Ghosts in the Hallowed Halls: Have Physical Education Scholars Been Done Wrong, Where Have They Gone, and Where Do They Belong?

Overview & Synopsis

This paper, based upon the Dudley Allen Sargent lecture delivered at the 2023 NAKHE conference, provides a discussion on the importance of physical education in higher education from a non-American perspective. It explores the past and present place of physical education and its scholars in the realm of higher education, while sharing examples and insights from a Canadian context. It argues that at the present time physical education scholars suffer somewhat from an abundance affliction with respect to the immense number of organizations, conferences, and journals that exist for sharing their scholarly work. Finally, readers are encouraged to reflect on how this breadth of opportunity for physical education in higher education and academia is both the disciplines' greatest strength and weakness, but that regardless of this fact the roots of physical education in higher education and Dudley Sargent's aspirations are still shared among physical education and kinesiology scholars of today.