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Olympic values education: Evolution of a pedagogy

August 2012
Educational Review 64(3):275-302

DOI:10.1080/00131911.2012.676539

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Royal Roads University

Guided by the twentieth century hermeneutic idea that application co-determines understanding, this paper explores the conversations between theory and application that evolved during the implementation of three Olympic-related curriculum projects. Each of these projects was informed by specific fields of then-current educational theory, and offered understandings and insights that were applied in the next project. These understandings guided the development of the toolkit for the Olympic Values Education Program (OVEP) of the International Olympic Committee. The author suggests that the collective insights from this ongoing curriculum development process have the potential to provide a theoretical foundation for a pedagogy of Olympic values education. Roland Naul, another Olympic scholar, describes the approach to Olympic education that evolved from this process as a “lifeworld” orientation, in which the Olympic ideals act as a motivation for learning activities in all aspects of life, integrated with active participation in sport and physical activity. Questions that are addressed during the discussions of the various projects include: What current educational theory will best support the flexible delivery of Olympic-related activities in support of school-based learning outcomes? How do children and youth learn positive behaviours and values, and what teaching methodologies support this learning? Do the Olympic values have relevance in cultural contexts other than the ones based on Euro-American traditions? Are they, as the Olympic Movement professes, universal? Are the methodologies proposed for teaching values in Euro-American contexts appropriate in other cultural contexts? How can international Olympic education and fair play initiatives represent global cultural perspectives?

Theoretical orientation of Fair Play for Kids

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Olympic values education: evolution of

a pedagogy

Deanna L. Binder a

a Institute for Olympic Education, University of Alberta,

Edmonton, Alberta, Canada

Available online: 25 Jun 2012

To cite this article: Deanna L. Binder (2012): Olympic values education: evolution of a pedagogy,

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Olympic values education: evolution of a pedagogy

Deanna L. Binder*

Institute for Olympic Education, University of Alberta, Edmonton, Alberta, Canada

Guided by the twentieth century hermeneutic idea that application co-determines

understanding, this paper explores the conversations between theory and

application that evolved during the implementation of three Olympic-related

curriculum projects. Each of these projects was informed by speciﬁcﬁelds of

then-current educational theory, and offered understandings and insights that

were applied in the next project. These understandings guided the development

of the toolkit for the Olympic Values Education Program (OVEP) of the Interna-

tional Olympic Committee. The author suggests that the collective insights from

this ongoing curriculum development process have the potential to provide a

theoretical foundation for a pedagogy of Olympic values education. Roland

Naul, another Olympic scholar, describes the approach to Olympic education

that evolved from this process as a “lifeworld”orientation, in which the Olym-

pic ideals act as a motivation for learning activities in all aspects of life, inte-

grated with active participation in sport and physical activity. Questions that are

addressed during the discussions of the various projects include: What current

educational theory will best support the ﬂexible delivery of Olympic-related

activities in support of school-based learning outcomes? How do children and

youth learn positive behaviours and values, and what teaching methodologies

support this learning? Do the Olympic values have relevance in cultural contexts

other than the ones based on Euro-American traditions? Are they, as the Olym-

pic Movement professes, universal? Are the methodologies proposed for teach-

ing values in Euro-American contexts appropriate in other cultural contexts?

How can international Olympic education and fair play initiatives represent glo-

bal cultural perspectives?

Keywords: Olympism; curriculum development; pedagogy; values

Introduction

Through an exploration of the curriculum development processes of four Olympic

education initiatives for schools, this paper will explore ways that reﬂection on the

development and implementation (practical application) of a curriculum project

offered understandings that guided curriculum development in a subsequent project.

At the beginning of the ﬁrst project, Come Together: The Olympics and You (Binder

1986), produced by the Calgary 1988 Olympic Winter Games Organizing Commit-

tee, the only supports for the development of a theoretical orientation for an Olym-

pic education project were 15 years of classroom teaching experience and a room

full of information on the Olympic Games. By the end of the fourth project, Teach-

*Present address: EDI, Educational Design International, #3, 520 Marsett Place, Victoria,

British Columbia, V8Z 7J1, Canada. Email: Deanna.Binder@shaw.ca

Educational Review

Vol. 64, No. 3, August 2012, 275–302

ISSN 0013-1911 print/ISSN 1465-3397 online

!2012 Educational Review

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ing Values: An Olympic Education Toolkit (Binder 2007), produced by the Interna-

tional Olympic Committee (IOC), an approach to Olympic education had evolved

that Naul (2008), in his description of approaches to Olympic education, catego-

rized as a “lifeworld”orientation. (This concept is discussed further on in the

paper.) The insights and understandings that emerged during these four curriculum

development experiences now seem to offer support for the evolution of a pedagog-

ical model for teaching the Olympic values.

Historically, at the time of the Calgary project the academic literature in curricu-

lum theory focused on cognitive objectives (Bloom 1956), technical aspects of

developing curriculum (Tyler 1949), and featured the writing of curriculum theorists

such as Schwab (1969, 1971), who stressed the role of the curriculum specialist.

The literature on curriculum planning for gifted students in the early 1980s intro-

duced the term “curriculum differentiation”(Taylor 1984; Walters and Gardner

1984; Tomlinson 1999). Curriculum differentiation then became the organizing prin-

ciple for the Calgary Winter Games educational resources, and is discussed further

on in the paper.

The theoretical orientation for the second project, Fair Play for Kids (Binder

1990) produced by the Government of Canada, was the then-current writings on

moral education by scholars like Kohlberg (1981) and Haan, Aerts, and Cooper

(1985). The third project, Be a Champion in Life (Binder 2000), produced by the

Athens Foundation of Olympic and Sport Education, was an international project,

requiring the curriculum team to address the colonial-era problematics of exporting

Western curriculum traditions, and to question the applicability of the Olympic val-

ues as universal values in multicultural contexts (Smith 1997; Freire 1997; Hober-

man 1995; MacAloon 1978, 1996). Also, at the time of the Athens project,

emerging theory in the ﬁeld of moral/ethical education suggested a radical rethink-

ing of the theoretical orientation for a values-based educational resource (Nussbaum

1986; Noddings 1984; Noddings 1988; Greene 1995).

Reconceptualizing Curriculum Studies

In a reconceptualization of what it means to be engaged in curriculum development

and curriculum theory, Madeleine Grumet (1975) notes that an educational experi-

ence transcends the immediate encounter. It is a dialogue between the person, with

all of his/her understandings, prejudices and biases, and the world of his/her experi-

ence.

Just as art requires the imposition of subjectivity upon the objective stuff of the world,

and is embodied in that stuff, in its materials, forms and limitations, so education

requires a blending of objectivity with the unique subjectivity of the person, its infu-

sion into the structures and shapes of his psyche. (Grumet 1975, 4)

Reﬂection on the development of a curriculum project, and its application in real

world situations, is then, according to Pinar and Grumet (1976) a necessary part of

the process of “understanding curriculum,”as compared with the traditionally tech-

nical focus on “developing curriculum”(Pinar et al. 1995, 6). Understanding curric-

ulum involves an individual in interpretation and reﬂection on education/curriculum

experiences.

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The concepts of understanding, interpretation and reﬂection are informed in this

paper by the work of Hans Georg Gadamer (1989). In Truth and Method Gadamer

explores the philosophical concept of how people come to understand things. Gad-

amer emphasizes that understanding, interpretation and application are all part of

the same process, and suggests that application “co-determines”understanding

(p. 324). Building on the hermeneutical focus of Gadamer’s work, Smits (1997,

291) describes application as “a moment in the process of understanding where we

can show through practice that we understand better,”and goes on to suggest that

there is a responsibility inherent in interpreting words and situations and in creating

meaning, and therefore that understanding, interpretation and application involve

ethical choice and action.

Aoki (1991, 14) also notes that curriculum development “essentially belongs to

the world of the practical,”and talks about teaching being a process of in-dwelling

between curriculum as plan and curriculum as lived experience. Like Grumet,

Gallagher (1992, 39) suggests educational experience is a conversation between past

understandings and new experiences. It is also a conversation among cultures, edu-

cational traditions and languages taking place at several levels: at the level of con-

ceptualization, at the level of writing and design, and at the level of review and

classroom implementation. Thus curriculum development can be considered a pro-

cess of in-dwelling between curriculum as concept in the minds of its stakeholders

(one of whom is usually a ministry of education), and curriculum as the lived expe-

riences of collaboration, informed at all times by the particulars of “practical”appli-

cation by teachers in classrooms. Questions of what and how to teach “arise in

concrete situations loaded with concrete particulars of time, place, person, and cir-

cumstance”(Schwab 1971, 493). The curriculum specialist, Schwab notes, sits in

the middle of the curriculum development process –a process that usually involves

multiple stakeholders. He/she has the responsibility of “readying theory”for practi-

cal use (p. 494). Curriculum development is deliberative; the end or outcome is not

theory but a “decision, a selection, a guide to possible action”(Schwab 1969, 20).

