PhD, Associate Professor N.N. Karmaeva¹
Dr.Sc.Soc., Professor N.A. Karmaev²
Dr.Hab., Professor V.A. Tajmazov^2
1National Research University Higher School of Economics, Moscow
²Lesgaft National State University of Physical Education, Sport and Health, St. Petersburg

Keywords: higher education, physical education, sports and recreation service, sustainable development, sustainable development policy goalsю

Background. The national higher education system persistently sets and optimizes its sustainable development polices, with a special attention to the sustainable-development-focused higher physical education, sports and recreation service polices – that still prioritize purely economic benefits in many countries [5] often at sacrifice of the social and natural environmental aspects, and with little if any consideration for the long-term national socio-economic progress goals. Sustainable higher education service may be defined as the knowledge generation and employment sector driven by the relevant social demand system [14]. The sustainable development goals of the higher education system appear to be “beyond the scope of narrow utilitarianism and practical economics” as they have effect on “many human progress aspects” [8, 14]. University physical education specialist (athlete, instructor, coach) training curricula are reported to grow and expand in many countries. The research communities still disagree on how the traditional higher physical education, sports and recreation service may be designed on a sustainable-development-prioritizing basis and how universities may contribute to the social sustainable development policies and practices by their didactic, research and social ("third mission") missions.

Objective of the study was to overview the recent foreign study reports with concern to the sustainable-development-focused higher physical education, sports and recreation service policies and practices.

Methods and structure of the study. We analyzed the relevant publications in the leading international journals (including "Sports, Education and Society"), with a special attention to the following aspects: (1) focus on some specific higher education service mission (e.g. didactics); and (2) sustainable-development-specific issues [13].

Results and discussion. The sustainable-development-focused higher physical education, sports and recreation service will be designed to ‘facilitate the students’ progress in learning (knowledge), practice (skills) and socio-economic (wellbeing, free progress and social solidarity)’ domains [11, 14]. Educational policies within these domains will be both economically and environmentally sustainable and socially equitable [4]. As far as the university research domain is concerned, sustainable development will be designed to expand the available knowledgebase, its accessibility and inclusivity [9].

Dimension 1: accessibility and inclusivity. Some studies analyze the higher physical education, sports and recreation service accessibility for women, people with disabilities, seniors and ethnic minorities (e.g. a quantitative study by British research team [7]). Sports universities will facilitate access for these groups by the efforts to improve the curricula, learning environments and infrastructure [7]. Non-sports universities will encourage inclusivity in the university sports teams to facilitate the social integration of disabled students, women and ethnic minorities with a special attention to their academic progress and comfort (as reported, e.g. in a study report of the US research team [8]). Universities may cooperate in these initiatives with the local communities to attain their sustainable-development-3 policy goal (that is “to improve health and wellbeing of every age group”).

Dimension 2: social and individual agendas. Some studies analyze the ways to facilitate the relevant skills mastering by practicing specialists, students, researchers, university administrators and managers [Barrett, et al., 2019]. Skills and behavioral models and priorities are viewed as a basis for the sustainable-development-focused agendas including the professional ‘green skills’ and general environmental literacy.

The sustainable-development-focused higher physical education, sports and recreation service will help students challenge the traditional unsustainable practices including unfair competition, doping etc. Students will become more responsible and well-informed for the decision-making (see review [2]). The researchers give a special priority to the grassroots innovative activity and physical education, sports and recreation service based on the efforts “to develop the relevant qualities in students including willpower, responsibility and social activity to effectively contribute to the communal progress and change people, events and circumstances for the better", as well as to develop the social networking [3, 12]. These studies analyze the environmental footprints of some universities including the relevant student initiatives such as sustainable practices on campus (see a case study that gives a qualitative analysis of the sustainability policies of 47 US universities [3]).

