First, a bit of background: this year, I've gotten involved in a relatively large-scale international study exploring leadership and change within high-performing organizations (following a slump or near-failure of the organization) across 4 sectors--education, business, sports, and health. Entitled, Performing Beyond Expectations (PBE), this is will mostly be a "good news" story, trying to understand what kinds of leadership decisions and actions were taken within the organization and how they contributed to the org.'s turnaround and sustained performance.
Connected to this, I've begun muddling around questions about the role(s) of professional sports organizations within community-based education, with a particular eye towards youth-related issues (I may want to first delimit this more broadly, as community engagement..??). Through my involvement in PBE, I have access to pro sports teams in the U.K. and soon, hopefully, in the US. My current plan is to examine various pro clubs' patterns of engagement with their local communities, as well as the multiple Discourses (ideologies) that are recruited to do the sociocultural lifting, so to speak. How do these Discourses operate, and to what ends? In what ways do they 'rub up against one another'? Embedded within are matters of power--in Foucault's words: "What are the various contrivances of power, whose operations extend to such differing levels and sectors of society and are possessed of such manifold ramifications? What are their mechanisms, their effects and their relations?" (Power/Knowledge, 1980, p.88)
These are questions I need to ask in beginning to unravel (and inevitably re-entangle) the complex interplay between professional sports, civil society, the government, and education.
Alex - I think this is fantastic and incredibly interesting. Ever since I first read these postings this morning, my brain and been going through it a bit and thinking about what a great study this has the potential of being. One thing I keep thinking about is the role the belief in meritocracy plays in how sports and education interact. I always find it a little puzzling that when someone wins a race or a big game, they say how anything is possible and the commentators talk about how important hard work is, etc. I found it especially stark with the Olympics. No one competing on that stage hadn't sacrificed and worked hard, but only a few people came out on top. Yet, the message from the winners is that anyone can do what they do. No - not anyone can win. It's a zero sum game and there is only room for one team/individual at the top, but somehow that doesn't matter within this ideology that all you need to do is work hard and you will be that top person.
ReplyDeleteIn education, even if we did graduate every high school student prepared for college - would they all be able to go? Is the higher pay for those with college degrees because there are still many without? There aren't enough high paying jobs in the economy or space in higher education for everyone. What does that mean within the messages of sports in education? Could sports be playing into this myth of meritocracy that overlooks so much of the reality of students, communities and schools?
Just some thoughts... :)