Let Us Debate! A Proposal to Promote Social Entrepreneurship in Physical Education Teacher Education

Abstract

Purpose: To analyze the effects of debates on social entrepreneurship (SE) in physical education teacher education students (n = 38) from an urban university. Participants discussed the role that society, social class, gender, race, and violence play in sports. Method: A convergent parallel mixed-methods design with methodological triangulation was employed: QUAN + QUAL. Results: The quantitative results provide evidence regarding the positive effect of debates on SE. The qualitative analysis complements this outcome by describing how SE was developed, for example, facing a new teaching methodology, being challenged by peers and/or the teacher, analyzing different opinions and their implications, developing new arguments for discussion, discussing topics according to the students’ interests, and leading the conversation while debating. Data transformation and sentiment analyses provide supplemental information regarding the benefits provided. Discussion/Conclusion: Our results display how debates improve SE in physical education teacher education students, calling for new research in this direction.