Editorial

Abstract

In 1994, Daryl Siedentop presented the first text formally outlining his vision of Sport Education, a pedagogical model aimed at promoting positive sport experiences for all students through simulating the key contextual features of authentic sport. Siedentop’s main criticism of the way sport was taught in schools is that it failed to resemble the key features that young people find so attractive and meaningful. That is, within schools, individual game skills (such as dribbling or throwing a ball) are often taught in isolation, rather than as part of the natural context of executing strategy in game-like situations. Further, the rituals, values, and traditions of a sport that give it meaning are seldom even mentioned. More so, within school sports units, students rarely get to experience the opportunity to become members of teams that last beyond a single lesson, so unlike a situation they would experience in community sports settings. By consequence, they are denied the opportunity to develop the idea of team affiliation that so often promotes personal growth and responsibility in sport.