, they may need to use a social inclusion approach which maintains social relationships with coaches and individuals with disabilities and develops a sense of group belongingness (Cobigo et al., 2012). The JSC expanded programming to offer social justice and diversity topics, including race and ethnicity, nationalism and language, and disability in sport and physical activity which are socially and culturally known as taboo topics to discuss in Japan (Furuta et al., 2022).

The purpose of this study was to investigate Japanese adult learners’ experiences in online recurrent education modules with a focus on race, ethnicity, disability, assessment, and multicultural education to raise social justice and diversity awareness among adult learners and promote positive change through sport and physical activity.

Successful recurrent education in social justice and diversity allows adult learners to develop skills to successfully navigate unpredictable scenarios, assess and evaluate each situation by providing clear and concise communication, act to correct miscommunication, and be as flexible as possible while remaining focused on the primary purpose of that specific activity (Blom et al., 2015).

In this study, the recurrent education content focused on culturally relevant teaching in physical education and sport pedagogy, race and ethnicity in sport, disability sport, and assessment of learning outcomes, because many adult learners were coaching youth sports as well as teaching physical education at public or private schools. Some of the adult learners were assigned to teach adapted physical education or adapted sport for individuals with disabilities. Therefore, disability is an important topic to discuss in the recurrent education. The pedagogical style of recurrent education was to use the problem – solving approach in andragogy theory which emphasises each participant’s initiative to upgrade their professional qualifications and competencies to meet changing professional standards (Hofstede & Hofstede, 2005). This approach helped participants self-motivate to pursue their interests and commit to their own professional development.

Many of the social justice and diversity topics are considered socially and taboo topics to discuss in Japan (Furuta et al., 2022). The researchers in this study believed that these divisive topics are important to cover in recurrent education, because adult learners need to understand the process of how individuals with diverse backgrounds seek comfort within uncomfortable situations and conditions. For example, individuals with non-Japanese ethnic backgrounds, and/or mixed-race individuals who are Japanese nationals, face difficulties living in Japan (Oshima, 2014). These individuals are born and raised in Japan, speak fluent Japanese, and hold Japanese nationality, yet they are still viewed as foreigners or mixed-race Japanese, who are called hafu in Japanese. According to Assogba (2008), racism is a serious issue that Japan needs to address. Racism in Japan is based on the idea that certain Japanese individuals belong to a unique ethnic group that is totally different from all other ethnic groups in the world (Assogba, 2008).

Finally, disability is a topic known to be taboo and divisive in Japan. Japan’s social system and structures do not lend credence and support to preparing adults (e.g. teachers, community leaders, business leaders, and coaches) to work with individuals with disabilities. Sato et al. (2007) explain that individuals with disabilities are discriminated against at the societal level because of personal factors (e.g. scepticism and doubt about their efficacy to meet daily concerns), management factors (e.g. complexities of organising and managing inclusive settings), and consequence factors (e.g. differential benefits accrued in relation to an individual’s disability type and severity). Interestingly, in the Japanese language, the term disability is translated as shogai which means ‘barrier’ and is seen to reflect personal and social limitations. Therefore, recurrent education opportunities in relation to a wide variety of social justice and diversity topics, including nationalism, racism, and disability are needed to help professionals in a variety of sport and physical activity settings prepare to work with and support youth and adults with diverse backgrounds and unique needs.

The research question that guided the study was: What recurrent education content stimulated Japanese adult learners’ continuous interests and prepared them to use a social justice and diversity approach while taking online recurrent education modules in sport and physical activity, and when interacting in the professional workplace?

Theoretical framework and purpose

This study was based on andragogy theory (adult learning theory; Knowles, 1989) which refers to adult learners’ independent self-concept and ability to direct their own learning. In order to achieve the goals and objectives, this study uses andragogy which emphasises the role of recurrent education as responsible for creating a comfortable physical climate as well as a psychological climate of mutual trust and respect that is collaborative, supportive, open, and authentic, focusing on pleasure through lifelong learning for adult learners (Knowles, 1984). The concept of lifelong learning is viewed as a vehicle which enables adult learners to adapt and meet the challenges of the new societal era in a context or setting (e.g. sport, physical activity; Kungu & Machtmes, 2009).

When facilitating recurrent education targeting adult learners, certain pedagogical tactics may be inappropriate (Davenport & Davenport, 1985), because each adult learner has unique ways of looking at recurrent education and will express specific interests regarding the topics offered in recurrent education programs. Inappropriate tactics covered by Ozuah (2005) include: pedagogy a teacher-centred model, where the teacher determines what content should be learned, how and when the content should be learned. The recurrent education program offerings in this study allowed them to select topics and modules, and challenged them to find ways to actively practice alternative methods in developing their own critical consciousness including power awareness, critical literacy, desocialization, and self-education (Sandlin, 2005).

