Sport and rascism: UBT offers seminar on anti-racism work
Teaching values and creative concepts are thaught in Bayreuth sports science.
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German society is becoming increasingly heterogeneous, which also affects the field of sport. On the one hand, sport offers potential for a unifying approach to diversity through values such as fair play and community; on the other hand, this potential is often overestimated and exclusionary and difference-reinforcing mechanisms sometimes take hold in sport.
Since the winter semester 2020/21, these processes have been discussed every semester at the University of Bayreuth in the seminar "Racism and Sport", which is open to students of the bachelor's degree programme in sports economics and the sports teaching programme. After clarifying the technical terms and concepts, the students create portraits of different sports in relation to the topic of racism. Building on this, the seminar participants then continue to work in a solution-oriented manner by developing concepts for anti-racism work for individual sports and can refer to professional sport, popular sport, school and other areas of life. These concepts are creatively implemented by the students, for example by conducting interviews with experts and presenting them as podcasts.
The seminar concept also includes inviting people affected by racism as well as experts from the field of anti-racism work, in each case alumni of Bayreuth Sports Economics, and discussing them together with the students. They reported back how valuable it is for them to talk to those affected. The inclusion of those affected in the seminar is particularly important when the students and lecturers tend to be homogeneous, in order to be able to understand what effects racism can have.
Making the world a better place
Finally, the aims of the seminar go beyond a mere transfer of factual knowledge. The students should not only realise that there is a racism problem in German sport. Rather, the participants should also be able to gain individual perspectives on the topic, ask questions, reflect on their role in society and in sport and develop their own approaches to solutions with the aim of contributing to the common good of society. This involves values such as critical anti-discriminatory thinking, reflexivity and solidarity. The feedback from seminar participants that they have recognised the importance of the issues of racism and anti-discrimination through the seminar, talk about them with their parents, siblings and friends and want to make their contribution to making the world a better place is thus great feedback for the team of lecturers.
The commitment of the students is of elementary importance for the success of the seminar, as they assume a high degree of responsibility for their own learning processes in self-learning phases and tasks with the opportunity for creative development. For these processes, it is important that the seminar offers an open and safe space with a trusting atmosphere so that all participants dare to share their own experiences and ask questions. Within the framework of project work, the students develop their own conceptual designs on how anti-racism work can be designed in different sports.
Despite the focus on racism, the seminar also deals with other dimensions of diversity, unequal treatment and privilege. After all, it is important to keep all people in mind and to try to shape a better society for all people. After two successful rounds of the seminar and as the event enters its third round in the winter semester of 2021/22, student theses are currently being written that are thematically inspired by the seminar.
Robert WarneckeResarch assistant
Phone: +49 (0)921 / 55-3495
Mail: robert.warnecke@uni-bayreuth.de