Conference Program

Contemporary media representations of disability in sport frequently oscillate between two dominant narrative frames: the depiction of the disabled body as a site of fragility, lack, or physical limitation, and the celebration of the disabled athlete as an exceptional figure capable of overcoming bodily constraints through extraordinary effort. Although apparently opposed, these representations rely on a shared assumption: the implicit centrality of an able-bodied model of performance against which bodies are interpreted and evaluated (Garland-Thomson, 1997; Mitchell & Snyder, 2013; Straniero, 2020). Within this framework, sport emerges as an ambivalent cultural space. On the one hand, sporting cultures may reinforce ableist imaginaries by reproducing ideals of skilled movement and physical competence (DePauw, 1997; DePauw & Gavron, 2005; Howe & Parker, 2012). On the other hand, sport may also become a transformative pedagogical laboratory in which these assumptions are exposed and questioned. In this sense, the performances of athletes with disabilities reveal the situated and plural character of bodily action, showing that movement is not a universal model to be reproduced but an embodied interpretation shaped by specific bodily possibilities (Goodley, 2011; Siebers, 2013).

This paper develops a theoretical analysis drawing on disability studies and critical pedagogical perspectives (Oliver, 1996; Goodley, 2011). It examines the educational implications of these tensions, suggesting that sport can be understood both as a context in which dominant representations of the body are reproduced and as a space where alternative understandings of movement and corporeality may emerge. The bodily performances of athletes with disabilities may generate embodied counter-narratives that challenge conventional images of disability and highlight the creative and interpretative nature of human movement (Purdue & Howe, 2012). If dominant representations of disability shape the ways bodies are perceived within sporting cultures, education may play a crucial role in questioning and reinterpreting these imaginaries. One of the central pedagogical challenges lies in what might be described as the liberation of the gaze on bodies and movement, understood not simply as the replacement of negative stereotypes with more positive images. Rather, it involves fostering forms of awareness and critical reflection that enable individuals to recognise and question the assumptions shaping their perception of bodily difference (hooks, 2020;2023). In this perspective, sport may be reinterpreted not only as a field in which normative ideals of the body are reproduced, but also as a pedagogical space capable of transforming the ways bodily difference is perceived, understood, and experienced.