There are several studies regarding Japanese teachers’ physical education professional development in public schools using andragogy theory (e.g. Sato et al., 2020, 2022). These studies found that Japanese teachers’ prior experiences impact professional development learning (Huang, 2002). These experiences provide rich resources and help teachers develop self-identity. Sharing the past experiences and current status of the professional environment related to teaching students in physical education can support and facilitate teachers’ learning. Additionally, there are several studies that focus on adult education or professional development related to social justice and diversity exploring the interrelation of social class, gender, ethnicity, and age (e.g. Boyadjieva & Ilieva-Trichkova, 2017; Callender, 2011; Jackson, 2011). However, in this study, adult learners received social justice and diversity (e.g. race, ethnicity, disability) recurrent education in the sport and physical activity context as new content. According to the United Nations 2030 agenda for sustainable development, one of the key sustainable development goals is to ensure inclusive and equitable quality education and promote lifelong learning opportunities for all (World Education Forum, 2015). Although there may be continued uncertainty about the implications of social justice and diversity in the field of adult education (Johnson-Bailey et al., 2010), adult learners have the skills and lived experiences that they can reference to enrich their own process of discovery and growth. Using andragogy, the facilitator can tailor coursework to meet the interests of adult learners by involving them in planning recurrent education objectives and activities while solving real-world professional issues and concerns.

Knowles (1989) reveals that adult learners engage in programs addressing the following six components: (1) the need to know (Why do I need to know this?), (2) the learner’s self-concept (I am responsible for my own decisions.), (3) the role of the learner’s experiences (I have experiences which I value and you should respect.), (4) readiness to learn (I need to learn because my circumstances are changing.), (5) orientation to learning (Learning helps me deal with the situation in which I find myself.), and (6) motivation (I learn because I want to.). These components relate to andragogy theory, as andragogy places full responsibility on the facilitator to deliver specific content that is student centred, determine learning outcomes that are applicable and integrated to real-world professional issues, and identify the level of student success with retaining the concepts (while allowing adult learners to direct their own learning).

Forrest and Peterson (2006) claim that andragogy theory focuses on the needs of the adult learner, rather than youth, as well as the creation of independent and adaptable learners. In this process, adult learners integrate new knowledge into their existing knowledge base. Knowles (1989) explains that andragogy theory helps adult learners connect the processes of elaboration, refinement, and restructuring. Elaboration allows an adult learner to link precise new knowledge with current knowledge (Stein et al., 1984). Refinement is the act of shifting and sorting information to retain those elements that make sense (Knowles, 1989). Restructuring is the development of new knowledge maps that allow adult learners to demonstrate expertise (Norman & Schmidt, 1992). Through this learning process, adult learners may develop their independent self-concept and recognise their ability to direct their learning.

Knowles (1989) reveals that adult learners are more problem-centred than subject-centred in learning. In this study, adult learners participating in a sport and physical activity focused social justice and diversity recurrent education program gained information about working with and respecting individuals with diverse backgrounds in sport and physical activity settings. The participants also explored and considered the benefits of the online module platform, including learner reflections regarding (a) what they expected to learn, (b) how they might use it in practice, and (c) how the online modules helped them to meet the goals of individualised learning plans.

Method

Research design

This study utilised a descriptive qualitative design using an in-depth, semi structured interview approach (Seidman, 1998). The intent of using the interview method was to describe and explain adult learners’ online learning experiences and to explore the meaning that they ascribed to those experiences. The social justice and diversity recurrent education program facilitated by JSC was advertised and offered in four weekly online meetings, and accepted 60 students total. Therefore, the descriptive qualitative design was an appropriate methodology, not only because of the small sample size but because this research design helped us describe a comprehensive summarisation of specific events by individuals or groups of students.

Interviewing is a powerful way to gain insight into professional and social phenomena experienced by individuals in professional contexts (Seidman, 1998). Interviews are unique in that they allow the researcher to acquire data not obtainable in any other way (Gay, 1996). Examples include adult learner experiences with social justice and diversity, sport for development, and reflections on past and present learning experiences. The lead author conducted a semi-structured interview with seven participants who enrolled in four sport and diversity sessions (one per week for four weeks; 75 minutes each). Detailed social justice and diversity session content is described in Table 1.

Table 1. Online session content (75 minutes per session).

Session Name	Description	Topics
Week 1: Race and ethnicity in sport and physical activity	The purpose of this session is to focus on concepts of prejudice, stereotypes, and discrimination in relation to racism and ethnicity in sport and physical activity.	(1) Olympic Black Power Salute (2) Concepts of Prejudice, Stereotype, and Discrimination (3) Bullying and Teasing (youth with biracial backgrounds in Japan) (4) Culturally relevant strategies for including and respecting youth with diverse backgrounds
Week 2: Adapted physical education and sport	The purpose of this session is to focus on the current status and future directions of coaching and instructing youth with disabilities in sport and physical activity settings. The session includes terminology, inclusion concepts, and equality and equity in adapted sport and adapted physical activity in Japan.	(5) Concepts of medical and social model of adapted sport and adapted physical activity (6) Activity modifications and adaptations for youth with disabilities (7) Physical inclusion vs social inclusion (8) Mainstream, adapted, and unified sport programs
Week 3: Assessment and evaluation in adapted physical activity and sport	The purpose of this session is to focus on the current status of assessment and evaluation of cognitive, social, and psychomotor components for youth with disabilities in sport and physical activity in Japan. This session also includes how to use quantitative, qualitative, and single subject methods for collecting accurate and reliable data.	(9) Concepts of assessment and evaluation including testing, analysing, and reporting data. (10) Securing accurate and consistent data through member checking, peer debriefing, interrater reliability, etc … (11) Assessment and evaluation of program goals and objectives (12) Learning how to write behaviour-focused goals and objectives using the ABCD model
Week 4: Multicultural coexistence in sport and physical activity	The purpose of this session is to focus on future directions in instructing and coaching youth with diverse backgrounds in sport and physical activity.	(13) Concept of etic and emic perspectives in sport and physical activities. (14) Discussion: future directions of instructing and coaching youth with diverse backgrounds in Japan (15) Discussion: how we minimise unconscious level of knowing in social justice and diversity and maximise conscious level of knowing in social justice and diversity in sport and physical activity.

