Sport and education for sustainable development - ‘A perfect team’? An exploratory qualitative study of leisure time athletes' perspectives on promoting sustainable development in sport and exercise settings

Abstract

Sport is seen as an important enabler of sustainable development (SD) and a facilitator of Education for Sustainable Development (ESD). Yet, first-hand evidence on the perception of links between SD, ESD and learning, and different types of leisure sports is lacking. Thus, the present study set out to qualitatively investigate these links in adult leisure time athletes, from their perspectives. Problem-centred in-depth interviews with eight leisure time athletes were conducted. Findings show that interviewees did perceive links between the social and environmental dimensions of SD and their sport, and that these links varied depending on the characteristics of different sport types. Furthermore, the results indicated that sport engagement could be used to promote ESD, stimulating both the engagement in more sustainable behaviours as well as the acquisition of competences for SD. However, interviewees were not very familiar with the concepts of SD and ESD, and SD received very little attention in the sport participants engaged in. There were no indications that sport organisations systematically tapped the learning potential often ascribed to sport activities. Based on the findings, a framework for understanding ESD in sport is proposed, providing future research directions and first practical recommendations.