Sports and Technology Teaching as a Jump-Off Space for Classroom Conversations About Ableism

• In Event: Sheraton Roundtable Session Seventeen
  In Roundtable Session: Emergent Issues in Sport and Education (Table 7)

Abstract

In this paper we demonstrate how sports technology classes can support rich conversations at the interconnections between sports, technology, society, dis/ability and ableism. Ableism is an incredibly rampant injustice that is rarely discussed in classrooms, and needs to be integrated across curricula at numerous levels to work towards creating a just society as educators. We study a sports and technology course, largely taken by athletes to think about sports in richer manners, as assisted, improved, and changed through the use of technology. We present how the chosen curricular materials surfaced numerous conversations around disability in sports. This unique intersection affords conversations that deepen the understanding of sports, technology, as well as dis/ability as complex social phenomena.

Authors

• Michael Smith, Northwestern University
  Presenting Author

• Natalie Araujo Melo, Northwestern University
  Non-Presenting Author

• Vishesh Kumar, Northwestern University
  Non-Presenting Author

• Marcelo A.B. Worsley, Northwestern University
  Non-Presenting Author