Decoloniality and anti-racist pedagogy: sport students’ experiences of enhancing their racial literacy

Undergraduate sports courses can often emphasise colonial biases around 'race' that foster essentialist thinking about ethnic groups and people of colour. This article explores university sports students' experiences of being taught decolonised content delivered through anti-racist pedagogy and the impact this had on their understanding of 'race' and racial inequalities within sports and broader society. Drawing on interviews with fourteen undergraduate students and four alumni from one university in Northern England, the research investigated how these participants engaged with decolonial ideas and anti-racist teaching methods. Through a postcolonial lens, we thematically analyse how such ideas and pedagogy enhanced students' racial literacy by problematising the concept of 'race' and unpacking complexities surrounding discrimination in sports. Centralising student reflections, we found a) students had a limited understanding of 'race' and racial discrimination before attending university, b) students' experiences of being taught theories related to postcolonialism and decoloniality enhanced their understanding of how colonial ideas have instrumentalised thinking about ethnic groups in society and sports, and c) how constructivist anti-racist approaches to pedagogy enabled students to better understand 'race' and the promotion of anti-racist ideas in both society and sports. These findings serve as a timely reminder of the value of sociology and social-justice-themed modules within all sports courses during a period in the UK whereby mainstream sociology university courses are being challenged and withdrawn, and sports courses are increasingly becoming vocation-orientated.