Research site and participants

The JSC was established based on two major pieces of legislation: the Act on General Rules for Incorporated Administrative Agency (1999) and the Act on the Japan Sport Council. The objectives of the JSC are summarised as follows: to promote sports and to enhance and maintain school children’s health, the JSC operates its sports facilities appropriately as well as efficiently; provides necessary assistance for the promotion of sports, covers injury and accidents involving children under school care, conducts research regarding sports and the maintenance and enhancement of children’s health, collects and provides sports-related materials; and contributes to the development of people’s physical and mental health based on the activities above (JSC, 2022).

Seven participants (two female and five male) were conveniently selected for this study. Pseudonyms of the seven participants and their demographic background are indicated in Table 2. This study used a criterion sampling strategy, which meant cases were sampled meeting a predetermined criterion of importance (Patton, 2002). The logic of criterion sampling was to select and investigate all cases that met predetermined criterion of importance or interest (Patton, 2002). The participants’ criteria for this study were: (1) valid members of JSC, who (2) had experience leading sport and physical activity programs for youth domestically or internationally, and who (3) had no prior experience with workshops related to race, ethnicity, and/or disability in sport and physical activity.

Table 2. Characteristics of professional backgrounds of participants.

Name^1	Age	Gender	Occupation	Social Justice and Equity related Professional Development	Youth Sport and Physical Activity Teaching or Coaching Experience
Shimokawa	30’s	Male	College professor (sport and physical activity)	None	Yes
Togawa	30’s	Male	College professor (sport and physical activity)	None	Yes
Yamashita	20’s	Female	JSC	None	Yes
Nikko	40’s	Male	NPO organisation in sport for development in Cambodia	None	Yes
Urashima	40’s	Male	College athletic coach of American Football	None	Yes
Iwabuchi	50’	Male	NPO organisation in sport for development in Africa	None	Yes
Kazama	50’	Female	Martial Arts instructor in Japan	None	Yes

¹Pseudonym.

Data collection interviews

This study was conducted during the COVID-19 pandemic. In order to maintain social distance and avoid face-to-face contact and long-distance travel, interviews were conducted through online video calls using the Microsoft Teams communication and collaboration platform. This study used semi-structured interviews that were organised using a set of predetermined open-ended questions (DiCicco-Bloom & Crabtree, 2006; Sato et al., 2017a). During the interviews, the researcher asked additional follow-up questions to obtain insightful and compelling information about online learning related to social justice and diversity in the sport and physical activity context.

The interview questions were developed based on previous research that focused on adult learners’ experiences in a kinesiology workshop (Sato et al., 2022), as well as adult learners’ experiences with online learning (Sato et al., 2017b), and modified for the present study. During the interviews, the lead researcher asked the participants questions about their expectations, lecture content, online teaching strategies, and learning experiences that shaped their professional learning in social justice and diversity in relation to sport and physical activity. The interviews lasted 60 to 90 minutes with each participant and were conducted in the Japanese language. The questions were carefully worded to ensure relevancy to their experience. Sample interview questions include: (a) Tell us about a time when you responded to a colleague or young person who made an insensitive remark. Describe the situation and the actions you took. (b) Which learning activities or content of social justice and diversity in the online recurrent education program were most memorable to you? (c) What do you think about how new learning from the online recurrent education program can contribute to solving the problems or challenges you face through social inclusion regarding sport and physical activity? (d) How do you set goals and objectives for youth learning in sport and physical activity? Are you assessing and evaluating based on performance or skill tests or results, or individual progress and improvement? (e) What do you believe to be the most important factors that determine the quality of recurrent education in relation to social justice and diversity? (f) How did your learning through online recurrent education transform your values or perspectives, such as assumptions or stereotypes against race, ethnicity, disability or any other individual differences? (g) What kinds of culturally relevant elements are important for you to provide an emotionally safer learning environment in sport and physical activity? (h) What are your future plans to use the recurrent education modules in your profession? Please give us some examples.

Translation process

This study used the cross-cultural translation technique utilised by Banville et al. (2000) and Hodge et al. (2013) to translate the survey questions and the predetermined interview questions, as well as the resulting data. All interview questions were asked in Japanese to all seven participants. For the translation process, one native Japanese speaker (A, who collected the data) translated and modified the interview questions from English to Japanese (Sato & Hodge, 2016; Sato et al., 2019).

