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There is interest in promoting greater inclusion and participation among international fellows in the National Academy of Kinesiology. There are challenges, however, including understanding the implications of such efforts and considering what the role of a national academy might be in the international community. This essay and the accompanying one by Mark Dyreson, the historian of the National Academy of Kinesiology, attempt to shed light on these issues. In complementary ways, the essays review the ideas and aspirations expressed by the academy’s founders, as well as those who influenced them, the (honorary) fellows in memoriam. Also embedded in this essay is a chronological listing of the international fellows who have delivered the C. Lynn Vendien International Lecture. This list had not previously existed in a single document.

At the heart of contemporary kinesiology resides a long history of promoting “physical culture” as a homogenizing and unifying force, linking all of humanity together with a common bond. We routinely prescribe the universal power of physical activity to improve health and well-being across social boundaries and beyond national boundaries. We frame problems and offer solutions that seem to affect all people, in all places, at all times. At the same time, multicultural issues, understood in a broad sense, have captivated students of human movement and shaped the development of the field. The field itself emerged from multiple cultures—academic, intellectual, vocational, and national. The dialectics of culture and the clash of universal and plural perspectives have played an important role in the quest to define the meaning of human movement. Embracing rather than resolving these tensions offers the best strategy for charting creative current and future directions for research and policy in kinesiology.

Online and blended instruction have emerged as popular teaching methods in the K–12 environment. The asynchronous characteristics of these methods represent potential for improved learning opportunities in physical education. Therefore, the purpose of this scoping review was to provide a comprehensive overview of research, commentary, and practical articles related to the use of these methods in K–12 physical education. Method: PRISMA-ScR guidelines directed this review, and 5 databases were searched for English-language articles. Results: Twenty-four articles fulfilled the inclusion criteria. Of these, 14 were research-based and 10 were commentary or practical articles. Most related research has been conducted in secondary-school environments. Minimal learning-related outcomes were reported across studies. Evidence provided in commentary and practical articles is largely anecdotal and based on research from other subject areas. Conclusions: Systematic research related to the design, adoption, and implementation of online and blended instruction in physical education is warranted.

The role and rights of international fellows in the National Academy of Kinesiology (NAK) have generated much current debate. As NAK works to define its mission and membership in the 21st century, to adjust its traditions and constitution to new realities that make global interchanges far more convenient than they were in 1926 when the society began, many of the members struggle with balancing the rewards of change against the recompenses of continuity. In this context, NAK President Bradley Cardinal approached me to collaborate with him in exploring how the history of NAK might shed light on our current debates. What our history reveals is that the academy has always struggled to be national institution that lives in an international world. Whether we should move in a different direction remains in the hands of the members.

Given profound physical, psychosocial, and environmental barriers to physical activity (PA), people living with spinal cord injury (SCI) are less active than virtually every other segment of the population. Nevertheless, people with SCI are not universally “sedentary.” Many people with SCI live physically active lives, and behavioral interventions have proven effective at increasing and maintaining both PA and fitness. This paper discusses PA and inactivity in the SCI population and reviews the who, what, and how of effective SCI PA-enhancing interventions. The authors conclude with 3 recommendations for increasing PA in other low-active populations: Know your audience and the issues, develop audience-specific messages and tailored interventions, and use behavior-change theory to develop messages and interventions.

The number and scope of established health-related benefits from physical activity continue to expand. Notable recent additions include improved weight status and bone health in children 3–5 years of age, prevention of excessive weight gain among adults, reduced risk of dementia, and improved cognition and a variety of other brain-health benefits. Greater flexibility in receiving health benefits is also apparent. No threshold of moderate to vigorous physical activity (MVPA) must be exceeded for benefits to accrue; small increments by individuals performing little to no MVPA produce larger reductions in risk than similarly sized increments in individuals already performing greater amounts of MVPA, bouts of MVPA <10 min in duration contribute to the accumulation of MVPA, and light-intensity physical activity can benefit individuals currently doing little or no MVPA. MVPA is indirectly related to the adverse effects of sedentary behavior. The definition of physical activity continues to be debated.

Schools are salient locations for promoting and providing physical activity, but they fail to meet the public health recommendation of providing at least half the 60 min of physical activity that children need daily. To help solve this school deficit, the author proposes that the “biggest bang” would result from developing and implementing school physical activity policies. However, this remains a theory because school policy studies are in their infancy and rarely include direct measures of physical activity. Physical activity does not just happen generally in schools but occurs within specific contexts such as physical education and leisure-time programs. Alternative methods to self-reports are needed to study physical activity policies, and direct observation tools are available to assess physical activity within specific contexts. Private and charter schools are understudied, and they should be included in future investigations.

The purpose of this review was to assess the effectiveness of physical activity (PA) interventions in African American and Latino/Hispanic preschool children. A systematic search was conducted for English-language printed research articles published between January 1980 and December 2017. The inclusion criteria for studies in this review were that they were experimental PA studies conducted in the preschool setting in the United States that targeted African American/Black or Latino/Hispanic children between the ages of 2.9 and 5 years. A total of 1,533 articles were located, of which 10 met the inclusion criteria. Overall, studies reported positive changes in preschool-day PA levels, yet only 2 reported significant improvements in total daily PA. Limited scientific literature suggests that preschool-based interventions are effective in improving aspects of PA during the preschool day for children of color. However, minimal evidence exists on the effectiveness of these interventions in changing total daily PA.

Sedentary behavior is prominent in persons with multiple sclerosis (MS) and may be associated with negative health consequences, yet our knowledge of sedentary behavior and its measurement, correlates, and consequences is in a stage of infancy—the focus on behavioral interventions might even be premature. This underscores the need for a research agenda focusing on sedentary behavior and its measurement, correlates, and consequences to inform the design of targeted interventions for persons with MS. Such research is important, as sedentary behavior represents a large opportunity for focal, theory-based behavioral interventions that could not only decrease sedentary behavior but also provide consequential life-changing benefits for persons with MS. The time is ripe for focal inquiry on sedentary behavior in MS and pursuing a new paradigm on health behavior change in this population.