After an “application,”the curriculum specialist is in a position to use both objec-

tive (assessment and evaluation) and subjective (reﬂection and interpretation) strate-

gies to modify and extend theoretical concepts. In the discussions in this paper, the

author will reﬂect on how theory related to the concept of Olympic values and the

pedagogy of teaching values was “readied”for use, and how from each project

cycle new theoretical insights evolved.

The curriculum reﬂection for each of the Olympic-related projects discussed in

this paper follows an outline with the following headings: Scenario, Rationale,

Questions, Theoretical background, Application, Understandings, Critique. Since,

as David Smith (1997, 2) suggests, “genuine theory always has a geography, that

is, that it always arises out of speciﬁc concrete situations formulated by living per-

sons who are attempting to answer or clarify real problems at the heart of their liv-

ing”, the discussion of each project will begin with a Scenario and a Rationale.

Scenarios and rationales present the “concrete situations”that are at the heart of

each project.

Hans Georg Gadamer’s (1989, 299) suggests that understanding begins when

we have a question, that is “when something addresses us”. Therefore, the

Questions which guided theoretical inquiry prior to curriculum development are

then presented. Questions are a necessary prelude to interpretation and under-

standing says Gadamer (1989, 363) because the “path of all knowledge”leads

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through a question. He describes questioning as “more a passion than an

action.”“A question,”he says, “presses itself on us; we can no longer avoid it

and persist in our accustomed opinion”(p. 366). For example, the Ben Johnson

scandal during the Seoul Olympic Games “pressed”on all Canadians questions

about substance abuse in Canadian sport. Since the rationale and stakeholders

for each project were different, a different set of questions guided the theoretical

explorations for each project.

Theoretical background information that addresses the questions and informed

the curriculum development process is then discussed, followed by a summary of

the Application or implementation process. Understandings (meanings, interpreta-

tions, insights) which evolved from the application process are then explored. A

brief Critique concludes the discussion of each project. In the concluding section of

the paper the collective insights from theory and practice in the four Olympic-

related projects are presented as basic understandings for a potential “pedagogical

model”for Olympic values education for schools and youth groups in the global

environment of the Olympic Movement.

This paper explores the evolution of an orientation to Olympic education

described by Naul (2008, 119) as a “lifeworld orientation”. According to Naul, a

lifeworld orientation is one of four distinct worldwide approaches to Olympic edu-

cation projects for schools:

•the knowledge-oriented approach “seeks to explain the Olympic idea by

means of its historical and educational legacy”(Naul 2008, 118). This

approach, which according to Naul is the most widespread in the world,

focuses on presenting information about the ancient and modern Games, may

include excursions to Olympic sites, and emphasizes names, dates and facts.

•the experiential approach “employs encounters both inside and outside the

school at games, sports, art and music festivals”(Naul 2008, 118). This

approach emphasizes participation by children and youth in school “Olympic”

festivals and competitions, international school cooperation and communica-

tion, and special emphasis on teaching fair play and cultural understanding.

•the physical achievement through effort approach focuses on the idea that

individual and social development occurs through intense efforts to

improve oneself in physical endeavours and through competition with oth-

ers (Gessman 2002; Gessman 2010). Concentrated and systematic physical

practising and training offers a platform for the holistic development of

mind, body and spirit. This approach situates Olympic education in the

physical education curriculum and in extracurricular and interschool sports.

•the lifeworld-oriented approach “links the Olympic principles to children’s

and young people’s own social experience in sport with their experiences in

other areas of their lives”(Naul 2008, 119). This approach interprets the

Olympic ideals as a motivation for learning activities in all aspects of life,

integrated with active participation in sport and physical activity.

An integrated (lifeworld) approach requires curriculum development that applies

Olympic values in different cultural and educational situations and integrates

Olympic concepts and values in a variety of different subject areas. Therefore

the orientation in this paper is on general curriculum theory and ethical/moral

educational research, rather than on sport or physical education-based curriculum

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theory. Until recently neither sport pedagogy (in the European context) nor

physical education had well-developed curriculum theory related to learning out-

comes in the affective domain. Recently, Haerens et al. (2011, 330) identiﬁed a

number of studies evaluating health-based [physical education] curricula that

have “emphasized the need to more explicitly focus on affective learning out-

comes”(e.g. McKenzie, Sallis, and Rosengard 2009; Verstraete et al. 2007;

Whitehead and Fox 1983). Furthermore, as Tinning (2008, 419) notes, there has

been “virtually no systematic study of pedagogy as a process of coming to

know used within the sub-disciplines of kinesiology such as biomechanics, exer-

cise physiology, sport history and sport sociology, and accordingly, we actually

know very little about the pedagogical work done in those contexts”. There still

seems to be a great deal of discussion in the ﬁeld of sport about “what”needs

to be taught to help students develop good characters through sport participation,

and very little about “how”to teach it.

The Projects

Come Together: The Olympics and You –Calgary 1988 Olympic Winter Games

Description of the project

The Calgary 1988 Olympic Winter Games educational resources integrated sport

and Olympic information and concepts with learning outcomes in the different sub-

ject areas. Funded by OCO’88 (the organizing committee for the Calgary Games),

and supported by a teacher workshop and school outreach program, the resources

were distributed to all elementary schools in the nation in 1987.

Scenario

Four years before the Games the telephone rang in the ofﬁces of the special pro-

gramme for gifted learners of the Calgary Board of Education. The organizing com-

mittee for the Calgary 1988 Olympic Winter was looking for a curriculum specialist

to develop materials to educate school children about the Winter Games.

Rationale

The Canadian/Calgary public was uninformed about the history, traditions, and

many of the sports, other than hockey, of the Winter Games. Providing information

and activities through the schools would provide an Olympic experience for chil-

dren and help to increase understanding of the Games.

Target audience

School children in the province of Alberta and Canada

Questions

•What is the best way to present ancient and modern Olympic Games philoso-

phy, history and traditions to school children?

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•What current educational theory is consistent with Alberta Ministry of Educa-

tion policy and will best support the ﬂexible delivery of Olympic-related

activities in support of school-based learning outcomes?

Theoretical background

To answer the ﬁrst question a review of the literature with respect to the Olympic

Movement revealed that the creation of the IOC and the modern Olympic Games

was intended to further the educational reform ideas of Pierre de Coubertin; these

educational ideas provided a rationale for a school-based programme. De Couber-

tin’s interest in education was clearly evident in the “Aims”that were drafted for

the original Olympic Charter (1908).

•To promote the development of those physical and moral qualities which are

the basis of sport

•To educate young people through sport in a spirit of better understanding

between each other and of friendship, thereby helping to build a better and

more peaceful world

•To spread the Olympic principles throughout the world, thereby creating inter-

national goodwill

•To bring together the athletes of the world in a great four-yearly sports festi-

val, the Olympic Games

These aims, two of which focus on the development of positive values within

the context of participation in sport and physical endeavour, echoed objectives

familiar to educators and the Ministry of Education. However, there were few

Olympic education models to follow. Three manuals distributed in the Los Ange-

les area prior to the Los Angeles 1984 Olympic Games offered examples of the

ways that Olympic Games history, geography, ceremonies, pageantry, torch relays,

cultural and artistic events, venue construction projects, controversies and sport

activities could provide context for inspiring learning activities. This understand-

ing motivated the curriculum specialist to create a curriculum framework that

integrated Olympic and sport-related topics into existing Ministry of Education

curricula. Volunteer teacher committees at all three levels of the Alberta school

system were formed, and invited to use Olympic and sport information as context

for learning activities.

Curriculum differentiation, an approach to pedagogy that in the early 1980s

was being encouraged in special programmes for gifted children, provided a

pedagogical and organizational focus (Taylor 1984; Walters and Gardner 1984;

Tomlinson 1999). Under the heading “How to Differentiate the Curriculum”in

Fair Play for Kids, Appendix A teachers are advised to: differentiate the con-

tent by offering students choices in terms of topics and resources; differentiate

the process by including cognitive, affective and creative tasks; differentiate for

learning style preferences by taking into consideration learning modalities, per-

sonality and cognitive styles, environmental preferences and preferred instruc-

tional strategies; differentiate the grouping structures; differentiate the products

that demonstrate learning (e.g. reports, posters, mobiles, dramas, essays); and

differentiate the evaluation process (objective, self-assessment, teachers, peer,

process or product).

