Abstract:
This presentation critically examines how gender relations are produced and experienced within
Higher Education sport courses. Drawing on an analysis of curricula, alongside interviews, surveys
and workshops with students across several sport programmes at one university, and a wider survey
of UK course leaders, the research explores how curricula design shapes the way knowledge about
gender and women’s sport is presented. The findings highlight how gender is often marginalised
within sport curricula, positioned as a specialist or optional topic, compartmentalised into isolated
modules, or presented through forms of knowledge framed as gender neutral. These approaches
can obscure the gendered nature of sport while limiting students’ opportunities to critically engage
with issues of inequality. The presentation therefore offers a critical account of how gender
knowledge is positioned within UK Higher Education sport programmes and considers how these
practices shape students’ classroom experiences. In doing so, it invites reflection on how curricula
might be rethought to better support inclusive learning environments and more critically engaged
students.
