Learning to be human in a digital world: a model of values fluency education for physical education

ABSTRACT

It is argued that negotiation and performance of identity in contemporary society is linked with the value-laden spaces in which individuals spend time. Concepts of space, place and identity have become important when looking to understand elements of social practice, in light of the recognition that life is becoming progressively more mobile, varied and challenging. This has resulted in a shift in how subsequent generations experience space and place within digitally-mediated social landscapes. It is asserted that young people in contemporary society can be seen to occupy a hybrid virtual-real world (Jordan, B. (2009). Blurring boundaries: The ‘real’ and the ‘virtual’ in hybrid spaces. Human Organisation, 68.) where they experience the multiplication of place or duplication of space (Papacharissi, Z. (2011). A Networked Self: Identity Community and Culture on Social Network Sites. New York: Routledge). Such complex social geographies, we contend, have important implications for young people’s negotiation and performance of identity, the acquisition of socio-technical capital (Resnick, (2002). Beyond b⁠owling t⁠ogether: SocioTechnical c⁠apital. In J. M. Carroll (Ed.), Human-c⁠omputer i⁠nteraction in the n⁠ew m⁠illennium (pp. 647–⁠672). Upper Saddle River, NJ: ACM Press.) and, ultimately, digital well-being. In a time when there is a focus on developing global and connected citizens (Greene, M. (1995). Releasing the Imagination: Essay on education, the arts and social change. San Francisco, CA: Jossey-Bass.) we argue that pupils need to be both digitally fluent and values fluent as they negotiate spaces of reality and virtual reality. Both constructs require the learner to engage critically with information and misinformation as presented on ever-changing digital interfaces (Kahne, J., & Bowyer, B. (2017). Educating for Democracy in a Partisan Age: Confronting the Challenges of Motivated Reasoning and Misinformation. American Educational Research Journal, 54, 3–34.) and to make value choices. Given that physical education (PE) has been identified as a significant place for meaning-making (Spracklen, K. (2015). Digital Leisure, the Internet and Popular Culture: Communities and Identities in a Digital Age. London: Palgrave Macmillan.) and a core site for values-based education (Mccuaig, L., Marino, M., Gobbi, E., & Macdonald, D. (2015). Taught not Caught: Values based Education through physical education and School Sport: Literature Review. AIESEP Partners for WADA, ICSSPE, IOC, Fairplay & UNESCO.) it is identified as a key context in which to examine some of the challenges posed for students and educators with regard to values-based practices in digitally-mediated spaces. Within this conceptual paper, we propose a praxis model of values fluency to help PE teachers to support young people to recognise and successfully navigate hybrid spaces, to critically engage with sociotechnical capital and become adept at transferring and translating values across and between social contexts.

KEYWORDS:

• Values fluency education
• digital age
• identity
• physical education
• values compass