Critical Pedagogies in Youth Sport Contexts: Teaching, Learning and Development

Dear Colleagues,

Critical pedagogies provide a transformative framework for rethinking teaching, learning, and development in youth sport. By operating across diverse contexts, including physical education and organised sport, these approaches challenge the dominant paradigms centred on performance, control, and technical efficiency. On the contrary, they prioritise relational, inclusive, and contextually grounded practices that respond to the lived experiences of youth. Teachers, coaches, and educators play a central role in shaping these learning environments. However, they increasingly face complex demands that require not only pedagogical expertise, but also the ability to interrogate their own assumptions, values, and practices. Consequently, initial education and ongoing professional development must extend beyond technical instruction to encompass reflexivity, social awareness, and ethical commitment. Research in this area plays a vital role in developing evidence-based practices that improve the quality and impact of youth sport participation. This Special Issue contributes to a growing body of scholarship that reconceptualises sport and physical education not merely as spaces of physical development, but as meaningful arenas for social learning, empowerment, and transformation. Ultimately, these pedagogical approaches invite us to reimagining youth sport as a dynamic space where education not only cultivates skills, but also agency, inclusion, and social change.

The scope of this Special Issue includes (but is not limited to) the following:

- Critical pedagogical models and approaches: Investigations into frameworks that support transformative, learner-centred teaching in youth sport.
- Learner development: Explorations of how physical, cognitive, emotional, and social development intersect with issues of access, identity, and agency.
- Professional learning and critical reflection: Research on the education and ongoing development of teachers, coaches, and educators, with emphasis on reflexivity, praxis, and social responsibility.
- Equity, inclusion, and youth voices: Studies that prioritise marginalised perspectives, participatory practices, and youth-led pedagogical processes.
- Contextual complexities and pedagogical innovation: Analyses of how institutional, cultural, or political conditions shape pedagogical practices in schools, clubs, and community settings.
- Digital technologies and critical innovation: Contributions examining the use of digital tools through a critical lens, e.g., how technology can empower or marginalise learners and how it reshapes pedagogical relationships.

Suggested themes for submitted papers include the following:

Critical pedagogical models in physical education and youth sport;
Emancipatory, learner-centred, and inquiry-based teaching approaches;
Reflexive and socially engaged professional development for teachers and coaches;
Inclusive pedagogies and equity-driven practices;
Digital tools and critical engagement in youth sport learning environments;
Youth agency, empowerment, and social justice in sport learning;
Relational pedagogies and the creation of ethical learning communities;
Youth transitions, trajectories, and educational continuity;
Practitioner inquiry, action research, and critical praxis;
Challenges and opportunities of implementing critical pedagogies in diverse sport settings;
Sport as a means for social change.

Dr. Cristiana Bessa
Dr. Patrícia Coutinho
Guest Editors

Manuscript Submission Information

Manuscripts should be submitted online at www.mdpi.com by registering and logging in to this website. Once you are registered, click here to go to the submission form. Manuscripts can be submitted until the deadline. All submissions that pass pre-check are peer-reviewed. Accepted papers will be published continuously in the journal (as soon as accepted) and will be listed together on the special issue website. Research articles, review articles as well as short communications are invited. For planned papers, a title and short abstract (about 100 words) can be sent to the Editorial Office for announcement on this website.

Submitted manuscripts should not have been published previously, nor be under consideration for publication elsewhere (except conference proceedings papers). All manuscripts are thoroughly refereed through a double-blind peer-review process. A guide for authors and other relevant information for submission of manuscripts is available on the Instructions for Authors page. Education Sciences is an international peer-reviewed open access monthly journal published by MDPI.

Please visit the Instructions for Authors page before submitting a manuscript. The Article Processing Charge (APC) for publication in this open access journal is 1800 CHF (Swiss Francs). Submitted papers should be well formatted and use good English. Authors may use MDPI's English editing service prior to publication or during author revisions.

• critical pedagogy
• youth sport
• teacher education
• physical education
• coach education
• transformative teaching
• reflective practice