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Curriculum differentiation became a dominant inﬂuence on curriculum theory

after the publication of Howard Gardner’s work on Multiple Intelligences (Gardner

1993). Tomlinson (1999, 2) explains the concept:

Teachers in differentiated classrooms begin with a clear and solid sense of what con-

stitutes powerful curriculum and engaging instruction. Then they ask what it will

take to modify that instruction so that each learner comes away with understandings

and skills that offer guidance to the next phase of learning.

Since elementary school teachers often organize lessons from different subject areas

into one theme, an elementary school manual was produced that integrated Olympic

and sport-related information with learning activities in ﬁve themes:

•The Olympic Spirit: Olympic history, symbols and traditions

•Winter and the Olympic World: winter fun in polar nations, studying winter

Olympic nations

•The Olympic Winter Sports: How the sports are played and judged

•The Olympics Are for People: Being an athlete, a spectator, a coach

•Calgary Hosts the Olympics: the city, bidding for an Olympics, organizing the

Games, the Olympic venues

It was also understood that the manual would only be used if it was user-friendly

and provided “off-the-shelf”materials for busy teachers. Therefore each theme

included three kinds of pages: background information pages which presented infor-

mation at an adult reading level (for the teacher and better readers), reading cards

which presented information at the reading level of elementary school students, and

activity pages tagged for relevance to a speciﬁc subject area, e.g. mostly reading,

mostly writing, mostly science, mostly physical education. The manual was

intended as a resource rather than a textbook. Teachers were encouraged to pick

and choose and adapt learning activities according to the objectives and needs of

their own programmes.

The curriculum framework for the junior high and senior high school manuals

was based on the understanding that secondary level curriculum is much more sub-

ject-area focused and less inclined to thematic organization. Volunteer committees

in each subject area, e.g. language arts, social studies, science, biology, physics,

mathematics, home economics, created learning activities to teach basic skills from

within their subject area. For example, a grade 12 physics module used the bob-

sleigh run as a context for exploring the concept of centrifugal force.

Application

Materials were in the schools in advance of the Games, which provided lead-time

for workshops and promotion, and allowed teachers to build Olympic themes and

projects into their yearly curriculum planning. The narrative which follows high-

lights an example of how schools applied the curriculum materials.

Silver Springs School, Alberta –The school is celebrating the opening ceremonies of

their school-wide Olympic Festival. The walls of every hallway are covered in Olym-

pic-related projects. One wall displays mathematics and science projects related to

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sport, sport medicine and sport technology. Another highlights studies of life in

ancient Greece.

The auditorium is packed with parents and invited guests. The ceremonies begin with

a parade of nations into the “stadium.”Each class represents a country that they have

been studying and they march behind the ﬂag of their adopted country in outﬁts that

feature aspects of the national dress.

While the Olympic anthem is played, the Olympic ﬂag is hoisted on a ﬂagpole. Then

in an emotional moment, a young athlete enters the gym with an Olympic torch –a

silver cone ﬁlled with red and yellow paper –jogs proudly around the auditorium and

lights the Olympic ﬂame. The Olympic spirit is now alive and well in the auditorium

of Silver Springs School!!

Understandings

These are some of the insights that evolved from reﬂections on this project.

Firstly, in an evaluation carried out by the Canadian Olympic Committee two

years after the Games, 97% of the teacher respondents said that they would use

the materials again, conﬁrming that the materials seemed to be useful in their ﬂex-

ible, off-the-shelf formats. Secondly, the inclusion of the Ministry of Education

and teacher specialists in the development process, thus engaging those who will

ultimately be “living”the curriculum, seemed to establish commitment and credi-

bility. Thirdly, the Ministry of Education approvals process required an assessment

through the ﬁlters of the Tolerance and Understanding Committee. These ﬁlters

included gender equity, representation of the multiple cultural heritages of the

Canadian people, particularly aboriginal people, and respect and representation of

people with disabilities, assuring a balanced approach in all textual and graphic

components. Finally, workshops, presentations and promotional materials helped

teachers understand the materials, an example of the back and forth conversation,

described by Gadamer, that takes place as people interpret and understand new

information or experiences.

With Ministry of Education involvement, the Calgary project became one of

the ﬁrst curriculum endeavours in the nation to be approved for distribution and

support by all 10 provincial and two territorial ministries of education.

Similar

educational programmes were developed by Olympic organizing committees in

Lillehammer (Helland 1994) and Sydney (2000). Since the success of these ini-

tiatives by Games organizing committees, every city that is bidding for an

Olympic Games is required to outline its plans for an educational initiative. For

example, the 2016 Games’bidding cities had to answer the following questions

in the IOC’s Candidature Procedures and Questionnaire handbook

about their

plans for an educational initiative:

•Describe your concept for the educational programmes for the promotion of

sport and the Olympic values to be set up during the years leading up to and

during the Olympic Games and Paralympic Games.

•Describe your plans to promote the practice of sport and a healthy lifestyle

(for example in schools).

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•It is not an obligation to organize a Youth Camp. However, if you plan a

Youth Camp as part of your educational programme, brieﬂy describe your

plans (location, number of participants, etc.) and how the Youth Camp will

be funded.

Critique

The rationale for the Calgary 1988 Olympic education program was to inform chil-

dren about the Olympic Games. Feedback from teachers suggested that the learning

activities were relevant. However as a “ﬁrst effort”in school-based Olympic educa-

tion curriculum development the programme had a number of shortcomings. It

lacked a strong orientation to sport and physical activity, which, according to the

aims of the Olympic Charter is the underlying rationale for the Olympic Games

and for the Olympic Movement. Learning activities were mostly classroom-based.

As previously noted, curriculum theory in sport pedagogy and physical education,

particularly with respect to learning outcomes in the affective domain, was underde-

veloped in the 1980s and continues to challenge curriculum specialists in the

Olympic education ﬁeld

As an Olympic-related project, Come Together: The Olympics and You drew

criticism from some in the academic community. Critics of the Olympic Move-

ment often argue that the modern Olympic Games, corrupted by corporate agendas

and personal greed, are an unsuitable context for activities in schools. Wamsley

and Heine (1996) go so far as to describe the promotion of the Olympic idea as

“ideological inscripting”(p. 88). They conclude in a critique of the Calgary

Games that “citizens [including children] were …educated for a pre-arranged

future, where participation in various aspects of Olympic consumption could be

directly linked to personal experiences and memories of 1988”(p. 88). The ideals

of Olympism are also often criticized because they are “mostly a composition of

narratives on an Olympic ethos created and celebrated by its adherents”(DaCosta

2002, 28) –a vaguely worded collection of ideas from nineteenth century human-

ism. Another critique, primarily from European-based sport educators, was that too

little attention was paid in the Calgary educational materials to the theories and

methodologies of Olympism as articulated by Pierre de Coubertin and the inter-

preters of Pierre de Coubertin who followed him (Spanenberger 1994). These

same authors, however, note that the programme had a high implementation quo-

tient, and was well-received by teachers.

Fair Play for Kids: A Handbook of Activities for Teaching Fair Play (1990/1995) –

Canadian Commission for Fair Play (Fair Play Canada/Esprit Sportif Canada)

Project description

Fair Play for Kids: A Handbook of Activities for Teaching Fair Play was

distributed by the Government of Canada to every elementary school in the country.

It is a handbook

... to help your students develop and reinforce their ability to become fair players in

life as well as in sport and physical activity. With the activities in this handbook, you

can integrate fair play concepts not only with physical education, life skills classes

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and intramural programs; but also in art, social studies, science, drama and language

arts. (Binder 1992, 1)

Scenario

Seoul Korea, 24 September 1988 –Ben Johnson tests positive for a performance-

enhancing drug and his gold medal for the 100 m Olympic event is revoked.

Rationale

Following the revelations of the Dubin Inquiry into the drug scandal of 1988 the

Canadian government established an independent, non-proﬁt Canadian Anti-doping

Agency, and invited a group of sport leaders to participate in a Commission for Fair

Play. The Commission agreed to oversee the development of a programme to

encourage the development of fair play values in sport.

Target Audience

Canadian school children 8–9 to 11–12 years old

Questions

•How do children and youth learn fair play behaviours and values?

•What teaching methodologies support this learning?

