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Article
Publication date: 23 June 2018

Michael Atkinson

The purpose of this paper is to identify the factors which enhance transformational learning in adult learning spaces for people experiencing cultural marginalisation.

Abstract

Purpose

The purpose of this paper is to identify the factors which enhance transformational learning in adult learning spaces for people experiencing cultural marginalisation.

Design/methodology/approach

This paper reports on a study which compared the transformational experiences of long-term unemployed migrants within two very different programs in Melbourne, Australia. One was an adult refugee mentoring programme run by a non-government organisation, the other was set in the social space of the contemporary adult learning classroom. A theoretical framework constructed around understandings of social and dialogical learning informed the method of data collection, based on one-to-one interviews, observation and personal reflection.

Findings

Findings revealed similarities across the two case study sites in terms of the cultural, social as well as functional challenges facing learners and the desire of teachers and mentors to act on these challenges. A recourse to human values of caring and sensitivity supported meaningful learning spaces. Transformation was limited, however, within an institutional agenda which highlighted individual values of competency above the aspirations of learners and their sense of identity.

Research limitations/implications

This research focuses on only two of the many approaches to adult learning. Nevertheless, as the author contends, they collectively reveal the limitations of focusing on employability skills and a competency-based curriculum in the lives of marginalised learners.

Originality/value

The paper draws attention to the concept of transformation and how it may be supported even in the adult education classroom framed by the neo-liberal agenda of economic rationalism.

Details

Education + Training, vol. 60 no. 6
Type: Research Article
ISSN: 0040-0912

Keywords

Book part
Publication date: 10 November 2016

Parissa Safai

This chapter explores the emergence, growth, and current status of the sociology of sport in Canada. Such an endeavour includes acknowledging the work and efforts of Canadian…

Abstract

This chapter explores the emergence, growth, and current status of the sociology of sport in Canada. Such an endeavour includes acknowledging the work and efforts of Canadian scholars – whether Canadian by birth or naturalization or just as a result of their geographic location – who have contributed to the vibrant and robust academic discipline that is the sociology of sport in Canadian institutions coast-to-coast, and who have advanced the socio-cultural study of sport globally in substantial ways. This chapter does not provide an exhaustive description and analysis of the past and present states of the sociology of sport in Canada; in fact, it is important to note that an in-depth, critical and comprehensive analysis of our field in Canada is sorely lacking. Rather, this chapter aims to highlight the major historical drivers (both in terms of people and trends) of the field in Canada; provide a snapshot of the sociology of sport in Canada currently; and put forth some ideas as to future opportunities and challenges for the field in Canada.

Details

Sociology of Sport: A Global Subdiscipline in Review
Type: Book
ISBN: 978-1-78635-050-3

Keywords

Book part
Publication date: 24 July 2019

Michael Atkinson

The aim of this chapter is to examine and problematize the taken-for-granted conceptual understanding of risk practices in sport cultures. By inspecting the mainstay, and one…

Abstract

Purpose

The aim of this chapter is to examine and problematize the taken-for-granted conceptual understanding of risk practices in sport cultures. By inspecting the mainstay, and one might argue relatively stagnant, constructions of risk in the sociological study of sport, a case for attending to a wider range of risk-based ideologies and cultural practices is presented. The chapter ventures away from viewing risk as predominantly physical in sport settings and constructing athletes as oppressed agents who naively acquiesce to practices of self-injury and self-alienation in sport cultures. Emphasis is given to a broad spectrum of risks undertaken in the practice of sport, and the reflexive, personal nature by which risk may be understood by sports and physical culture participants.

Approach

In the first part of the chapter, the relatively simplistic or unidimensional construction of risk in sociological research in sport is reviewed. In the second part, the complexity of the concept of risk is then discussed alongside case examples that push the analytical boundaries of how risk is a multidimensional construct of athletes’ minds, bodies, selves, beliefs, values, and identities in a host of relational contexts.

Findings

Risk is best understood as a set of practices and belief that exists on a continuum in sport and physical cultures. Risk-taking in sport, however, can be personally injurious and detrimental along a number of lines but is also often calculated, personally/group satisfying and existentially rewarding at times. If the concept of risk is to be applied and interrogated in sport and physical cultures, it should be done so, therefore, in radically contextual manners.

Implications

This chapter illustrates the need for new and exploratory theoretical understandings of what risk means to athletes and other participants in sport and physical culture. New substantive topics are proposed, as are methodological suggestions for representations of the unfolding risk in the process of “doing” sport.

