This option module is concerned with the sociocultural perspectives of sport and physical activity in Australian society. In this module, students investigate how the meanings given to sport and physical activity have changed over time and are different for different groups of people. Students explore how sport, as a major social institution in Australian society, is important in shaping people’s values and beliefs about national identity, gender, and culture.

In this module, students investigate the following critical questions:

• How have meanings about sport and physical activity changed over time?
• What is the relationship between sport and national and cultural identity?
• How does the mass media contribute to people’s understanding, values and beliefs about sport?
• What are the relationships between sport and physical activity and gender?

This option module encourages students to critically analyse how sport both constructs and is produced in the context of particular social values and beliefs. Students discover that sports judged to be important and the kind of participation and participants that are supported are very much a product of the values and beliefs of a society at any one time in its history. Studying this module will assist students to become more critical consumers of media and other cultural messages about sport and physical activity.