Towards a Decolonizing Kinesiology Ethics Model

Abstract

ABSTRACT Kinesiology is a discipline that relies on colonial, scientific understandings of health and the moving body. In addition, ethics courses in Kinesiology predominantly draw from Eurocentric philosophies and legal paradigms. In this article, however, the authors propose a new model of ethics that adds a greater emphasis on decolonial praxis. This process of decolonizing Kinesiology ethics requires accounting for colonial legacies in curricula and acknowledging the power relations sustained by White, patriarchal, ableist, capitalist systems. Therefore, the proposed Decolonizing Kinesiology Ethics Model (DKEM) offers six heuristics to improve ethical work in a wide range of health and sport-related careers. They are: (a) social justice; (b) practitioner vulnerability; and (c) relationships in a social-political-historical context, alongside traditional ethical principles of (d) autonomy; (e) beneficence; and (f) non-maleficence.