Speakers
Description
This paper will highlight findings from a larger project examining the ways in which social, political and economic pressures within and on the Canadian higher education sector are impacting undergraduate Kinesiology programs. Like many other academic programs and disciplinary areas in universities in this contemporary neoliberal moment, Kinesiology programs are being tasked with preparing both work-ready and civic-minded graduates. Academic administrators’ perspectives on the pushes and pulls facing Kinesiology programs shed light on local responses to these competing and potentially conflicting aims. As part of a larger multi-year study of Kinesiology programs in universities, we conducted seven, semi-structured interviews with Kinesiology administrators working in different institutions across Canada. This paper will highlight key findings from these conversations including, but not limited to: (1) tensions around accreditation and the influence of external professional bodies on what occurs within undergraduate Kinesiology programs; (2) austerity and the expectation of doing ‘more’ with ‘less;’ and (3) the challenge of how to create more culturally diverse and relevant programs. Our discussion will add to ongoing conversations that question the reparative capacity of neoliberal universities and observations that suggest that higher education tends to manage, rather than dismantle, social disparities and injustices. To conclude, we will consider the implications of the need imposed upon and taken up by Kinesiology in the Canadian higher education sector to continuously demonstrate “relevance” to neoliberal, capitalist regimes for external stakeholders, and the consequences and perhaps even possibilities of such pressures on Kinesiology’s futurities.
