Deep Listening as Instructional Technique for Sport Management Education

This essay presents and discusses the benefits of “deep listening” as an instructional technique for the sport management classroom. Associated with the mindfulness-based pedagogical approach known as contemplative pedagogy, deep listening asks participants to give focused attention, with compassion and without judgment, to their bodily reactions and emotional responses as they engage with a topic in class. When incorporated as a pedagogical activity, deep listening can promote cross-cultural communication and advance the goals of diversity, equity, and inclusion by helping students and instructors open themselves up to perspectives and worldviews other than their own, as well as recognize how their own positionalities and worldviews have been shaped by the workings of power, inequality, and privilege. The essay provides a sample learning activity, presented in conjunction with the topic of sex testing in women’s sport, to illustrate how deep listening can be used to support student learning and foster more inclusive and critical learning experiences.