Understanding and Teaching Sport as Liberal Arts Subjects

Abstract

Liberal arts, a concept born in ancient Greece, originally had seven areas: grammar, rhetoric, logic, algebra, geometric, astronomy, and music. However, its contents could change according to the era and region because people have different needs, values, and opinions. Therefore, sport could be one of the new areas of liberal arts today because many people in many countries play, watch, and talk about it. It seems people cannot live without it. Unfortunately, however, most Japanese universities do not seem to treat sport appropriately because it has been taught neither as one of the liberal arts subjects nor as humanities or social science subjects. This symposium therefore aims to redefine the value(s) of sport in the current academic setting. It also aims to introduce exceptional practices of teaching sport as liberal arts subjects so that many other academics in Japan can do so in their own way.