Details

The Suffering Body in Sport
Type: Book
ISBN: 978-1-78756-069-7

Keywords

Book part
Publication date: 9 October 2012

Michael Atkinson

Purpose – This chapter explores a traditional mode of ethnography referred to as ‘realist ethnography’ as it relates to sport and physical culture (SPC…

Abstract

Purpose – This chapter explores a traditional mode of ethnography referred to as ‘realist ethnography’ as it relates to sport and physical culture (SPC) research.

Design/methodology/approach – The chapter discusses different approaches to ethnography, but principally addresses a realist ethnography I conducted on Ashtanga yoga in Canada.

Findings – I discuss how data evolved from the realist ethnographic method, and outline the manner in which ethnographic research is as a ‘way of life’. The chapter concludes that the realist ethnographic method is not untenable, as some authors suggest, but rather a viable and exciting mode of knowledge production in the SPC field.

Originality/value – The chapter is original work. It makes a case for the retention of realist ethnographies in our methodological lexicon, and illustrates the empirical process of writing culture. It also endeavours to engage students and scholars alike regarding the value of ethnographic methods more broadly.

Details

Qualitative Research on Sport and Physical Culture
Type: Book
ISBN: 978-1-78052-297-5

Keywords

Expert briefing
Publication date: 8 October 2019

The first whistleblower, also anonymous, is reportedly an IC member, too. Both complaints are being handled by IC Inspector General Michael Atkinson, who testified to the House of…

Details

DOI: 10.1108/OXAN-DB246934

ISSN: 2633-304X

Keywords

Geographic
Topical
Book part
Publication date: 9 October 2012

Kevin Young and Michael Atkinson

In assembling a research design using qualitative methods, what we are really doing is building bridges between the ways that we see the world and the ways that we think it would…

Abstract

In assembling a research design using qualitative methods, what we are really doing is building bridges between the ways that we see the world and the ways that we think it would be best examined and explained. Another way of saying this is that qualitative methods link ontology, epistemology and the Millsian sociological imagination (Mills, 1959).

Details

Qualitative Research on Sport and Physical Culture
Type: Book
ISBN: 978-1-78052-297-5

Book part
Publication date: 24 July 2019

Kristina Smith

To explore what suffering is, how suffering is embedded within the sociology of sport literature, and what suffering can do to athletes in sport. In addition, to discuss the value…

Abstract

Purpose

To explore what suffering is, how suffering is embedded within the sociology of sport literature, and what suffering can do to athletes in sport. In addition, to discuss the value of an interdisciplinary approach and co-presence when researching athletes in suffering.

Approach

In the first part of the chapter, the concepts of pain, violence, and suffering are separated, and a justification for the study of suffering in sport is given. The second part of the chapter details sport and social problems, and the suffering body in sport is discussed, pulling from interdisciplinary theories and methodologies of suffering external to the sociology of sport.

Findings

Social inequalities and hidden forms of suffering may be reproduced in sport. Sport is questioned as a force of social mobility for vulnerable people. The context of sport can offer ‘healing’ properties for people in suffering. The impact of using an interdisciplinary approach and considering co-presence and relational suffering when researching suffering is discussed.

Implications

The difficulties understanding the complex, multi-dimensional nature of suffering are shared. New ways of engaging within the research act and specific theoretical approaches are suggested for improving the understanding of suffering within sport.

Details

The Suffering Body in Sport
Type: Book
ISBN: 978-1-78756-069-7

Keywords

Book part
Publication date: 10 November 2016

Jeffrey Montez de Oca

This chapter provides readers with a summary of sport sociology in the United States. It begins with a brief overview of sport in the United States before describing the…

Abstract

This chapter provides readers with a summary of sport sociology in the United States. It begins with a brief overview of sport in the United States before describing the development of the sociology of sport in the United States and some of the major contemporary patterns in sport research. They key movement in US sport sociology was the critical-cultural turn that took place during the 1980s and 1990s when critical theory and feminism became dominant approaches to research. Scholarship in the 21st century has largely developed upon that turn and is generally qualitative and cultural. Contemporary US sport sociology is a critical endeavor heavily influenced by cultural studies, post-structuralism, feminism, queer theory, critical race theory, post-colonial theory, and theories of globalization. Despite a fairly consistent approach to sport research in the United States, sport sociology remains contentious and in disunity. This chapter argues that the contention and disunity results from broader structural patterns that guide sport sociologists’ social actions.

Details

Sociology of Sport: A Global Subdiscipline in Review
Type: Book
ISBN: 978-1-78635-050-3

Keywords

Content available
Book part
Publication date: 9 October 2012

Abstract

Details

Qualitative Research on Sport and Physical Culture
Type: Book
ISBN: 978-1-78052-297-5

Content available
Book part
Publication date: 9 October 2012

Abstract

Details

Qualitative Research on Sport and Physical Culture
Type: Book
ISBN: 978-1-78052-297-5

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