ERIC Number: EJ1474155
Record Type: Journal
Publication Date: 2025
Pages: 15
Abstractor: As Provided
ISBN: N/A
ISSN: ISSN-1357-3322
EISSN: EISSN-1470-1243
Available Date: 0000-00-00
Fostering Intercultural Dialogue: A Case Study of Chinese-Canadian Students' Experiences and Perspectives of a Kinesiology Program
Moss E. Norman1; Kelvin Cheng2; Chunlei Lu3; LeAnne Petherick4
Sport, Education and Society, v30 n5 p649-663 2025
Recent research has drawn attention to the culture of whiteness and Eurocentrism within post-secondary kinesiology and physical education programs. By speaking with eighteen Chinese-Canadian undergraduate students, this case study examines how Eurocentrism manifests in an undergraduate kinesiology program at a western Canadian university. We found that a subtle, yet pervasive, center--margin framework was woven throughout the teaching and research culture of the program. This binary served to legitimize Western approaches to knowing and doing health and physical activity, while marginalizing -- if not excluding altogether -- non-Western knowledge systems. As one possible pathway for disrupting this knowledge/power hierarchy within kinesiology, we propose building opportunities for epistemic interculturalism throughout the curriculum. We maintain that a first step towards fostering intercultural opportunities is understanding the conditions of possibility that may enable or constrain non-coercive dialogical spaces. To this end, we aspire to expose the complex and subtle everyday processes through which the hegemony of the Western tradition is reproduced, which we suggest is the most significant contribution of this paper.
Descriptors: Kinesiology, Undergraduate Students, Cultural Differences, Cultural Awareness, Non Western Civilization, Western Civilization, Foreign Countries, Asians, Asian Culture, Barriers, Curriculum, Culturally Relevant Education
Routledge. Available from: Taylor & Francis, Ltd. 530 Walnut Street Suite 850, Philadelphia, PA 19106. Tel: 800-354-1420; Tel: 215-625-8900; Fax: 215-207-0050; Web site: http://www.tandf.co.uk/journals
Publication Type: Journal Articles; Reports - Research
Education Level: Higher Education; Postsecondary Education
Audience: N/A
Language: English
Sponsor: N/A
Authoring Institution: N/A
Identifiers - Location: Canada
Grant or Contract Numbers: N/A
Author Affiliations: 1School of Kinesiology, Faculty of Education, University of British Columbia, Vancouver, Canada; 2Physical Therapy, Temerty Faculty of Medicine, University of Toronto, Toronto, Canada; 3Educational Studies, Faculty of Education, Brock University, St. Catharines, Canada; 4Department of Curriculum and Pedagogy, Faculty of Education, University of British Columbia, Vancouver, Canada