Audrey R. Giles

Perpetuating the ‘lack of evidence’ discourse in sport for development: Privileged voices, unheard stories and subjugated knowledge

Through an examination of the power relations embedded in the international movement of sport for development, we consider the dominant ‘lack of evidence’ discourse, which calls for more rigorous, scientific proof to validate the sport for development field. We argue that the lack of co-creation of knowledges, the politics of partnerships, and donor-driven priorities have subjugated sport for development practitioners’ knowledge, and therefore fueled this lack of evidence discourse. Acknowledging and privileging the contributions that typically female, young, black African sport for development grassroots practitioners’ knowledges make to the field will concomitantly result in a more robust evidence base and challenge the lack of evidence discourse.

Canadian multicultural citizenship: constraints on immigrants' leisure pursuits.

The proliferation of empirical research on immigrants’ leisure constraints as restrictive and negative, which is implicitly based on discourses that present particular leisure forms and practices as positive and desirable, has provided scholars with a limited understanding of constraints. In contrast, Foucaults understanding of constraints as necessary for any social practice suggests that power acts as a constraint on action in a way that is never wholly inhibiting. Indeed, from a Foucauldian perspective, constraints make many leisure actions and experiences possible. Thus constraints must be seen as both inhibiting and enabling individuals’ actions. This paper offers a critical Foucauldian review of constraints research to demonstrate how multicultural citizenship discourses in Canada both inhibit and enable immigrants’ leisure pursuits.

Shared decision-making and health for First Nations, Métis and Inuit women: a study protocol

BackgroundLittle is known about shared decision-making (SDM) with Métis, First Nations and Inuit women (“Aboriginal women”). SDM is a collaborative process that engages health care professional(s) and the client in making health decisions and is fundamental for informed consent and patient-centred care. The objective of this study is to explore Aboriginal women’s health and social decision-making needs and to engage Aboriginal women in culturally adapting an SDM approach.MethodsUsing participatory research principles and guided by a postcolonial theoretical lens, the proposed mixed methods research will involve three phases. Phase I is an international systematic review of the effectiveness of interventions for Aboriginal peoples’ health decision-making. Developed following dialogue with key stakeholders, proposed methods are guided by the Cochrane handbook and include a comprehensive search, screening by two independent researchers, and synthesis of findings. Phases II and III will be conducted in collaboration with Minwaashin Lodge and engage an urban Aboriginal community of women in an interpretive descriptive qualitative study. In Phase II, 10 to 13 Aboriginal women will be interviewed to explore their health/social decision-making experiences. The interview guide is based on the Ottawa Decision Support Framework and previous decisional needs assessments, and as appropriate may be adapted to findings from the systematic review. Digitally-recorded interviews will be transcribed verbatim and analyzed inductively to identify participant decision-making approaches and needs when making health/social decisions. In Phase III, there will be cultural adaptation of an SDM facilitation tool, the Ottawa Personal Decision Guide, by two focus groups consisting of five to seven Aboriginal women. The culturally adapted guide will undergo usability testing through individual interviews with five to six women who are about to make a health/social decision. Focus groups and individual interviews will be digitally-recorded, transcribed verbatim, and analyzed inductively to identify the adaptation required and usability of the adapted decision guide.DiscussionFindings from this research will produce a culturally sensitive intervention to facilitate SDM within a population of urban Aboriginal women, which can subsequently be evaluated to determine impacts on narrowing health/social decision-making inequities.

Beyond “add women and stir”: Politics, feminist development, and dene games

Abstract The recent addition of a Junior Girls’ category to the Dene Games component of the Arctic Winter Games raises important questions about the ways in which popular physical practices are developed. In this paper, I examine efforts aimed at the “development” of physical practices and attempts at gender equity in Dene games in the Northwest Territories (NWT) and at the Arctic Winter Games. In so doing, I highlight the links between these popular physical practices in the NWT, politics, Western feminisms, and cultural self‐determination, while also suggesting possible future directions for womens involvement in Dene games.

A rural school’s closure: Impacts on volunteers’ gender roles

Abstract In this study, we employed social ecological theory and socialist feminist theory to explore a rural school closure𒀙s impacts on residents of Limerick, SK. Our findings from participant observation, focus groups, and semi-structured interviews indicate that prior to the school𒀙s closure, male and female volunteers within both the school and broader community contexts largely displayed traditional gender roles; however, the school𒀙s closure caused a gap in volunteer capacity as local children𒀙s parents became engaged in the outlying communities in which their children𒀙s new schools were located to support their children𒀙s school and extra-curricular activities. As a result of the school𒀙s closure, some middle-aged women and older male and female adult residents in the community challenged traditional gender roles as expressed through volunteerism in order to allow several local institutions and organisations to continue to function. This paper demonstrates the far-reaching and often unanticipated changes a rural school𒀙s closure can have on a rural community𒀙s residents.

