Using an online platform in sport for development and peace research: lessons for building community and engagement in research

Sport for Development (S4D) engages diverse communities through sport to promote educational, social, and health outcomes. Such programs offer young people opportunities to participate in civic life, critically engage with equity issues, and connect across cultures to effect change. Informed by critical pedagogies, S4D initiatives can empower our young participants to consider barriers, power structures, and justice, and engage in co-creating solutions that support collective action. This chapter examines the design and evaluation of Festival23, an eight-day Football for Good youth festival held in Sydney alongside the 2023 FIFA Women’s World Cup. Bringing together young female delegates from 45 countries, the festival aimed to create a lasting social legacy of social inclusion, leadership, resilience, and enhanced social capital. The female, youth participants took part in activities which centered on advancing the United Nations Global Goals of gender equity, climate action, employability, and inclusion. The research project employed an online communication platform to facilitate participant reflection. Online platforms can provide privacy for engaging with sensitive issues; however, to our knowledge this study is amongst the first to use such an approach in evaluating an S4D initiative. The chapter reflects on how this method aligned with Freirean principles.