A needs assessment study on refugees’ inclusion through physical education and sport. Are we ready for this challenge?

Abstract

In recent years, European countries have become hosting destinations for thousands of people who have been forced to leave their home countries. Greece is one of the main European hosting countries of refugees, especially children. Thus, the pupil population is gradually changing and the need for intercultural education is increasing. Physical education (PE) and sports have been recorded as suitable contexts for this process. However, there are still many challenges present in these contexts. The following study attempts to present the perceptions of PE teachers, coaches, and academics on the inclusion of refugees in PE and sports. Fifteen PE teachers/coaches and academics involved in the field of intercultural education participated in the study. A phenomenological approach was followed through semi-structured interviews. The method of thematic analysis was chosen to analyze the data. While all the participants considered PE and sports to be the most suitable contexts for the inclusion of refugees, they emphasized certain barriers to be overcome: the lack of training for PE teachers and coaches, prejudices of the parents of both natives and refugees, and refugees’ socioeconomic status and gender issues. Participants also shared their ideas for an adequate training program to improve PE teachers’ and coaches’ attitudes and promote their knowledge and skills regarding the inclusion of refugees. The participants underlined the need for intercultural education and well-structured training programs to properly manage culturally diverse environments.

Basic psychological needs satisfaction and psychological well-being of refugees in Africa

“…There is no doubt that any delay or reduction in food rations will place them in a vulnerable situation because they have no other access to food. The larger family sizes of respective refugee homes further exacerbates this situation, and the same was observed in schools due to the increased number of learners [4]. Surviving on little food may result in having to skip some meals in a day or even going without food for a day.…”

“…Sometimes the number of students in refugees' schools is high compared to the target number or expected number in a particular class. Education remains a key concern in all refugee settlements, as other refugee service providers have researched with the aim of improving service delivery [4].…”

Fighting Discrimination through Sport? Evaluating Sport-Based Workshops in Irish Schools

“…Thus, the following work complements existing quantitative work with further, in-depth exploration of participants' learnings, attitudes, and values. In particular, this paper contributes qualitative insights from the direct target group of the workshops, thus supplementing existing work that focuses on quantitative evaluations of participants (e.g., [10,20,21]) or highlights the perspectives of educators implementing these approaches (e.g., [22,23]).…”

After-school sports programmes and social inclusion processes in culturally diverse contexts: Results of an international multicase study

“…In this regard, sport has shown a clear potential for social inclusion in migration and ethnic contexts ( Künis et al, 2016 ; Burrmann et al, 2017 ; Smith et al, 2019 ; Middleton et al, 2020 ), since it is a supra-cultural ( Paredes and Reina, 2006 ) and transcultural ( Heinemann, 2022 ) space that can serve as a meeting point for positive interaction ( Ekholm, 2018 ; Middleton et al, 2020 ; Mohammadi, 2022 ). In fact, various scholars ( Skille and Fahlén, 2020 ; Papageorgiou et al, 2021 ; Pedersen et al, 2021 ) have argued that sports activities can be a favorable space for the development positive social interactions between people from different cultures, especially when developed using an “intercultural” approach, which not only implies eliminating fear and prejudice toward “others,” but also assuming interaction as an opportunity for learning and communication. Thus, the universal framework offered by motor praxeology as a possibility of human action can facilitate the development of social interactions in culturally diverse contexts ( Bortolotti, 2021 ).…”