Sport Management Education: Teaching and Learning for the Future: An Introduction to the Special Issue

Abstract

Ensuring high quality sport management education is an important step in delivering high quality sport managers, particularly in a time when the management of sport is becoming increasingly global, complex and demanding. The question that emerges is “how do we deliver high quality sport management education?” Frisby (2005) calls for the need to engage critical social science in our teaching. Moreover she suggests we must also be able to reflect on our own knowledge claims if the educative process is to remain fluid and “foster healthy debate, critique and social justice” (p. 8). Others such as Costa (2005) and Chalip (2006) suggest there are inadequate mechanisms to ensure that the teaching of sport management is research evidenced based and therefore the knowledge we acquire is relevant to the environments in which sport managers operate. A broader investigation of the quality of sport management education could include: (1) the background and characteristics of students and of sport management educators; (2) course length and course structures; (3) course content and delivery modes; (4) course assessment and evaluation of procedures; (5) the nature and length of professional experience; and (6) the nature and strength of partnerships among different sport management stakeholders. Although we may debate how we can best deliver high quality sport management education, it is imperative that steps are taken to establish what is meant by quality sport management education.