This course will explore communication in sports and games and settings of training for sport. Students will explore interaction in sports by participating appropriately in actual play and settings of training. Students will engage with the constructive nature of rules, the problems of managing how to communicate what we feel in our bodies and issues in the analysis of movement. Students of this course will learn how sports and training as specific settings are constructed and managed by athletes and coaches.  Course Goals:  This course applies ethnomethodology and phenomenology to explore communication in settings of sport. it is expected that students will have, or have the ability to develop, enough expertise with one specific sport in order to instruct one class session on the actual play of one element of a specific sport (non-traditional sports are encouraged). Students will participate as both novice trainees and expert teachers in these actual sports during class time in order to experience the communication practices described by this course. Using these experiences as a basis at the completion of this course students will be able to describe; how general problems of experience come into play in settings of sport, how specific organizational structures of training and play are enacted in sports, how rules constitute sports settings and practices of correction and motivation employed by coaches and athletes in settings of training. Students will conduct a major research project collecting video recorded data on sport of their in order to explore these questions of experience, structure and training.  

Course Description:

Civil discourse represents meaningful forms of communication that provide citizens space to talk about pressing social issues together in ways that move away from adversarial disengagement and towards mutual understanding and vibrant democratic processes. As a capstone experience, this course employs qualitative research methods to investigate the ways participants engage in civil discourse and make these experiences meaningful through their communication practices. Students will become competent in qualitative data collection methods (e.g., interviewing/focus groups, participant observation and fieldnote writing, transcribing) and analysis and interpretation of research materials to advance insightful understandings; refine writing and presentation skills; and gain understanding of the role and value of qualitative research in contributing to civic society and applied across contexts. Students will participate in ongoing research and public reporting on behalf of the Civil Discourse Lab (CDL); however, students need not have been previously affiliated with the CDL.