This Community is led by the research group ‘Sport and Society’ (SASO) at VUB which has a strong track-record in investigating ‘Sport for Development’ (SfD), programmes in various parts of the world. A rapid growing number of initiatives worldwide have been set up to use sport as a medium to not only attract, but also work with a variety of groups that live in a socially deprived situation. While many policymakers have been eager to claim that sport is an effective and cheap way to help solve some of today’s major societal challenges (e.g., in relation to the SDG’s), researchers are more sceptical that merely providing sport as a ‘magical social vaccine’ will not be enough. A special emphasis is on how these programmes work and determine their social impact. These aspects are not only addressed in research but are also integrated into the courses we provide to students.
By means of a ‘Community Engaged Research and Learning’ approach, the community intends to bring students in contact with practitioners and relevant organisations to better understand the challenges they face and to be supportive in helping organisations to be more efficient and effective. These challenges are situated at different levels, such as at micro level when dealing with issues related to adequate mentoring approaches, as well as at meso and macro level regarding organisational and policy related issues.
Learning Community Activities
Past Activities
VUB goes South Africa 2024 – 3 week Group Mobility to South Africa
check the video here
Connected Learning Community in Action: Interdisciplinary Learning Platform 4 Sport for Social Change (IMPACT) (EUTOPIA Week Brussels, June 2022). The leads of the community presented the main concept underpinning their learning unit that forms the spill of this EUTOPIA learning community. Following a brief presentation to all participants of the varying ways in which sports are used for development and theoretical underpinnings, all participants were led outside to experience first-hand three different types of sports activities underpinned by educational objectives (sports+ sports as an experiential learning context). Each activity forced participants to explore various soft skills such as communication, negotiation, rulemaking, conflict resolution, discrimination, equality etc.
Modality: In-person at the VUB (U-Residence and Campus Fields)
Pictures of this activity available on VUB Flicker: page 4 https://www.flickr.com/photos/vrije_universiteit_brussel/albums/72177720300876772/page4
How to get involved?
(Students and educators)
Contact Hebe Schaillée, Teaching Assistant (hebe.schaillee@vub.be) or Els Decoster, Local Facilitator (els.decoster@vub.be