The blog has been produced because Dr Rayner and Dr Webb are the Editors of a new book.
The sport management sector is a growing, evolving and dynamic industry. Sports management is a strategic part of the global sports industry, from grassroots participation and competition to the multi-million-pound industries that are driven by professional sports and leagues.
As a result of the growth and professionalisation of the sport management sector, undergraduate and postgraduate degree programmes emerged and have developed substantially in order to meet the needs of a rapidly growing global sector. Sport management courses are available around the world in countries including the UK, USA, Australia, New Zealand, Canada and India, making the sector attractive to students and providing the opportunity for employment in these countries. In order to match the demands of the sector, it is essential that sport management education keeps pace with any developments or changes and therefore, bringing together authors from around the globe who are involved with the design and delivery of sport management education is an important step in the continuing development of sport management educational design and delivery.
Sports management education: Global perspectives and implications for practice was published on 28/02/2022 and examines a range of contemporary issues related to the global delivery of sport management education. Chapters by eminent sport management academics focus on how their practice in education has been shaped by the cultural, religious, and political context of the national regions in which they work. The book considers how sport management education can and should deliver positive outcomes in sports business and management outside of the university, prioritising the focus on student mobility and employability.
The book is divided into four themes; 1) teaching sports management; 2) learners and learning in sport management education; 3) developing professional competencies within sport management education, and 4) learning in lockdown – sport management education responses to COVID-19.
Theme 1 (teaching sports management) has chapters that consider contemporary and novel topics in sport management education from concepts around digital literacy capabilities, the use and role of ePortfolios in shaping professional identity and employability and the use of electronic sports simulators and their application to practice.
Theme 2 (learners and learning in sport management), meanwhile, focuses on topics such as the use of TED talks in sport management education and a concerted focus on studying abroad, the benefits that students can obtain from such opportunities and what studying abroad looks like in action.
Theme 3 (developing professional competencies within sport management education) considers aspects such as how we might enhance professional competencies, the accreditation of courses and the value of such courses and the accrediting bodies and how sport management education in Denmark links with football as a case study.
Finally, Theme 4 (learning in lockdown – sport management education responses to COVID-19) considers the impact and response to COVID-19 in sport management education. Chapters focus on matters such as changes to the curriculum in the UK, Canada, South Korea and India. Moreover, the final theme also considers the future of sport management education and the potential directions of travel that sport management education might take.
Given the changes brought about by the changing sporting landscape and by the COVID-19 pandemic, the publication of this global focus of sport management education is an essential development in this subject area. It is hoped that this book can increase the focus of educators, develop links between those educators and industry specialists and practitioners and enable a focus on the post-COVID-19 landscape in sport management education.