Dimension 3: academic cooperation and knowledgebase. Some studies analyze the germeneutic justice related issues – i.e. demands for different knowledge fields from industries and other sectors, including academic knowledge, local knowledge, practical knowledge and unprofessional knowledge. Good cases in point are: (1) qualitative study of cultural diversity in physical education specialist training service by a Norwegian team, with a special focus on intercultural knowledge integration in the academic curriculum [10]; and (2) local physical education knowledge study by an Australian research team [15]. Researchers recommend that the accessibility of the physical education, sports and recreation knowledge for different public groups should be improved, to make them aware of the new sustainable technologies in sports competitions, new training methods, relevant environmental and social implications etc.

Dimension 4: sustainable university education service. Studies in this field may be generally classified into the following two higher education sustainability analyzing approaches. First approach is a subject-specific. Such focus – e.g. on the subject of sports management – helps proceed from the specific situations in analyses of environmentally unsafe practices, imbalances etc. (A study by a US university demonstrates that more sustainable practices may be successfully promoted in the student communities by the discipline-specific curricula [4]). And the second approach implies the universities being encouraged to prioritize sustainable development in a wide range of disciplines for every of them tackling the sustainable development / environmental issues rather on a practical than "incorporeal" theoretical basis [4].

Special physical education, sports and recreation / physical education universities (like Lesgaft National State University of Physical Education, Sport and Health, St. Petersburg) may be highly successful, in our opinion, in combining both of the above approaches, particularly when they still hold to a sort of an “implicit curriculum” to strengthen and legitimize unsustainable consumption/ production systems (see a theoretical analysis in study [6]). Therefore, sustainable-development-prioritizing physical education, sports and recreation university education will be designed to overcome the narrow disciplinary mentality and integrate the knowledge sharing experiences and skills for joint solutions [6].

One of the most promising methodologies is an action research model, with the teachers encouraging the students to report their sustainable development visions for critical examination of the nature-and-culture relationship issues and to effectively integrate the disciplinary knowledge into the broader knowledgebase and practices [11]. As demonstrated in this context by a study of a Portuguese research team, progress in such a model may be limited by a shortage of philosophical knowledge and low environmental awareness in the student communities [1].

Conclusion. Our brief analysis of the key study reports on the sustainable-development-prioritizing higher physical education, sports and recreation service issues found 4 key dimensions that need to be designed on a multidisciplinary and interconnected basis, plus require an interdisciplinary approach. However, the relevant study reports analyzed herein are still rather special and discipline-unspecific – and this is the reason why an interdisciplinary analysis is still difficult.

It should also be emphasized that the sustainable development related issues are global albeit their international research and discussions are still limited. Although the key subject of our study was different, it may be pertinent to mention that most of the relevant studies have been run in the developed countries, whilst a few research initiatives in developing countries have been focused rather on specific ‘sports for development’ issues. In Russia, the sustainable development issues still need to be addressed by the research community.

One of the key practical findings of our analysis is that the sustainable development initiatives need to be put on a systemic basis. As demonstrated by the ongoing research discussions, the sustainable development awareness and reflection in the student communities will be advanced mostly by humanities including history, sociology, cultural studies and philosophy – since these disciplines help form communication and creativity among the other key skills.

The study was sponsored by a grand financing under the Leading RF Universities Support Project 5-100 for the Higher School of Economy SRU’s Fundamental Research Program.