After translation into Japanese, two bilingual native Japanese speakers (A and B) and two native Japanese speakers (C and D) discussed the adequacy of the translation to fit the Japanese context. They then edited the translated interview as deemed necessary for proper vocabulary, grammar, and syntax to ensure that the meaning of the translations and the original English questions were the same. Similarly, the interview data were translated from Japanese to English. Translation of the data to English was conducted by one native Japanese speaker (A), who compared the translation with the originals and discussed the translation with colleagues (B, C, and D) including one native English speaker (E). Agreement was reached on all items in the interview data.

Data analysis

A constant comparative method (Boeije, 2010) was used to interpret the data. The basic strategy of this analytical process is to constantly compare pieces of data while inductively deriving meaning or themes. More specifically, the transcripts from the set of interviews with each participant were coded independently by the researchers, and the differences were discussed until agreement was reached in relation to themes.

In addition, two peer debriefers reviewed the codes to avoid potential researcher bias. Next, coded data from the sets of transcripts from each participant were compared to identify similarities and differences. After peer debriefing, the researchers conducted a second round of coding key terms (e.g. self-directed learning, problem-solving in social justice and diversity, professional learning) by recoding the original transcripts. Some codes were combined during this process, whereas others were split into subcategories (subthemes). The researchers then examined the final codes to organise them into a hierarchical structure using individual and group coding percentages (how many times key terms appeared in the data source). Finally, all data and definitions of key terms were sent back to all participants for member checking. Once confirmation from all participants was received, the researchers grouped the codes into thematic categories, which were refined into recurring themes (Boeije, 2010).

Results

The purpose of this study was to investigate Japanese adult learners’ experiences in online recurrent education modules with a focus on race, ethnicity, disability, assessment, and multicultural education to raise social justice and diversity awareness among adult learners and promote positive change through sport and physical activity.

Three recurrent themes emerged from the data analysis: (a) importance of culturally relevant strategies when working with youth with ethnically diverse backgrounds, (b) concept learning about social inclusion in sport and physical activity, and (c) professional learning about assessment and evaluation.

Theme I: importance of culturally relevant strategies when working with youth with ethnically diverse backgrounds

This first theme captures the participants’ learning that they need to understand the concept of race and ethnicity when working with youth with ethnically diverse backgrounds in physical activity and sport settings. In Japan, for example, biracial Japanese is considered to be in the same category as being a foreigner. There are complex issues and concerns related to the image and treatment of biracial Japanese individuals. The participants felt that learning about the race and ethnicity of youth athletes’ identity was extremely important when supporting a diverse society of sport in Japan. Mr. Iwabuchi explained that many athletes in Japan often have personal identity issues and feel pressured to choose one race and ethnicity, often feeling guilty about their choice. He said:

I know that I think all coaches and teachers must understand the concept of race and ethnicity concepts in this module. I know that there are basketball players with biracial backgrounds who are treated differently by their teammates. I mean many Japanese teammates discriminate them in the locker room, because they were jealous that athletes with biracial backgrounds have better performance. My statement may be biased, but this is how Japanese youth see them. I learned that we need to have consistent sessions about how to respect each individual’s racial, ethnic, cultural, and social backgrounds in sport.

(Mr. Iwabuchi, interviews)

Mr. Iwabuchi explained that he learned that many youth with biracial backgrounds had the choice of group categorisation that influenced their athletic performance. He also said that it was important to learn about how Japanese youth perceive racial differences and how they label different groups. Mr. Urashima also said that the Japanese youth follow the collective culture, which means that the goals and objectives of one youth are subordinated to team goals. Therefore, looking at superior or outstanding performance demonstrated by youth with biracial backgrounds may make Japanese youth feel like they are threatening harmony in social relationships and impacting the teamwork between members of the team. He said:

I have been devoting myself for sport for development youth projects in different countries. Based on the recurrent education module in relation to race and ethnicity in sport and physical activities, I learned that Japanese youth and coaches use high context communication. I think it is true that Japanese youth try to read other’s minds and thoughts through communication. They use non-verbal communication, but youth who use low context communication share explicit details of thoughts and ideas. I think high-low context communication has adverse effects to influence youth with diverse backgrounds regarding race and ethnicity in sport and physical activities.

(Mr. Urashima, interviews)

Mr. Urashima explained that it was important to learn the concept of high context communication and low context communication in the recurrent education module, because he believed that almost all Japanese coaches and teachers make assumptions that youth with diverse backgrounds read and understand everything Japanese coaches and teachers say, which he realised was in fact, not true. Additionally, Ms. Yamashita explained:

I think that all teachers and coaches need to know how to implement culturally relevant practices for working with children with diverse backgrounds in sport and physical activities. I learned that treating all individuals the same may lead to the phenomenon of cultural dissonance. Therefore, Japanese teachers and coaches must understand and respect children’s cultural and socioeconomic backgrounds and find neutral and/or differentiated activities and practices, so that they can create an inclusive learning environment.

(Ms. Yamashita, interviews)

Ms. Yamashita explained that many coaches and teachers who were unaware of the different cultures and backgrounds of the youth they are working with, have interpreted and responded to the behaviours and actions of their participants as being inappropriate, not knowing that culture and background may dictate unique behaviours and actions.

