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What are the educational sports programmes like?
Sport! OP! Opportunities for inclusion of vulnerable youth through sport What are the educational sports programmes?
Prior to ours, many studies have addressed the topic of educational sports programmes. After an extensive review of the ethical and moral issues of sport, Shields and Bredemeier (2008) offer various guidelines on what an educationoriented sports programme should be like. Their key recommendations include the need to guarantee the participants’ physical and psychological safety, as well as their empowerment, fostering an atmosphere of excellence that puts the fact of winning into perspective. Moreover, they consider it a priority to build the team and make it grow within a value-based community that promotes critical thinking that can be applied in everyday life.
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It is essential that all the different agents involved in the sporting activity maintain behaviour consistent and aligned with the educational objectives. To achieve this, it is important to place trust in the players, reinforcing good conduct with the aim of preventing learned incompetence. To educate in values, we have to act with values. In other words, we have to be consistent with behaviours that can set an example, with a clear understanding that it is crucial that these actions are not occasional gestures, but rather a general tendency within the context of these behaviours.
The concept of competition warrants particular attention, because it is when people are competing that the values developed come into play. We must avoid expressing negative emotions and antisocial behaviours and, more than ever before, focus on promoting respect, fair play and ethical conduct.
Lastly, in line with the idea that continuity is essential in educational initiatives, it is important to monitor and continuously assess the programmes, in an attempt to answer the following questions: Is this the most suitable alternative? Are the objectives being achieved? What difficulties do we face and how can we overcome them? What needs to be modified in order to improve?
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Resiliency and Social inclusion
Resiliency and socio-educational accompaniment are interrelated factors that generate a dynamic that helps us tackle social exclusion (Ruiz, Calderón, Juárez, 2017). In this respect, it is important to devise educational initiatives that are resilient so that we can create an environment that facilitates the social inclusion of the people who participate.
