THE RELIGIO-ETHICAL DIMENSION OF PHYSICAL EDUCATION AND SPORTS SCIENCE IN GHANA

Adam Konadu, Margaret Makafui Tayviah, Thomas Okyere, Samuel Yirenkyi Onoma, Elias Asante

Abstract


This study examines the religio-ethical dimensions of Physical Education and Sports Science in Ghana, presenting sport as not merely a physical or recreational activity but as a deeply moral, cultural, and spiritual practice. Drawing from interdisciplinary perspectives in philosophy, sociology, religious studies, and sport ethics, the study explores how religious beliefs, ethical values, and indigenous African moral systems influence participation, behaviour, and meaning-making within sporting environments. Using a qualitative interpretive approach, the study engages conceptual and empirical insights to demonstrate that Ghanaian sports culture is strongly shaped by religious practices such as prayer, faith rituals, and spiritual interpretations of success and failure. The findings further reveal that ethical principles, including fairness, discipline, teamwork, respect, integrity, and communal responsibility, remain central to both formal Physical Education and informal sporting activities. The study also identifies tensions between traditional moral ideals and contemporary challenges such as commercialization, corruption, gender inequality, indiscipline, and moral relativism in sport. These tensions reflect the changing moral landscape of modern sporting culture in Ghana. Importantly, the research demonstrates that African philosophical frameworks, particularly Ubuntu philosophy, provide a culturally relevant ethical foundation for rethinking Physical Education and Sports Science as spaces for moral formation, social cohesion, and human development. By integrating Social Learning Theory, virtue ethics, and African communitarian thought, the study argues for a holistic understanding of sport as a religio-ethical enterprise. Ultimately, the study contributes to scholarship by proposing an integrative framework that bridges religion, ethics, and sports science while offering practical implications for policy, curriculum development, pedagogy, coaching practice, and youth development in Ghana.

Keywords


religio-ethical values; physical education; sports science; Ghana; Ubuntu philosophy; moral development

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References


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DOI: http://dx.doi.org/10.46827/ejpe.v13i5.6754

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