References

1. Amador F., Martinho A. P., Bacelar-Nicolau P., Sandra Caeiro S., Oliveira C. P. (2015) Education for sustainable development in higher education: evaluating coherence between theory and praxis. Assessment & Evaluation in Higher Education. Vol. 6. No. 40. pp. 867-882
2. Barker D., Barker-Ruchti N., Wals A., Tinning R. (2014) High performance sport and sustainability: a contradiction of terms? Reflective Practice. Vol. 15. No. 1. pp 1-11.
3. Buckley J. B., Michel J. O. (2020) An Examination of Higher Education Institutional Level Learning Outcomes. Innovative Higher Education. Vol. 1. no. 1. pp. 3-17.
4. Coleman K., Gould R. (2019) Exploring just sustainability across the disciplines at one university. The Journal of Environmental Education. no. 50. pp. 223–237.
5. Denison J., Mills J. P., Konoval T. (2017) Sports’ disciplinary legacy and the challenge of ‘coaching differently. Sport, Education and Society. Vol. 6. No. 22. pp. 772–783.
6. Everett J. (2008) Sustainability in higher education: Implications for the disciplines. Theory and Research in Education. Vol 6. No. 2. pp. 237-251.
7. Forsyth J.J., Jones J., Duval L., Bambridge A. (2019) Opportunities and barriers that females face for study and employment in sport. Journal of Hospitality, Leisure, Sport & Tourism Education. No. 24. pp. 80–89.
8. Hextrum K. (2020) Amateurism revisited: how U.S. college athletic recruitment favors middle-class athletes. Sport, Education and Society. Vol 1.no. 25. pp. 111-123
9. Kawagley A. and Barnhardt R., Smith G, Williams D. (1999) Education indigenous to place: Western science meets Native reality. Ecological education in action: on weaving education, culture, and the environment. 1999.  Albany, NY: State University of New York Press. P. 117–142.
10. Leseth A., Engelsrud G. (2019) Situating cultural diversity in movement. A case study on physical education teacher education in Norway. Sport, Education and Society. No. 5. Vol. 24. P. 468-479.
11. Nols Z., Haudenhuyse R., Spaaij R., Theeboom M. (2019) Social change through an urban sport for development initiative? Investigating critical pedagogy through the voices of young people. Sport, Education and Society, Vol. 24, no. 7. pp. 727-741
12. OECD (2018) The Future of Education and Skills: Education 2030. [Electronic resource]. Available at: https://www.oecd.org/education/2030/E2030%20Position%20Paper%20.pdf. – (03.12.2019).
13. SDG Fund Secretariat (2018) The Contribution of Sports to the Achievement of the Sustainable Development Goals: A Toolkit for Action (SDG Fund Secretariat, 2018) [Electronic resource] Available at: https://www.sdgfund.org/sites/default/files/report- sdg_fund_sports_and_sdgs_web.pdf – (03.12.2019).
14. UNESCO (2015) Rethinking Education. Towards a global common good? [Electronic resource] Available at: https://unesdoc.unesco.org/ark:/48223/pf0000232555 – (03.12.2019).
15. Whatman S., Quennerstedt M., McLaughlin J. (2017) Indigenous knowledges as a way to disrupt norms in physical education teacher education. Asia-Pacific Journal of Health, Sport and Physical Education. Vol. 8. № 2. P. 115-131.

Corresponding author: nkarmaeva@hse.ru

Abstract

Objective of the study was to overview the recent foreign study reports with concern to the sustainable-development-focused higher physical education, sports and recreation service policies and practices.

Methods and structure of the study. We analyzed the relevant publications in the leading international journals (including "Sports, Education and Society"), with a special attention to the following aspects: (1) focus on some specific higher education service mission (e.g. didactics); and (2) sustainable-development-specific issues.

Results of the study and conclusions. A brief analysis of the key study reports on the sustainable-development-prioritizing higher physical education, sports and recreation service issues found 4 key dimensions that need to be designed on a multidisciplinary and interconnected basis, plus require an interdisciplinary approach. However, the relevant study reports analyzed herein are still rather special and discipline-unspecific – and this is the reason why an interdisciplinary analysis is still difficult.

The sustainable development related issues are global albeit their international research and discussions are still limited. Although the key subject of our study was different, it may be pertinent to mention that most of the relevant studies have been run in the developed countries, whilst a few research initiatives in developing countries have been focused rather on specific ‘sports for development’ issues. In Russia, the sustainable development issues still need to be addressed by the research community.

One of the key practical findings of our analysis is that the sustainable development initiatives need to be put on a systemic basis. As demonstrated by the ongoing research discussions, the sustainable development awareness and reflection in the student communities will be advanced mostly by humanities including history, sociology, cultural studies and philosophy – since these disciplines help form communication and creativity among the other key skills.