Theme II: concept learning about social inclusion in sport and physical activity

The second theme focused on social inclusion concepts, and captured that all seven participants shared experiences of not knowing how to facilitate inclusive sport and physical activity, and appreciated the knowledge gained through learning new concepts related to disability and social inclusion. Through the lens of adapted physical education and adapted physical activity, participants were surprised that coaches and facilitators handle youth with disabilities differently in sport and physical activity settings. The adapted physical education module was eye opening for all participants, because they felt that they were isolated in their programs and did not have professional development or recurrent education opportunities to work with, teach, and/or coach youth with disabilities in sport and physical activity settings. All participants were knowledgeable about disability sport and/or the Paralympic movement, but they expressed the need to learn about how to include youth with disabilities in sport and physical activity settings.

Mr. Nikko explained that he learned about various types of youth sport settings, including modified sport programs, adapted sport programs, and unified sport programs in the recurrent education modules. He did not know that there are various programs that provide educational learning opportunities for youth with disabilities. He said:

I appreciate that the recurrent education modules provided information about various types of youth sport settings. I know about Paralympic and Special Olympic related sport and physical activities for youth with disabilities. However, I did not know about the various programs such as modified sport, adapted sport, and unified sport. I think learning about different types of services in sport and physical activities are beneficial for youth with and without disabilities, as well as coaches and supporters. I felt that disability sport is categorical, so I thought there were no other options available for youth with disabilities.

(Mr. Nikko, interviews)

Mr. Nikko explained that the social justice and diversity recurrent education topics should be based on content that is brand new for the participants. He felt that it may be helpful and beneficial for the participants to gain knowledge and skills related to managing and operating inclusive programs, adapted athletic programs, and unified sport programs.

Additionally, Ms. Kazama explained that the term ‘inclusion’ is defined as individuals with and without disabilities receiving the same or similar opportunities to participate in sport and physical activities. She said:

In Japan, I thought that the term ‘inclusion’ is only used for targeting individuals with disabilities in societal activities. In this session, I learned that inclusion includes gender, race, language, religion, politics, socioeconomic, other components. I felt that we all have some types of prejudices and stereotypes toward certain groups of people. We intentionally include people socially or segregate them emotionally depending on the situations. I think this module helped me reflect on how to minimize unconscious and conscious levels of bias related to human diversity. I learned that inclusion is not about dumping youth in sport. It matters how to encourage all youth, and accept individual differences through sport and physical activities.

(Ms. Kazama, interviews)

Ms. Kazama believed that the recurrent education modules helped her to consider how to respect the diverse backgrounds of the youth with whom she was working, and meet their unique social needs through sport and physical activities. She said, ‘Japan has collective culture, but it seems that teachers and coaches need to be ready to care about and support individual backgrounds that we cannot ignore’. She felt that the concept of social justice and diversity in sport and physical activity may be to bring the notion of individualism to sport and physical activity in Japan.

Another participant (Mr. Togawa) learned about person-first language for individuals with disabilities for the first time. In Japan, individuals with disabilities are called Shogai-sha in the Japanese language. ‘Shogai’ means disability and ‘Sha’ means person. During the module, Mr. Togawa learned that Japanese people use person-second language terminology. He felt that person-first language is important when demonstrating respect for individuals as people. He shared:

I learned that the terminology of person-first language for individuals with disabilities is an important factor for including individuals with disabilities. I think our terminology (Shogai-sha) has not changed or been reconsidered in many years. Therefore, many people still have some degree of stereotypes and biases toward individuals with disabilities in sport and physical activities. In order to include individuals with disabilities in sport and physical activities, I think I have to encourage everyone to use the person-first language concept. I think that this is important for adapted physical education and adapted physical activity.

(Mr. Togawa, interviews)

Mr. Togawa explained that person-first language can reinforce that individuals with disabilities are human beings. He believed that Japanese society tends to view the disability community including youth and athletes as inferior. Therefore, using person-first language helped him to ensure that individuals with disabilities are treated with the same respect as individuals without disabilities.

Theme III: professional learning about assessment and evaluation

The third theme showcases the experiences participants had regarding learning about assessment and evaluation, and the role it should play in their professional work. All participants believed that they needed to be aware of social justice and diversity topics, and focused especially on their roles and responsibilities in working with individuals with disabilities in sport and physical activity settings. More specifically, they were not simply learning about types and characteristics of disabilities, but were also learning about goal setting and assessing objectives using the audience, behaviour, condition, and degree model (ABCD; Bloom, 1956). For example, Ms. Yamashita explained:

I was interested in writing goals and objectives using the ABCD model for youth with disabilities. This is good systematic approach for writing a three to four step progression of short-term objectives from easy to difficult. I understood how to include audience, behavior, condition, and degree. I think this is extremely helpful. When I write progressions, I could sense that I should change condition and degrees of short-term objectives for each student. For example, the facilitator in this session used the following sentence as an objective, “Given a verbal cue, (condition), Mac (audience) will throw a tennis ball (behavior) using the overhead position to the facilitator who is 20 meters away (degree). I also learned that success rate should be 80% per degree level.

(Ms. Yamashita, interviews)

Ms. Yamashita explained that we need to include a success rate of approximately 80%, but wondered if youth with disabilities would be unable to meet their goals and objectives, resulting in a success rate of less than 80%. Ms. Yamashita shared that she would like to receive additional training on how to write behaviour-focused goals and objectives using the ABCD model.

