The Struggle for the Soul of Kinesiology: Strategies of Hegemony, Syncretism, and Resistance in the Italian Academic Curriculum

Global metric-based reforms are reshaping professional academic programs in higher education, intensifying epistemological tensions within interdisciplinary fields like kinesiology. This study investigates these dynamics through the Italian case, where a recent national reform enforces bibliometric evaluation, potentially accelerating a biomedical drift. Drawing on semi-structured interviews with university curriculum leaders, three strategic responses were identified: biomedical hegemony – a pragmatic alignment with metrics; strategic syncretism – an attempt to reframe pedagogy through scientific language; and pedagogical resistance – a defense of humanistic values. Findings suggest that while intended to standardize quality, such reforms risk marginalizing pedagogical knowledge essential for professional practice. By framing the Italian context as a microcosm of a global debate, this research illustrates how academic agency navigates pressure to conform to an increasingly biomedical scientific paradigm, offering insights for scholars examining curriculum change and the legitimate body of knowledge in kinesiology.