Theoretical background

The orientation for this review shifted from the traditional scholarly interest in the

“what’s”and “whys”of fair play to a pedagogical interest in the “hows,”that is, to

a focus on how children learn values like fair play, and how teachers can best

enhance this learning. For example, what connections exist between fair play as a

sport concept and fair play as an educational priority? How does fair play relate to

other educational objectives and priorities? What teaching situations and environ-

ments best facilitate the processes of learning fair play? What kinds of activities

seem to be most helpful? What kinds of supplementary reinforcements and rewards

are helpful? Within the context of a multicultural nation, how is fair play interpreted

as a concept within and among different cultural communities? How do children in

these various cultural communities learn fair play? These were some of the supple-

mentary pedagogical questions that “raised themselves up”(Gadamer 1989) as the

literature was reviewed.

Fair play evolved as a sporting concept from the playing ﬁelds of the gentle-

men’s schools of England, and was subsequently enshrined by Pierre de Coubertin

in the aims of the Olympic Charter. As previously noted, the concept received

national attention in Canada at the time of the Ben Johnson doping scandal, and

with the growing public concerns about violence in sport, particularly hockey.

Research seemed to support the concern. Bredemeier and Shields (1984, 1986,

1995) and Bredemeier et al. (1988) observed that, rather than helping to build good

character, as many sport enthusiasts maintained, some competitive sports activities

without speciﬁc strategies to encourage and promote fair play, seemed to contribute

to an enhanced disposition for cheating and illegal or hurtful, aggressive behaviour.

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The dominant theory in values education in North America at the time was

moral development theory –an orientation most closely associated with Kohlberg

(1981) and Haan, Aerts, and Cooper (1985). Kohlberg, a psychologist inﬂuenced

by the cognitive development model of Jean Piaget (1975), outlined a hierarchical

development of certain abilities with respect to abstract moral reasoning. The model

emphasizes the cognitive processes involved in moral reasoning, an approach that

has its roots in the principled ethics of Kant (1977) and the ideals of Plato. Moral

development theory postulates stages in the development of ethical/moral judgment

as part of a maturation process. Fair Play for Kids was grounded in this theory,

and includes the following quotes from Hersch, Paolito, and Reimer (1979).

•Figuring out what is fair and learning how to cooperate and share are what

interests elementary school youngsters, because they are developing the

capacity to understand that other people see the world differently –e.g. coop-

erative problem-solving activities (Hersch, Paolito, and Reimer 1979, 135).

•Teachers can help students develop their moral reasoning abilities by providing

experiences which create moral conﬂict exposing children to other higher

modes of thinking than their own. Stimulation of moral development occurs

when children are presented with genuine and difﬁcult moral conﬂicts (Hersch,

Paolito, and Reimer 1979, 138).

Two learning processes that are recommended to help young people “rise”to

the next level of moral development were highlighted throughout in Fair Play for

Kids. One was identifying and resolving moral conﬂicts. Talk/dialogue seemed to

be a foundational strategy in this process. Therefore, most of the activities in this

programme are accompanied by a “Let’s Talk”section (p. 4). Changing roles and

perspectives was the other favoured teaching strategy. Children at this age tend to

see their world from an egocentric point of view. Games, simulations, role plays

etc. provide them with opportunities to put themselves in someone else’s shoes

(p. 4). Table 1, which appeared at the beginning of each theme, summarizes the the-

oretical orientation of the manual.

Table 1. Theoretical orientation of Fair Play for Kids

Principles of fair play

Important fair

play values and

attitudes

Processes for teaching fair

play values and behaviours

1. Respect the rules. Teamwork and

cooperation

Recognizing and resolving

ethical dilemmas

2. Respect the ofﬁcials and their

decisions.

3. Respect your opponent. Playing by the

rules

4. Give everybody an equal chance

to participate. Changing roles and perspectives

5. Maintain your self-control at all

times.

Self-esteem

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Application

The fair play handbook was developed with four themes that linked fair

play-oriented learning activities with various curriculum areas:

•Fair Play Talk –Creative activities that engage learners in discussion and role

plays about fair play and fair play dilemmas.

•Fair Play in Action –Lots of games and game ideas that reinforce fair play.

•Fair Play: Past, Present and Future –Focus on fair play issues. Have fun with

a fair play theme.

•Fair Play for our World: Health and Environment –Focus on fair play

applications in the real world. Create a fair play cross-curriculum with

activities in science, life skills, global studies and multiculturalism.

Teacher committees participated in all stages. The steering committee included

members of the Commission for Fair Play and the Canadian Ministry of Sport. As

for the Calgary programme a national workshop and promotion programme created

awareness and motivated implementation.

Understandings

Understandings that evolved from research, development and implementation of

Fair Play for Kids included a clear message from the literature that fair play is a

learned behaviour; it does not happen automatically because someone participates

in a sport (Bredemeier and Shields 1995). Several studies support the assumption in

Fair Play for Kids that interventions improve fair play behaviours (Gibbons,

Ebbeck, and Weiss 1995; Vidoni and Ward 2009), and that dialogue is a founda-

tional methodology for teaching values (Noddings 1988).

During the writing and ﬁeld-testing phases of the project, two other curriculum

insights evolved. One addressed the concept of cooperation versus competition in

the teaching of physical and sport skills to young people. This seemed to be a con-

tested issue in the sport and physical education literature of the 1980s. A Grade 4

teacher resolved the issue when she noted during a development committee meeting

that, “My kids have to learn to cooperate before they can compete effectively.”She

went on to suggest that even on the same team young people between the target

ages of eight to 12 needed to learn to cooperate as members of a team. The other

insight was that teachers were impatient with the 10 or 12 pages of moral develop-

ment theory that introduced the handbook. “Put the theory at the end of the pro-

gramme,”they said. This was an insight that, perhaps, would not please academics,

but which seemed to make the handbook more user-friendly and less intimidating

for the classroom teacher.

Critique

Two aspects of application that are frequently absent with respect to interpreting the

success of a programme or understanding its “lived in”curriculum experiences, are

evaluation and research. With respect to Fair Play for Kids a research study

(Gibbons, Ebbeck, and Weiss 1995) was applied to explore the “effects on the

moral development of children in physical education using educational activities

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selected from Fair Play for Kids”(Gibbons, Ebbeck, and Weiss 1995, 248). The

following results were reported:

Results supported the main hypothesis that implementation of a specially designed

educational programme can effect changes in several facets of moral development …

These results support theory and empirical research that enhancing moral growth is

not an automatic consequence of participation in physical activity, but rather that

systematic and organized delivery of theoretically grounded curricula is necessary to

make a difference. (p. 253)

Gibbons, Ebbeck, and Weiss’(1995) study used empirical measures to test before

and after responses in the areas of moral judgment, moral reason, moral intention,

and prosocial behaviour. These measures were either based on or correlated closely

with the stages of moral development model developed by Rest (1986). The

researchers note that, “although the products of this study (i.e., changes in quantita-

tive scores) were highly visible, the processes by which these changes occurred

were less discernible”(Gibbons, Ebbeck, and Weiss 1995, 254).

Within the conﬁnes of this research design, teachers were empowered to make the

pedagogical decisions as to where and when to use teaching strategies. This allowed

teachers to judge whether the activities were usable in the “real”classroom with “real”

children. Field research acknowledges and accepts a less controlled experiemental

environment in order to provide this information to practitioners. Thus, as the activi-

ties within Fair Play for Kids were designed for use by teachers in the schools, it was

important to examine their effectiveness within this context. The results of this study

provide social and empirical validity for the utility of the Fair Play for Kids teaching

strategies in real-world situations.

Fair Play for Kids is now dated on theoretical grounds. As the programme was

being released for distribution, the academic ﬁeld of values education was in major

transition. Lawrence Walker (1995, 1) writes:

... it has become apparent that this pervasive inﬂuence [Kohlberg’s] has imparted a

rather constricted view of moral functioning, which we must now strive to overcome.

This constricted view of moral functioning arose from Kohlberg’s a priori and conse-

quently restricted notion of morality (following in the Platonic and Kantian traditions

in moral philosophy which emphasize justice and individualism) and from his impov-

erished description of the moral agent (following in the cognitive-developmental tradi-

tion in developmental psychology and exempliﬁed by his emphasis on the cognitive

abilities used in resolving hypothetical moral dilemmas).

The new orientation to values education that is alluded to by Walker provided the

theoretical orientation for the next Olympic education curriculum project to be ana-

lysed in this paper.

