Development of the Global-Self Through Collegiate Recreational Sports

Abstract

Today's student has more access to global issues than any previous generation. Nearly one million higher education students study abroad worldwide, the workplace reflects a need to be interculturally competent, and students rarely have opportunities to learn how to thrive in the new global environment. This study explored how higher education, and specifically collegiate recreation, is responding to this reality. The development of Killick's global-self is a guiding theme and was used to investigate how students perceive the development of their global-self after experiencing interventions designed to introduce the concepts of internationalization and globalization into a collegiate recreation intramural program. The study also examines how students experience the interventions. The literature review focuses on institutional perspective, student engagement, learning theory, the role of sport and recreation in social change, and collegiate recreation professional competencies. A bounded 8-week case study, using aspects of community action research, was the research method. Observations, surveys, and semi-structured interviews provide data on students' perceptions of their development of a global-self and their experience in the designed intramural program.Themes identified in the data provide evidence that the interventions helped students develop both their sense of self-in-the-world and their ability to act-in-the-world. The data suggest that students found value in the interventions and believed them to be a worthwhile addition to the intramural program. Finally, the results of the study suggest that similar interventions can be applied to multiple areas in collegiate recreation and potentially expanded to other forms of co-curricular activities.