One of the participants (Mr. Shirota) felt that it was important to assess and evaluate the learning outcomes of participants through inclusive sport and physical activities. He believed that it was beneficial that the facilitators introduced and covered concepts about social inclusion for youth with disabilities in the session, sharing:

I believed that many youth with disabilities are physically included, but not socially included in sport and physical activities. The facilitator introduced a behavioral analysis instrument of social inclusion in sport and physical activities. I was surprised that I had to observe and record every 5 seconds and marked the selected initial of behaviors such as talk, demonstration, praise, calling first name, feedback, hands-on interaction, and no interaction. The assessment and evaluation process is systematic. I felt that I had to minimize no-interaction time as much as possible. It was easy to set goals and objectives for social inclusion for youth with disabilities in sport and physical activities.

(Mr. Shirota, interviews)

Mr. Shirota explained that there is limited opportunity in relation to social justice and diversity in sport and physical activity. He felt that as a faculty member in the field of Kinesiology, he was unprepared to respond to or handle the unique needs and behaviours of the youth in his programs. Therefore, he strongly believed that the recurrent education modules should provide behavioural management scenarios that describe how to handle a variety of inappropriate behaviours, and how to integrate behaviour management into assessment and evaluation.

Another participant, Mr. Togawa, explained that all facilitators and coaches need to know how to assess and evaluate learning outcomes for youth with disabilities in sport and physical activity programs, sharing:

I do not think we have the knowledge and skills of how to assess and evaluate youth with disabilities in sport and physical activities. All coaches and facilitators are excellent facilitators who offer great programs for youth with disabilities. However, they never know how to secure evidence of the learning outcomes in relation to cognitive, social, and psychomotor factors. I do not think they exchange feedback about peer evaluation, or share their thoughts and opinions. This workshop helped me to understand assessment and evaluation concepts, and how we choose appropriate assessments that meet the individualized goals and objectives for youth with disabilities.

(Mr. Togawa, interviews)

Mr. Togawa also explained that she believed that all coaches and facilitators must assess and evaluate the learning progress, process, and outcomes of youth with disabilities more frequently than youth without disabilities, because the performance and behaviours of youth with disabilities may be inconsistent. Therefore, she appreciated that assessment and evaluation content for adapted physical education and sport were included in the recurrent education modules, as they were valuable for her learning.

Discussion

The purpose of this study was to investigate Japanese adult learners’ experiences in online recurrent education modules with a focus on race, ethnicity, disability, assessment, and multicultural education to raise social justice and diversity awareness among adult learners and promote positive change through sport and physical activity. The results demonstrated that the participants had positive learning experiences related to social justice and diversity though online recurrent education modules. The participants indicated that they would be able to apply the knowledge they acquired during the online recurrent education modules to real life sport and physical activity settings (Knowles, 1980). Although the online format had challenges, such as lack of face-to-face learning time, the adult learners believed that the online recurrent education modules helped them to develop skills on how to improve the quality of services with their own organisation or team.

The adult learners felt that racism was a serious topic that social justice and diversity in sport and physical activities needed to address in Japan. This finding demonstrated that the adult learners felt that this topic was important to discuss, because the goal of this session in relation to racism was to help the adult learners move from simple awareness of their prior or current experiences to an awareness of the conditions of their experiences in sport and physical activities through communicating with each other (Glowacki-Dudka et al., 2012). In this study, Japanese adult learners tend to bring their own emic perspectives, which capture their own interpretations, and interpret cultural and professional experiences within a particular group or culture (Furuta et al., 2022). Therefore, the recurrent education should bring about transforming changes that advance social justice and promote the common good (Preskill & Brookfield, 2009). Therefore, without using a lifelong learning approach, the adult learners may continuously position youth of mixed Japanese descent as challenging in teaching and coaching situations, as Japanese given mainstream ethno-nationalist definitions of who counts as a member of the Japanese nation persist (Lie, 2003).

In order to maximise adult learners’ experiences, a recurrent education program should use a lifelong approach which continuously includes culturally relevant strategies that help adult learners’ sociopolitical consciousness and cultural competence to respond to the needs of youth with racially diverse backgrounds (Ladson-Billings, 2014). In andragogy theory, Jarvis (2004) explained that recurrent education should be designed to share power and decision-making roles between the facilitator and adult learners. UNESCO (2017) shared the main purposes of lifelong learning from a social justice perspective, listing the following components: (a) social inclusion, cohesion, and democratic participation, (b) personal growth and fulfilment, and (c) cultural development and enrichment. Connecting nicely to UNESCO’s components of lifelong learning from a social justice perspective, the adult learners in this study continuously had to demonstrate and think critically about the relevant agenda of the recurrent education modules, rather than seeking the right answers from the facilitators.

According to Kim et al. (1998), the coaches of youth sport teams need to understand that Japanese youth with multi-ethnic backgrounds have complex and culturally based communication patterns that may affect communication between Japanese and mixed-race Japanese students. For example, European countries have been described as a ‘low-context’ culture, while Japan is considered a ‘high-context’ culture (Kim et al., 1998). In a low-context culture, communication between youth is made more explicit and nonpersonal, new information is more easily introduced, and confrontation and open disagreement is more acceptable. In a high-context culture, on the other hand, communication depends more on the physical or social context, and less information is conveyed in the verbalised portion of the message. As a result of this research, we suggest that future recurrent education modules be designed to use experiential learning that may allow adult learners to create new knowledge using their prior knowledge, so that the adult learners may be able to reflect on their choices, review what they learned, and contemplate what could have been done in other ways (Rutherford-Hemming, 2012).