Be a Champion in Life: An International Teacher’s Resource Manual (2000) –

Athens Foundation of Olympic and Sport Education

Description of the project

The development process for Be a Champion in Life involved an international

conference to discuss the creation of a global resource based on the Olympic

values followed by a three-year collaboration among the members of an Interna-

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tional Steering Committee, and the staff of the Athens Foundation for Olympic

and Sport Education (FOSE), a private foundation funded by its president. The

manual featured ﬁve themes; four of them are focused on speciﬁc Olympic val-

ues (physical activity, fair play, multiculturalism, and pursuit of excellence); the

ﬁfth theme provided the Olympic context (history, traditions, symbols, ceremo-

nies). It was launched at a seminar for 70 global educators –symbolically at

the foot of Mount Olympus.

Scenario

The following journal was a written entry following a meeting of the FOSE Interna-

tional Steering Committee to discuss the FOSE project. It provides an example of

curriculum as the “lived experience”of a curriculum specialist (Binder 2002).

A December rain cascades off the roof of the Hotel Grand Chalet in the northern

Athenian suburb of Kifﬁsia. As we conclude the ﬁrst International Steering Com-

mittee Meeting, it is decision-making time. I have been asked privately by the Founda-

tion and by the other three members of the International Steering Committee whether I

would consider leading the development of the FOSE teaching resource package. The

President makes a proposal that I come to Athens as a guest of the Foundation for three

months. I have concerns. For our Greek hosts, the ideals of Olympism represent a phi-

losophy of life in which they take great pride of ownership. I have very ambiguous

feelings about the cross-cultural relevance of these ideals. I wonder about their applica-

tion for children in schools and particularly in non-Euro-American cultural contexts.

The difﬁculties experienced in moving forward during the various preliminary con-

ferences and meetings have also highlighted differences in the ways the ofﬁcials of

the Foundation and those from Euro-American traditions organize and work. There

are also different expectations for the contents of the teaching resource package,

based on very different approaches to teaching and curriculum development in our

various educational systems.

Rationale

Let us then dedicate the second centennial [of the Olympic Movement] to the children,

to the Olympic and Sporting Education …Let the Olympic and Sporting messages be

codiﬁed and taught since Nursery school, if possible, and let the children of the whole

world receive them.

The President of FOSE has a vision (in Greek, an orama) that an educational

programme focused on the positive values of Olympism, and distributed to all the

schools in the world, would eventually change the behaviours of human society.

It is an unrealistic vision, but he has the resources and the inﬂuence within the

sport system of Greece to bring together people from around the world to try and

make some progress towards his vision.

Target audience

Children 8–12 year old in the schools of the world

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Questions

•Do the Olympic values have relevance in cultural contexts other than the ones

based on Euro-American traditions? Are they, as the Olympic Movement pro-

fesses, universal?

•Are the methodologies proposed for teaching values in Euro-American con-

texts appropriate in other cultural contexts?

•How can international Olympic education and fair play initiatives represent

global cultural perspectives?

Theoretical background

A. With respect to the question of universal values and the educational philosophy

of Olympism

In the 1980s the IOC produced a revised version of The Olympic Charter.

“Fundamental Principles”replaced the “Aims”of the original charter. The two

Fundamental Principles in the Olympic Charter (IOC 2011) which speak strongly to

an educational mandate are:

•Olympism is a philosophy of life, exalting and combining in a balanced

whole the qualities of body, will and mind. Blending sport with culture and

education, Olympism seeks to create a way of life based on the joy of effort,

the educational value of good example and respect for universal fundamental

ethical principles (Fundamental Principle #1).

•The goal of Olympism is to place sport at the service of the harmonious

development of man, with a view to promoting a peaceful society concerned

with the preservation of human dignity (Fundamental Principle #2).

The modern Charter also notes that “the goal of the Olympic Movement is to

contribute to building a peaceful and better world by educating youth through sport

practised in accordance with Olympism and its values”(IOC 2011, 13),and that

the role of the IOC is to “encourage and support the promotion of ethics in sport as

well as education of youth through sport and to dedicate its efforts to ensuring that,

in sport, the spirit of fair play prevails and violence is banned”(p. 14).Some of the

other values referred to in the Fundamental Principles and in other statements

within the Olympic Charter include:

•respect for balance in the human character between aspects of mind and body

•an understanding of the joy found in effort

•an emphasis on peaceful behaviour

•respect for others (here described as preservation of human dignity)

•fair play

The Fundamental Principles and subsequent statements also include suggestions for

methodology: educating through sport, blending sport with culture and education,

and setting good examples.

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B. With respect to the question of methodologies for teaching values

The 1980s brought a different orientation to ethical/values education from that of

moral development theory. For the FOSE project the work of four educators exempli-

ﬁes this emerging curriculum theory. Carol Gilligan (1982, 14), a psychologist and a

former student of Lawrence Kohlberg, questioned the conclusions that Kohlberg

reached about the moral reasoning of women and girls based on his model of the

“hierarchical stages of moral reasoning.”She points out that Kohlberg’s studies, car-

ried out to develop the levels of moral reasoning model, were based on sample popu-

lations of boys and men. She also notes that Kohlberg, like Freud and Piaget before

him, all observe that somehow girls do not ﬁt their models. When women do not con-

form to the standards of psychological expectation, she says, the conclusion has gen-

erally been that something is wrong with the women. She argues that ...

Sensitivity to the needs of others and the assumption of responsibility for taking care

lead women to attend to voices other than their own and to include in their judgment

other points of view. Women’s moral weakness, manifest in an apparent diffusion and

confusion of judgment, is thus inseparable from women’s moral strength, an overrid-

ing concern with relationships and responsibilities. (Gilligan 1982, 16–17)

In Caring: A Feminine Approach to Ethics and Moral Education, Nel Noddings

(1984), an educational philosopher, proposed an educational philosophy based on

Gilligan’s ideas of an ethics of care. She suggested that schools should be “deliber-

ately redesigned to support caring and caring individuals”(p. 182). She describes

four fundamental strategies for nurturing the ethical ideal: dialogue, practice, conﬁr-

mation and modelling.

Philosopher Martha Nussbaum (1986) refers to the drama of ancient Greece to

explore value conﬂicts in human lives. She is clearly uncomfortable with abstract

discussions of moral dilemmas, and emphasizes the importance of emotion.

Our Anglo-American philosophical tradition has tended to assume that the ethical text

should, in the process of inquiry, converse with the intellect alone; it should not make

its appeal to the emotions, feelings, and sensory responses …We discover what we

think about events partly by noticing how we feel; our investigation of our emotional

geography is a major part of our search for self-knowledge. (Nussbaum 1986, 15–16)

There are two aspects of Nussbaum’s work that have implications for teaching

Olympic values. She argues in support of an approach to ethics that focuses on the

lived experiences and moral conﬂicts of real people in real situations, as opposed to

intellectual discussions of abstract moral dilemmas. She also emphasizes narrative –

drama, poetry, story –as important tools for ethical education.

In Releasing the Imagination, Maxine Greene (1995), a curriculum theorist,

picks up the curriculum threads suggested by the theories of scholars such as Gilli-

gan, Noddings and Nussbaum, and stresses the role that imagination plays in learn-

ing strategies that help young people develop positive values and behaviours. “It is

imagination,”she says, “that opens our eyes to worlds beyond our experienceen-

abling us to create, care for others, and envision social change”(book jacket). Stim-

ulating the imagination involves active learning and an appeal to the emotions of

students. Greene points out that simply lecturing about basketball will not develop

a basketball player. Somehow teachers and coaches communicate ways of doing

things that allow learners to put into practice in their own way what they are see-

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ing, hearing and experiencing. “To teach, at least in one dimension, is to provide

persons with the knacks and know-hows they need in order to teach themselves”

(Greene 1995, 14). This is a form of inventiveness, a use of imagination.

With its capacity to both make order out of chaos and open experience to the mysteri-

ous and the strange ... [imagination] moves teachers and coaches, students and athletes

to journey where they have never been. (Greene 1995, 23)

Greene celebrates the ﬁne arts as the curriculum place where it is most possible for

children to see themselves and the possibilities of their world in a different way.

Encounters with the arts have a unique power to release imagination. Stories, poems,

dance performances, concerts, paintings, ﬁlms, plays all have the potential to provide

remarkable pleasure for those willing to move out toward them and engage with them.

(Greene 1995, 27)

The ideas of Gilligan, Noddings, Nussbaum, Greene and others pointed the Interna-

tional Steering Committee for Be a Champion in Life towards an orientation that

would help young people to explore their emotional as well as their intellectual

responses to ethical issues through narratives, art, music and drama, and that

emphasize care and compassion for others.

