What about physical education and Sustainable Development Goals? A scoping review

Abstract

Introduction: The current economic, social and environmental problems faced by society are some of the most emerging concerns of the main governmental institutions. In this sense, Education for Sustainable Development and integration of the Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs) into the education system seems to be a key link for its mitigation. Within education, physical education (PE) could provide positive synergy and contribute to achieve the SDGs. However, the relationship between PE and Sustainable Development is still in its nascent stage. Objective: Overall, we aim to explore the ways in which the literature has addressed the SDGs and PE. To this end, this scoping review has two objectives. The first is to provide a synthesis of the research to date on PE and the SDGs, presenting the results in terms of the types of literature, methods, samples, provenance of authorship and the main findings. The second is to investigate which specific SDGs and targets have appeared most frequently in research within the field of PE. Method: Due to the emergent nature of the topic under examination, we present a scoping review. After identifying the parameters to be analysed, we redefined the topic of study. We applied a number of criteria and selected relevant studies the introduction of the SDGs (2015) until June 2022. We searched Web of Science, SPORTdiscus, Scopus, Google Scholar and PROquest using words such as ‘Sustainable Development’, ‘SDGs’ and ‘PE’. Results and discussion: We reviewed 22 papers that met the inclusion criteria. We noted several characteristics in these studies. Most studies published between 2015 and 2022 come from international institutions (Commonwealth, UNESCO, etc.), and critical view articles, which theorise about the potential relation between PE and the SDGs. Beginning in 2021, there has been much more empirical research, mainly in the form of qualitative and quantitative cross-sectional studies. Most of this empirical research has been developed with undergraduate students in Physical Education Teacher Education (PETE). Some researchers have used pedagogical models such as service learning and cooperative learning as valid didactic tools to work on the SDGs. On the other hand, the countries that seem to show the greatest interest in research on the SDGs and PE are European, especially Spain and Sweden. Finally, SDGs 3 (Health and Wellbeing), 4 (Quality-Education) and 5 (Gender-Equality) have the greatest relationship with PE, specifically target 4.5 on inclusion and equity, target 5.1 to avoid discrimination based on sex and target 3.6 concerning physical and mental health. Conclusions: The relationship between PE and the SDGs is an emerging topic. While papers published within the five years after definition of the SDGs have a strong theoretical character, empirical research has begun to predominate since 2021. The focus of future research should be to deepen the ways in which PE can contribute to the SDGs (pedagogical perspectives, content, objectives …). Researchers should use practice-based models to look for more sustainability-related content and, above all, to try to get students to reflect on how their daily actions can contribute to a more sustainable and durable world.