The JSC believed that the recurrent education program was designed and based on sustainable development goal (SDG) four which aims to ensure inclusive and equitable quality education and promote lifelong learning for all (UNESCO, 2017), including people at risk of social exclusion, and people with special needs. The adult learners in this study coach or instruct youth with disabilities and need to recognise the structural reasons behind the social exclusion and marginalisation of people with disabilities. Therefore, understanding a wide variety of modified sports (that modify from regular versions of the sport, to meet the needs of various ages, sizes, abilities, skills, and experiences) and adapted sports is important to meet the needs of youth with disabilities (e.g. wheelchair basketball; Geidne & Jerlinder, 2016). Additionally, in Japan, the Special Olympics introduced a unified sport program, whose aim was to integrate individuals with intellectual disabilities through common practice sessions and team games (Wilski et al., 2012). In this study, most of the adult learners where not familiar with the concept of the unified sport program. Therefore, this study found that the workshop helped the adult learners learn about a variety of programs offered for individuals with disabilities, and supported them in processing that every placement option reflects the coaching and instructional style of the activity leader, as well as the needs of the youth with disabilities.

Furthermore, the recurrent education offerings encouraged the adult learners to understand ‘double jeopardy’ status – being a person with a diverse background (e.g. age, gender, race, ethnicity, religion, sexual orientation, capabilities, and socioeconomic) and having a disability (Moswela & Mukhopadhyay, 2018). The recurrent education continuously sent messages to the adult learners that individuals with disabilities should embrace a positive identity and body image. Seino (2017) points out that many Japanese coaches and facilitators often provide inappropriate services which position individuals with disabilities to social exclusion and prevent them from participation in sport and physical activities. As a result, the adult learners often do not meet the unique needs of youth with disabilities, because they misunderstand the complex realities or combination of social issues between types of disabilities, characteristics of disabilities, and diversity backgrounds of the youth with whom they are working.

The adult learners found that it was valuable to learn the concept of person-first language when they work with or talk about individuals with disabilities. Referring to a group of students as ‘students with Down Syndrome’ rather than ‘Down Syndrome students’ is one of the examples shared by the participants in this study. Participants learned that language has the power and ability to change how people think and view the world in sport and physical activities (Blaska, 1993). The person-first movement sought to empower individuals with disabilities by placing emphasis on their individuality and personhood rather than their impairments (Crocker & Smith, 2019). Granello and Gibbs (2016) also explain that person-first language provides a means to separate the individual from their diagnosis, and increase the focus on the person instead of the diagnosis. The adult learners realised that Japanese terminology and language that represents disability are based on person-second language which may lead to the promotion of biases, devaluing of individuals, and expressing negative attitudes (Granello & Gibbs, 2016).

Adult learners in this study had experienced challenges related to assessment and evaluation, and struggled to determine their competencies related to how best to conduct assessment and evaluation to correct any gaps. Gaps are defined as the way things are versus the way they should be, specifically between goals, objectives, and learning outcomes of youths with disabilities (Davis et al., 2006). More specifically, the recurrent education covered how to assess the knowledge and learning outcomes of youth with disabilities on a regular basis and encourage youth with disabilities to improve their academic and social skills to meet their goals and objectives. They felt it was beneficial to learn how to write behaviour-focused goals and objectives using the ABCD model in the session. Anderson and Krathwohl (2001) suggest that all coaches and instructions should consider using Bloom’s taxonomy, which consists of six main categories: (1) knowledge, (2) comprehension, (3) application, (4) analysis, (5) synthesis, and (6) evaluation, as a key tool to assess and evaluate when teaching sport and physical activities for youth with disabilities. Mager (1984) also explains that it is important that coaches and facilitators combine and use Bloom’s taxonomy and the ABCD model when they write behaviour-focused goals and objectives.

Based on the definition of the ABCD model (Bloom, 1956), (a) audience means who exhibits the performance, (b) the expected behavior is what observable performance the learner is to exhibit, (c) the conditions under which the behavior is realised include what environmental conditions (e.g. physical or verbal cues) are provided for the learner at the time of evaluation, and (d) the final degree of performance is what constitutes the standard of acceptable performance (e.g. time, accuracy, proportion, and quality). In self-directed learning in andragogy theory, the adult learners are responsible for constructing their own understanding of the module content by developing a dynamic relationship between new knowledge and previous experiences and current professional context (Cornelius, Gordon, and Ackland, 2011). This self-directed learning was evident in the participants experience related to setting goals and objectives, as they reflected on past behaviours, and considered the professional context in which they would apply their new learning and skills.

The adult learners believed that it was beneficial that they learned the concept of social inclusion in sport and physical activity for youth with and without disabilities. According to D’Angelo et al. (2021), sport and physical activity settings may support youth in developing positive social outcomes that are associated with social inclusion including life skills, positive psychological capital, active citizenship, and pro-social behaviours. However, in youth sport settings, youth with disabilities are often excluded and treated differently and receive inadequate and inequitable support from coaches and teammates (Spencer-Cavaliere et al., 2017). Therefore, the recurrent education curriculum and content designers selected social inclusion as a key topic to support the adult learners in gaining a better understanding of how coaches and facilitators think about disabilities within the context of their practices of social inclusion (Haudenhuyse, 2017).