C. With respect to the question of cultural difference and complexity

De Coubertin’s Olympic project was grounded in Euro-Western philosophy, val-

ues and sport traditions, and speciﬁcally in the idealistic, optimistic ideas of nine-

teenth century humanism. For 300 years these ideas, traditions and values,

including the Euro-American systems of organized sport, were exported to non-

Western cultural lifeworlds. Post-modern educational and sport theorists critique

the educational and sport legacies of colonialism, including their negative impacts

on traditional and indigenous sport. One scholar, for example, refers to Olympism

as “an essentialist cultural tradition rooted in Judeo-Christian religion, Roman

law, Greek ideas on politics, philosophy, art and science, and all refracted

through the Renaissance and the Enlightenment”(Petrie 1992, 11).

Others suggest, however, that Olympism may be attractive globally to the

over 200 countries that sign the Olympic Charter because it offers a general

framework from within which the nations and regions that organize and partici-

pate in the Olympic Movement can represent their own cultural and ethical tradi-

tions. “There are not one Olympic Games, but thousands,”says MacAloon

(1996, 76) “… The Games act as an interpretive frame.”For example, although

the rituals for an Olympic Games are prescribed by the Olympic Charter, the

opening ceremony in China (2008), with its synchronized thousands of perform-

ers, represented Olympism in a different way from the opening ceremonies in

Athens (2004), with its emphasis on ancient Greek heritage, an example of how

interpretation and understanding are co-determined by application in concrete situ-

ations (Gadamer, 1989).

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Application

The curriculum framework for Be a Champion in Life,

developed during an inter-

national conference, evolved into ﬁve themes:

•Body, Mind and Spirit: Inspiring Children to Participate in Physical Activity

•Fair Play: The Spirit of Sport in Life and Community

•Multiculturalism: Learning to Live With Diversity

•In Pursuit of Excellence: Identity, Self-conﬁdence and Self-respect

•The Olympics Present and Past: Celebrating the Olympic Spirit

The understandings from previous projects were applied in a number of ways. The

project was based on North American principles of learning

which had to be

worded succinctly for international users, many of whom would be in educational

systems that emphasized didactic teaching methodologies. The reader will recognize

the echo of curriculum differentiation, as described earlier, in these principles of

learning.

•Learning is an active and not a passive activity. Learning processes include

writing activities, discussion or debate, creative activities, e.g. art, drama or

music, and physical movement through activities like sport, dance and physi-

cal education.

•People learn in different ways. Some people learn best by reading; some learn

best by listening; some learn best by creating things or moving around.

•Learning is both an individual and a cooperative activity. Some people work

best independently. In order to learn and practice cooperation, however, peo-

ple need to work together.

In response to the understanding from the Calgary project that an Olympic

education project should highlight sport and physical activity, the manual opens

with “Body, Mind and Spirit: Inspiring Children to Participate in Physical Activity.”

Addressing this theme ﬁrst conceptually highlighted the foundational idea of

Olympism –that young people develop physical, intellectual and moral capabilities

when they challenge themselves in physical endeavour. Moreoever, in response to

the insight that inactivity and obesity are global concerns, the theme highlights

strategies to inspire participation.

In the foreground of concern for the curriculum development of the FOSE man-

ual was the Olympic concept of universal values. Curriculum theorists and critical

pedagogues were not at all sure that there was such a thing as “universal values.”

In spite of the recognition of these values by all of the countries that participate in

the Olympic Games the Olympic values were still a Eurocentric construction. The

curriculum specialist was also aware that she brought to the project a North Ameri-

can curriculum perspective, a horizon, as Gadamer (1989) refers to it, that was

bounded by North American, Eurocentric prejudices, experiences and convictions.

Gadamer suggests “we are continually having to test all our prejudices [and particu-

larly so in cross-cultural collaboration]. Understanding is always the fusion of these

horizons [past and present] …” (1989, 306). Narratives and learning activities in

the manual featured content from other cultural contexts, and learner tasks fre-

quently required learners to explore the traditions and teachings of their own cul-

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tures. Would these efforts be enough to “fuse some horizons”in this manual, and

make it relevant for other cultural and educational situations?

In order to bring to the project the maximum possible exposure to other hori-

zons, the curriculum specialist arranged for two preliminary reviews of drafts of the

manual. In one a group of reviewers from multiple cultural backgrounds (e.g. Zim-

babwe, China, Tanzania, South Korea, native Canadian) gave the draft a “surface

review”and engaged in discussions on the content and format. The second review

took place in ﬁve classrooms on ﬁve continents (25 classrooms in total): in China,

in Brazil, in Australia, in South Africa and in England. Each classroom teacher

completed a detailed curriculum and classroom practice questionnaire; question-

naires were collected and compiled by the classroom trial coordinator in each coun-

try. These classroom trials provided the understandings with respect to shared

values and cultural difference that were later applied in Teaching Values: An Olym-

pic Education Toolkit, the global Olympic values education manual of the IOC.

Understandings

In addressing the concerns about the “colonialist”practice of exporting educational

and cultural programmes based on Western values and Western cultural practices to

cultures with different worldviews, the concept of “transnational spaces,”explored

by Noel Gough (2000) was helpful. Gough argues for a conception of “transnational

spaces”where universals could be “performed,”that is worked out, worked through,

adapted and re-invented within the context of local knowledge traditions. In the class-

room trials of Be a Champion in Life teachers appeared to create “transnational”

spaces as they selected and re-worked learning activities from within the various

themes, integrating these with local curriculum expectations and community tradi-

tions. Teachers who led the classroom trials in the different regions seemed to con-

nect Olympic values such as fair play and respect for others with ethical concepts

from their own cultural traditions. For example, the South African group, working in

the Xhosa culture of the Western Cape connected the project to their curriculum

strand called “Life Orientation”and reported that Olympism captures the essence of

the sub-Saharan concept of UBUNTU. “The essence of UBUNTU is contained in

aspects of respect, recognition, concern, compassion, forgiveness, empathy, under-

standing, cordiality, sincerity and generosity. It reﬂects a deep-rooted African maxim

that a person can be a person only through other persons”(from the comments of the

South African classroom trial coordinator). Olympic educators in China connected

the Chinese concept of 和(hé) 合(hé) with the Olympic values. The ﬁrst hé character

represents harmoniousness, peacefulness, gentleness, kindness; the second character

represents wholeness, integration, harmonization, reconciliation.

However, some activities based on Western concepts of the “self,”and Western

pedagogy related to individual development, goal-setting and self-development in

the theme titled “In Pursuit of Excellence”seemed to conﬂict with cultural tradi-

tions in Asia and Africa which emphasize community, unity and solidarity. It was

an insight to come to an understanding that for people from a Buddhist or Hindu

tradition, the “self”is an illusion, a concept to be suppressed rather than stimulated.

In Chinese traditional pedagogy, humility is valued above self-conﬁdence. Similarly,

in South Africa, teachers were more interested in promoting the individual’s respon-

sibility to the community than in exploring an individual student’s goals and

dreams. Although pursuit of personal excellence in a sporting endeavour seemed to

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be an accepted goal for most educators in the classroom trials, there was tension

between the conﬂicting worldviews with respect to the concept of the “self.”Non-

Euro-American teachers seemed to be uncomfortable with activities that focused

students on self-awareness and self-development. This tension is most evident in

faith-based traditions, and is a topic that requires further exploration. The following

understandings evolved based on these classroom trials.

•Learning activities based on the Olympic values seemed to have relevance in

classrooms in different cultural contexts.

•Learning activities based on the principles of active learning seemed to con-

tribute to improved attitudes and behaviour on the playgrounds and in school

classrooms.

•Activities that explored emotions and attitudes, stimulated the imagination,

and emphasized caring and compassionate behaviours were highlighted as

favourites by teachers.

•The most used activities seemed to be in the “fair play”and “respect for oth-

ers”themes.

•Sport, physical activity and physical education concepts and learning activities

need expansion and appropriate articulation in Olympic education materials.

Perhaps the concept of “physical literacy”(Whitehead 2001) and its focus on

developmentally appropriate skills and games offers an improved theoretical

orientation for the physical activity themes of an Olympic education

initiative.

Critique

Be a Champion in Life was symbolically launched at the foot of Mount Olympus.

