Seven faculty members from West Virginia University’s College of Physical Activity and Sports Sciences recently attended an international conference in China which the college helped organize and co-sponsor.

CPASS Dean Dana Brooks presented one of the keynote addresses and several other faculty members had leading roles at the conference studying the current educational practice and future of global physical education and sport.

Besides CPASS, conference co-sponsors were the International Society for Comparative Physical Education and Sport and East China Normal University. WVU’s Dr. Lynn Housner, CPASS associate dean, and Dr. Xiaozan Wang, associate dean, ECNU, served as key organizers in planning the conference.

“The conference was an outstanding success due in large measures to the leadership efforts of Drs. Housner and Wang,” Brooks said. “They are commended for their hard work, dedication and tireless efforts thus ensuring that all aspects of the program was conducted in a very professional manner. I would like to thank the administers from East China Normal University for their ongoing support and friendship.”

The conference theme, “Physical Education and Sport: Challenges and Future Directions,” promoted an understanding and appreciation of the unique and shared challenges and opportunities for quality P-12, community, and university physical education and sport programming that exist world-wide.

“The conference was unique because it brought scholars from around the world together to examine and understand sport and physical education from a global perspective,” Housner said. “We learned from one another as we promoted sport and physical education around the world.”

Besides Brooks and Housner, other WVU faculty members who attended and presented were: Dr. Gonzalo Bravo, Dr. Sean Bulger, Ware Distinguished Professor Dr. Eloise Elliott, Dr. Emily Jones and Dr. Floyd Jones. Educators and experts in physical education came from Africa, Asia, Australia, New Zealand, Central and South America, Eastern Europe, Russia, Europe, the Middle East, the Caribbean and North America.

Presentation covered teaching, coaching, administration in physical education and sport, and include topics related to culture, reform, community-based sport, collaboration, gender, race and ethnicity issues.

Brooks’ opening keynote was entitled “Sport for Equity and Peace?” Other CPASS faculty discussed sport management, challenges and future directions in K-12 physical education, sport tourism and economic development, innovation and professional development in physical education, community health programming, and comparative sport.

Conference activities featured numerous local and regional tours.

ISCPES was founded in 1978 at the First International Seminar on Comparative Physical Education and Sport held at the Wingate Institute in Israel. ISCPES is a research and educational organization that strives to support, encourage and provide help to those seeking to initiate and strengthen research and teaching programs in comparative physical education and sport throughout the world.

-WVU-

kc/06/28/11

CONTACT: Kimberly Cameon, College of Physical Activity and Sports Sciences
304.293.0827; Kimberly.Cameon@mail.wvu.edu

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