Moral Reasoning in Sport: Implications for Physical Education

Abstract

This paper involves a discussion of the results of a recent research project where I interviewed athletes who play on a Canadian University's sport teams. The interviews were fairly open‐ended, exploring the athletes’ interpretations of what makes a situation an ethical dilemma and then what moral reasoning process they use in resolving the dilemmas they face. The interviews were analysed utilizing a hermeneutic approach. In analysing the transcribed interviews, I uncovered the layers of text in an attempt to interpret the athletes’ conception of ethical dilemmas. Then I focused on the reasoning process the athletes articulated in their attempts to resolve ethical dilemmas. This process required successive ‘readings’ where I attempted to relate knowledge from moral theory/moral philosophy to the words and experiences of the athletes interviewed. This research has the potential to be both theoretically and practically significant. The theoretical significance of the research lies in the application of a study of moral theory/moral philosophy to actual ethical dilemmas faced by athletes. Although moral philosophy is a well‐established scholarly discipline, the application of insights gleaned from a study of this discipline to the practice of sport has not received much attention in the scholarly literature. Most of the empirical research conducted in the area of sport and moral reasoning has focused on theories of moral development, i.e. Piaget, Kohlberg, and so forth (Booth, 1981; Figley, 1984; Romance, 1988; Brandi, 1989; Shields & Bredemeier, 1995), while most of the research concerned with moral theory/moral philosophy has been solely conceptual in nature (Shea, 1996; Arnold, 1984; Fraleigh, 1984; Zeigler, 1984; Feezell, 1986). The research presented in this paper integrates a naturalistic framework, specifically hermeneutic analysis, with conceptual knowledge derived from moral theory/moral philosophy. The research also has the potential to have significant practical implications. My objective is to determine what sort of moral reasons athletes provide when they attempt to resolve ethical dilemmas encountered in their sport. Understanding these reasons has significant implications in that teachers and coaches could facilitate the development of the critical thinking skills and dispositions required in moral reasoning if they were aware of where their athletes were in need of guidance.