The president of FOSE, a Greek patriarch of the old school, did not want to publish

the books for sale. Instead, his orama was that the United Nations would require

every teacher in the world to use them. So, although the International Steering

Committee, including a representative from UNESCO and the Greek Ministry of

Education, had formulated a workable plan for distribution and promotion, the plan

was never implemented and the remainder of the one thousand books that were

printed languish in their boxes somewhere in Athens. The project unfortunately

conﬁrmed the reality that without a distribution and promotion plan, the develop-

ment of any supplementary educational resource is probably a waste of time and

money. Unfortunately, neither the International Steering Committee nor the

curriculum specialist was able to convince the president of FOSE of some of these

realities.

The Australian and UK classroom trial coordinators highlighted another concern.

The manual lacks learning activities that present issues in sport and the Olympic

Movement, and that encourage young people to be critical thinkers, problem solvers

and reformers. These are important learning outcomes in most Western nations.

However, neither the Greek collaborators on the International Steering Committee,

nor the classroom trial coordinators in some countries, e.g. China, were comfortable

encouraging young people to question the perceived authority of their Olympic and

sport heritage, or the activities (past or present) of those in the Olympic Movement.

This leaves a project such as Be a Champion in Life open to the criticism of schol-

ars in critical pedagogy who suggest that Olympic education initiatives, like other

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aspects of the Olympic Movement, are “characterized by rationalization and ideali-

zation,”and are therefore unable to acknowledge that “reality is constantly chang-

ing, knowledge is a social construct and knowledge has social consequences”

(Cazoria, Minguet, and Fernandez 2011, 355). The challenge for international cur-

riculum developers, similar to the challenges of international diplomacy, is to be

aware that creating a “fusion of horizons”sometimes requires a conversation

between ideals and realities, and that curriculum development and its applications

are always carried out within political contexts.

Teaching Values: An Olympic Education Toolkit, 2007, IOC

Description of the project

Teaching Values: An Olympic Education Toolkit is the resource manual of the

Olympic Values Education Programme (OVEP) of the IOC. Its original purpose

was to provide an Olympic education resource for developing nations who do not

have the funding or human resources to develop their own Olympic education mate-

rials. It is based on the same theoretical foundation and organizational strategy as

Be a Champion in Life, but features many of the IOC trade-marked and copyrighted

Olympic materials in its activities that were not available for use in previous

projects. It also makes extensive use of photographs from the archives of the IOC.

It is made available at no charge for OVEP workshops upon request to the IOC,

and is also available online.

Scenario

Since every discussion of an Olympic education initiative begins with an exploration

of Olympic values, this was also the main topic of discussion among invited special-

ists and IOC department representatives during a 2005 meeting in Lausanne to discuss

the concept of a new Olympic education project. Participants agreed on ﬁve values of

Olympism to be highlighted in the proposed new resource: joy of effort, fair play,

respect for others, pursuit of excellence and balance between body, will and mind. In

the OVEP toolkit these values are referred to as the “educational values of Olympism”

highlighting their focus on learning processes rather than on ﬁnal outcomes.

Rationale

The IOC website includes the following rationale for the OVEP programme.

As one element of the IOC’s global youth strategy, OVEP was intended to be a tool

to maintain young people’s interest in sport, encourage them to participate in sport,

and to practise the Olympic values.

Target audience

Originally the target audience for the OVEP was children aged eight to 12. However,

stakeholders seemed to want older as well as younger children involved in the OVEP,

and speciﬁed ages eight to 18 years as the target audience for the manual. For the cur-

riculum specialist this change created major curriculum development challenges. Ele-

mentary school students usually have one teacher for all subject areas; these teachers

often have ﬂexibility to use supplementary materials, and are usually skilled at inte-

grating motivational learning activities with their various subject area curricula. Fur-

Educational Review 295

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thermore, elementary school curricula and culture often puts an emphasis on develop-

ing positive values. Secondary school teachers, however, usually have a focus on sub-

ject-area content, and an eye on examinations; students move from one teacher to

another, and supplementary materials do not easily cross subject area boundaries.

Teaching positive values is rarely acknowledged as a teaching priority within a subject

area. Furthermore, few models were available to offer suggestions for developing val-

ues education material for integration into secondary level curricula.

Questions

•What “shared values”should be the focus of the programme?

•What curriculum framework would best focus on teaching values while

integrating content and visuals from the rich collection of the IOC?

•How can one manual meet the needs of all of the proposed and different tar-

get audiences –school students eight to18 years of age and youth in sport

organizations?

Theoretical background

When the IOC stakeholders of the OVEP agreed to the title Teaching Values: An

Olympic Education Toolkit, the focus of the new IOC Olympic education initiative

was ﬁrmly placed on the theory and practice of “how”to teach the Olympic values.

Theoretically, therefore, the toolkit is also grounded in a lifeworld orientation to

Olympic values education. It “links the Olympic principles to children’s and young

people’s own social experience in sport to their experiences in other areas of their

lives”(Naul 2008, 119), and interprets the Olympic ideals as a motivation for indi-

vidual learning activities for all students in all aspects of their life, integrated with

personal participation in sport and physical activity. This approach is supported by

the understandings that evolved from the projects that have been discussed previ-

ously, and from current values education theory (Borba 2001; Denison and Avner

2011; Fox 1997; Kirk 2006; Lovat 2006). The Teaching Values toolkit includes the

following sections:

Section 1 –Introduction to Olympic Values Education

Section 2 –Celebrating the Values through Symbol and Ceremony

Section 3 –Sharing the Values through Sport and the Olympic Games

Section 4 –The Five Educational Values: Joy of Effort; Fair Play; Respect for Others;

Pursuit of Excellence; Balance between Body, Will and Mind

Section 5 –Implementation Tools

The toolkit was launched in 2007 at a workshop in Tanzania. The IOC is currently

offering educational workshops around the world in the pedagogy and practice of

teaching the Olympic values. An understanding of how these various nations repro-

duce Olympic values education for application in their own education and sport sys-

tems is beginning to emerge and could be a relevant topic for further research.

Already it is apparent that implementation of OVEP is most effective when oppor-

tunities are offered for teachers, sport ofﬁcials and youth group leaders to engage

with the toolkit materials and understand their pedagogical orientations. This

296 D.L. Binder

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observation reinforces similar insights regarding application that emerged from the

other projects discussed in this paper.

Critique

The OVEP toolkit has its problems. Since the teaching methodologies are implicit

within the structure and learning activities of the toolkit, individuals without train-

ing in current teaching methods, or who are only familiar with the explicit instruc-

tions of training manuals and curriculum guides ﬁnd its complexity difﬁcult. A

comprehensive curriculum revision with greater emphasis on activities for use in

community-based sport situations, and perhaps the provision of a “user’s manual”

would address these issues.

The lifeworld orientation of the OVEP toolkit is problematic for Olympic educa-

tion scholars who argue that Olympic education programmes should be centred on

sport and physical activity (Gessman 2002). In this regard, Naul (2008) notes that

the lifeworld orientation draws its inspiration from the more holistic focus of the

Olympic Charter rather than from the effort and eurythmy focus of de Coubertin

(Naul 2008, 123). He suggests that the lifeworld orientation “needs thematic and

contextual supplementation from the other three orientations [knowledge-oriented,

experiential and physical achievement through effort]”(p. 121). Countries such as

Germany and New Zealand (Culpan 2005), have physical education curricula which

comprehensively contextualize curriculum outcomes and activities related to devel-

oping values through sport and physical activity, integrate values ascribed to Olym-

pism, and could provide guidance in this regard. In other countries, however,

physical education is a marginal or non-existent component of school-based curric-

ula, or is focused on the development of skills in a limited number of mainly male-

dominated sports. A lifeworld curriculum orientation provides a more ﬂexible and

integrated context for implementation of an Olympic values education initiative,

drawing attention to the positive aspects of “joy of effort in sport and physical

activity”from the perspective of other subject areas or community projects. (See de

Coubertin (1918) on this topic in Muller 2000, p. 549.)

Some anecdotal evaluations from participants in OVEP workshops have been

extremely positive about the active-learning methodologies that have been demon-

strated. Stimulating the imagination can be a powerful motivator in OVEP teacher

and coaching workshops. In Singapore a man became very emotional about his role

as a torch bearer during a simulation of an opening ceremony. A school principal in

Trinidad and Tobago made the following remarks in a ﬁnal personal journal entry:

I can honestly tell you that I came here as probably your BIGGEST SKEPTIC (sic). I

am leaving here all eager to read the manual. I can’t imagine how excited and proud

pupils will be in a role play situation like this [referring to a simulation of an opening

ceremony] and I make a promise that I will do my best to encourage my fellow teach-

ers to change pupils perceptions about learning in the classroom.