In order to enhance the quality of assessment and evaluation for youth with disabilities, Mercier and Doolittle (2013) explain that programs related to sport and physical activity must select appropriate assessments and evaluate the goals and objectives for how the programs effectively worked. For example, McLennan and Thompson (2015) raised benchmark indicators on the quality of physical education for UNESCO. As related to this study, program leaders (e.g. JSC) may need to consider the following environmental components as they are exploring best practice in program assessment and individual assessment: a) an environment with supportive colleagues and administrators, b) an environment with resources for training coaches and facilitators on how to record and track data, and c) an environment with clear communication methods for informing youth and parents about assessment and evaluation practices and results (Sato et al., 2020).

Study limitations

This study has two major limitations. First, the study included a small sample size. As such, the findings are not generalisable to all adult learners who complete social justice and diversity recurrent education modules. However, the participants were purposefully selected and interviewed, and they took part in the four online sessions. From a qualitative perspective, therefore, the reader might consider transferability to the context of other online sessions focused on social justice and diversity in sport and physical activity. Second, our participants were purposefully selected from a list of attendees of online sessions through the JSC, and represented a small sample size. Nevertheless, qualitative inquiries, including case studies, typically use small samples and are often conducted at a single research site, with the logic of criterion sampling being to capture and describe the central themes that represent the phenomena under study for a particular cohort of interest (Patton, 2002). Our intent in using this sampling approach was to uncover common themes in adult learners’ online recurrent education experiences.

Recommendations

The following recommendations are intended to enhance the quality of online social justice and diversity recurrent education experiences related to sport and physical activity. First, it is recommended that future workshops are led by a diverse set of facilitators. In recent times, sports have become a social arena where youth with diverse backgrounds have achieved some measure of success and representation, and have enjoyed moments of cultural capital that could be used as leverage against the persistent problem of race and disability-based sport stereotyping (Hodge et al., 2008). Recurrent education experiences must recruit culturally, linguistically, ethnically, and socioeconomically diverse facilitators (Burden et al., 2004) and infuse culturally relevant pedagogy into the content of the programs. Working with diverse facilitators may support the adult learners in showing higher level of understanding, comfort, and confidence in their ability to educate youth of diverse backgrounds.

Second, program organisers may need to prepare and organise multiple early practicum experiences in adapted sport and physical activity, drawing special attention to the educational value of hands on learning and exposure. According to Chow (2002), adults must use progressive and innovative strategies that help youth achieve success using different coaching and instructional approaches, so that they may be able to acquire proper skills and tactics in adapted sport and physical activity settings. In addition, practicum experiences may help adult learners understand how to modify the equipment, rules, and skill progressions utilised in a variety of activities and games to support the personal and social development of all youth.

Lastly, andragogy provides a framework for the dissemination of procedures and resources specific to helping adult learners acquire assessment and evaluation information and skills. In this approach, Knowles (1973) suggests that workshop or professional development organisers (such as the JSC) need to prepare a set of procedures that include (a) establishing a climate conducive to learning, (b) creating a mechanism for mutual planning, (c) diagnosing the needs of learning, (d) formulating course objectives that satisfy adult learners’ needs, (e) designing a pattern of learning experiences, (f) conducting learning experiences with suitable techniques and materials, and (g) evaluating learning outcomes and re-diagnosing learning needs (Sato et al., 2017a). Additionally, the ideal online workshop on social justice and diversity in sport and physical activity is centred on a set of the adult learners’ tasks (lectures and projects) that constitute the learning experiences that they engage in, either independently or collaboratively, in order for them to master the objectives of the sessions (Carr-Chellman and Duchastel, 2001).

Conclusions

In this study, adult learners’ experiences in online recurrent education modules were explored. The adult learners were interested in learning detailed content about social justice and diversity, including understanding and working with individuals from various cultural backgrounds, and learning how to advocate and minimise prejudice, stereotypes, and discrimination between in and out groups in sport and physical activity. The primary goal of this study was that these adult learners minimised their unconscious bias towards certain individuals or groups of people, while starting to become culturally sensitive through the knowledge and skills which were gained from the recurrent education modules. Specifically, this minimisation of unconscious biases and use of new knowledge related to cultural sensitivity would be transferable and applicable to interactions with youth and colleagues in the workplace.

The recurrent education modules provided a form of assessment that would enable the adult learners to successfully plan, teach, and take actions for meeting individuals’ unique needs in sport and physical activity. To support Japanese adult learners online learning, this study encourages the facilitators to design recurrent education modules that will enhance the quality of online instruction in social justice and diversity for sport and physical activity settings.

Disclosure statement

No potential conflict of interest was reported by the author(s).

Additional information

Funding

The work was supported by the Japan Sport Council. This study was conducted as a result of the project commissioned and funded by the Japan Sport Agency of the government of Japan, in collaboration between the Japan Sport Council (JSC) and University of Tsukuba.