The sociology of sport, critical pedagogies and national identity in Northern Ireland

This chapter reflects on the experiences of two educators (one senior and one early career) involved in the teaching and assessment of a final year undergraduate (UG) module in the sociology of sport, titled Give Sport A Free Pass?, at Ulster University (Belfast). The pedagogical (Freirean) and sociological underpinnings of this module positioned the education of young adults as acts of knowing and a critical approach to reality. Rooted in praxis, learners were afforded the opportunity to reflect upon their social surroundings and develop greater critical consciousness of themselves and others. First, we describe the features of Northern Ireland, education and sport. Then we contextualise the teaching of national identity in a divided society and introduce anonymised illustrations of how students engaged in self- reflection about their identities and were deliberately awakened from a sleep silence and exposed, in guided ways, to habitus codes and identity politics of 'the other', often for the first time. Here we draw on student feedback gleaned over many years. The chapter also reflects on the positionality of the educator as invested in the application of critical pedagogy and public sociology for the betterment of society. To that end, we also pose the question of who and what is silenced in the name of critical pedagogy and we are reminded that knowledge, and progress, is a social, relational and cumulative process.