Youth Development Through Recreation: Eurocentric Influences and Aboriginal Self-Determination

Abstract Purpose – In this chapter we examine the creation and implementation processes of an arts-based recreation programme for Aboriginal youth development in Canada called Outside Looking In (OLI) to determine if and how OLI’s staff and Board members perceive the programme to be influenced by Eurocentric ideas of programming and the impact this may in turn have on achieving Aboriginal self-determination. Design/methodology/approach – Informed by postcolonial theory, we employed a case study design and collected data using semi-structured interviews, fieldnotes and a review of archival documents. Findings – We contend that while OLI reproduces some aspects of Eurocentric programming, it also provides avenues to contribute to Aboriginal self-determination. Research limitations – A limitation to this research is the absence of interviews with OLI’s programme participants; nevertheless, this research provides a starting point upon which future research can build. Originality/value – Our research provides an insight into how youth development through recreation programmes for Aboriginal peoples are created and implemented. Most importantly, it provides evidence of the need to further reflect upon the ways in which such programmes can enable Aboriginal self-determination.

Let Them Eat Organic Cake

Abstract Sustainable food initiatives have increased over the past decade; however, they remain a fringe lifestyle and have failed to become part of the dominant North American food culture. In this article, through an examination of several popular texts that aim to educate the public about sustainable eating, we argue that a main cause of this failure is the lack of a critical examination of the underlying relations of power that inform discourses about sustainable eating initiatives. We identify and discuss four dominant discourses apparent in the texts: sustainable food initiatives are empowering for those involved in them; people engage in unsustainable eating practices because they are uneducated; recipients of sustainable food initiatives are passive; and sustainable eating is affordable for all. We conclude by positing the need for texts that promote sustainable food initiatives to go beyond the rhetoric of participation and empowerment, and to address the complex issues that account for the lack of adoption of increasingly necessary sustainable food initiatives.

Leadership, Power, and Racism: Lifeguards’ Influences on Aboriginal People’s Experiences at a Northern Canadian Aquatic Facility

Using a Foucauldian and postcolonial lens, this case study examines the ways in which leadership styles used by lifeguards and supported by the structure, rules and regulations at a northern Canadian swimming pool influenced Aboriginal people’s experience of the facility. Participant observation, semi-structured interviews and a focus group were used to identify the ways in which Eurocentric lifeguard training, exercises of power, institutional racism and an absence of cultural competency can intersect to influence Aboriginal people’s use of a local pool and their considerations of lifeguarding as a potential employment opportunity. On the basis of these findings, the study suggests that the development and implementation of anti-discriminatory policies and procedures for swimming pools and the inclusion of cultural competency teachings in lifeguard training are necessary measures to enhance Aboriginal people’s experiences at northern swimming pools, to foster opportunities to become lifeguards and to augment Euro-Canadian lifeguards’ capacity to maintain a safe and welcoming aquatic environment in a cross-cultural context.

An Examination of Cross-Cultural Mentorship in Alberta’s Future Leaders Program

Abstract Purpose In this chapter we examine cross-cultural mentorship within Alberta’s Future Leaders (AFL) program, an initiative in which mainly non-Aboriginal youth workers and arts mentors mentor Aboriginal youth in Aboriginal communities in Alberta through the use of sport, recreation, and arts for development. Design/methodology/approach We use an exploratory case study methodology in concert with semi-structured interviews, focus groups, participant observation, and archival research. We use Foucauldian discourse analysis to analyze our results. Findings We identified two dominant discourses that shape AFL: first, mentorship can help Aboriginal youth to avoid negative life trajectories and, second, youth leadership development is universal. We argue that sport, recreation, and arts for youth development that does not prioritize cultural relevancy and does not attend to issues pertaining to colonialism’s legacy risks, in a Foucauldian sense, disciplining Aboriginal youths in ways that reaffirm colonial relations of power between Aboriginal and non-Aboriginal people. Originality/value This chapter focuses on sport, recreation, and arts for youth development within a marginalized segment of the Canadian population: Aboriginal youth.