Developing a pedagogical model for Olympic values education

In his discussion of “pedagogy, sport pedagogy and kinesiology,”Tinning (2008)

refers to the overlap in the academic literature between the use of the words “curric-

ulum”and “pedagogy.”He also notes that the term “pedagogy”is not frequently

used in the educational discourses of the UK, North America, Australia or New

Educational Review 297

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Zealand. Throughout this paper the terms curriculum theory and curriculum develop-

ment have been consistently used to refer to the processes of developing the theoreti-

cal orientation, conceptual design, content, and implementation/application strategies

for educational resources and programmes. Nevertheless, the concept of “pedagogy”

has an attraction; it could potentially weave together the threads of the many under-

standings that evolved during the 20 years of curriculum development in the ﬁeld of

Olympic education and provide a conceptual model for Olympic values education.

Naul (2008) made an initial effort at creating such a model using the four

approaches to Olympic education described in the introduction to this paper: the

knowledge-oriented approach, “that seeks to explain the Olympic idea by means of

its historical and educational legacy”(p. 118); the experience-oriented approach

“that employs encounters both inside and outside school and games, sport, art and

music (e.g., youth camps) to promote mutual respect”(p. 118); the physical

achievement-oriented approach that emphasizes physical achievement, fairness and

mutual respect developed during intensive striving for sporting excellence (p. 119);

and the lifeworld-oriented approach that “links the Olympic principles to children’s

and young people’s experiences in sport and in life”and focuses on values educa-

tion (p. 119). He suggests that the lifeworld orientation, supplemented with knowl-

edge, cultural and sporting experience and the sustained striving for physical

achievement offers a foundation for an “integrated didactic approach for Olympic

education”(p. 122).

The evolution of the insights described in this paper would support basic under-

standings leading to the development of a pedagogical model for Olympic values

education. Firstly, this writer agrees with Naul that a lifeworld approach, highlight-

ing values education (based on the Olympic Charter) integrated throughout the

school curricula, and supplemented with an emphasis on active and ongoing partici-

pation in sport and physical endeavours, cultural and sport-related experiences, and

knowledge of the Olympic Movement (including its history, traditions and contro-

versies), offers an initial grounding for a pedagogical model of Olympic values edu-

cation. Other basic understandings that could be featured in this model include:

curriculum differentiation as an organizing principle with the needs of the child at

the centre of the process; values education methodologies that highlight dialogue,

role modelling, conﬁrmation, practice, stimulating the imagination through creative

activities, paying attention to emotional responses and the ethic of care; and foreg-

rounding diversity (cultural, gender, ability) in as many ways as possible.

Conclusion

Curriculum development decisions within the context of Olympic values education

are complex. They are based on the assumption of a global set of shared values,

the so-called Olympic values. They involve ethical as well as cognitive content

choices that need to be responsive to cultural differences, religious traditions and

educational systems. These curriculum challenges highlight the need for curriculum

specialists and comprehensive ﬁeld-testing. Other “applications”of Olympic values

education that could be investigated for their insights with respect to curriculum

development include the Culture and Education Programme of the ﬁrst Youth

Olympic Games in Singapore in 2010, and the various initiatives of national Olym-

pic academies afﬁliated with the International Olympic Academy. The London 2012

Olympic Games Organizing Committee is featuring a comprehensive web-based

298 D.L. Binder

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educational programme titled “Get Set.”

A curriculum investigation of the way

that web-based curriculum resources are developed, applied and contribute to under-

standings of pedagogy, curriculum implementation and Olympic values education

would be another valuable research initiative.

Today, every city that is bidding for an Olympic Games is required to outline its

plans for an Olympic education initiative. Theoretically these initiatives should be

based on the shared values of the Olympic Movement. The challenge for all who

believe that sport and physical activity provide a context for learning about life is

to evaluate the results, another topic for future research. De Coubertin seemed to

understand the importance of emotion and imagination as pedagogical tools. He

authorized and encouraged the development of many of the symbols, ceremonies,

music, pageantry and cultural aspects of the Games and of the Olympic Movement.

As MacAloon (1978) notes, these are the places where the values of the Olympic

Movement are enacted. And ever since the ﬁrst of the modern Olympic Games, the

world has been inspired every four years with emotional stories of athletic triumph

and disappointment. These stories act as models and as conﬁrmation for future gen-

erations of high achievers. Olympic values education has the potential to help edu-

cators and coaches help their students and their athletes to see the world in a

different way, see each other in a different way, change behaviours so that they act

in a different way, and come to understand and experience the joys of achievement

in physical endeavour (Figure 1). The legacy of Olympic education, particularly at

the elementary and middle school age level could serve as a “bridge”between the

striving for excellence by elite athletes and the reaching for dreams by a young

child jumping over a school bench. What greater legacy could there be?

Figure 1. “Do you know how I dream? If your answer is yes, congratulations. You are

playing the most fun sport in the world. In your dreams you can do everything. You can be

the stronger, the faster, and the higher, and even win an Olympic game. If your answer is

no, try it! It is great to dream.”(This picture was drawn by a child in Brazil and submitted

to the “VISA Olympics of the Imagination”children’s Olympic art exhibition. It was on

display during the Sydney 2000 Olympic Games.)

Educational Review 299

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Notes
1. Some of this material has appeared previously in unpublished conference proceedings
and presentations.
2. In Canada, education is a provincial responsibility; curriculum for schools is developed
through ministries of education in each province and territory.
3. International Olympic Committee, 2016 Candidature Procedure and Questionnaire, Part
2, Questionnaire, Theme 1: C, Education Q 2.7, p. 67. Online at http://www.olympic.
org/Documents/Reports/EN/en_report_1318.pdf.
4. The President of the Foundation of Olympic and Sport Education. 1996. Excerpt from a
speech celebrating the centennial of the Olympic Games. Athens: Unpublished speech, 6
April 1996.
5. The evolution of this project was explored in Binder (2001).
6. British Columbia Ministry of Education. Integrated Resource Packages.
7. A detailed description of the understandings that unfolded after an analysis of the results
of the classroom trials is available in two sources: Binder (2001), Binder (2002).
8. In 2007, the IOC created a new “values brand,”for the Olympic Movement, after the
completion of the OVEP toolkit. Three values were identiﬁed: Excellence, Respect,
Friendship. These values seem to resonate for the elite sport of the Olympic Movement.
They do not work as well for school-based educational materials for children. This is a
topic for further discussion.
9. International Olympic Committee. “Education through sport: OVEP—sport as a
school of life.”Online at http://www.olympic.org/education-through-sport/ovep-sport-as-
a-school-of-life. Accessed 5 January 2012.
10. London 2012. Get ready to celebrate. Online at http://www.london2012.com/get-
involved/. Accessed 5 January 2012/
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Dec 2021

Eulisis Smith Palacio

Cambios físicos, psicológicos y sociales se experimenta en la etapa adolescente, algunos de estos cambios se muestran en la búsqueda de la identidad personal y la autonomía, mayor intimidad con los pares, alejamiento del vínculo parental-familiar, y desarrollo tanto de la sexualidad como el desarrollo cognitivo. A todo lo anterior, hay que considerar que, el adolescente se encuentra en una etapa psicoevolutiva donde urge propiciar espacios para la Integración Social. Con el fin de dar respuesta a estos cambios, se crea la Sesión Dialógica de Educación Física (SDEF) que es una metodología didáctica que tiene como objetivo modificar comportamientos y actitudes en adolescentes en riesgo de exclusión social. Esta sesión se divide en cinco partes: (1.) Planteamiento de los objetivos de la sesión; (2.) Activación; (3.) Confrontación; (4.) Reflexión y Debate; (5.) Transferencia a otros ámbitos de la vida y la sociedad. Existe muy poca evidencia científica que aborde el tema de la Integración Social y la Educación Física, menos aún, si realizamos una búsqueda de la utilización de Sesiones Dialógica de Educación Física para la inclusión de menores en riesgo. Por tanto, se coloca este ámbito como un elemento de investigación de referencia, para facilitar la formación de la integración social en sectores vulnerables como son los adolescentes.

Exploring the Games' Intangible Legacy on Individuals: A Longitudinal Study of Teacher's Community

Article

Full-text available

Sep 2021
Soc Sci

Hosting the Olympics is subject to socio-educational outcomes, which can represent intangible and peripheral assets for host communities. The current study explores the Games’ intangible legacy on teachers’ attitudes at different points in time. Data were collected among teachers who attended the Rio 2016 Education Program at three different stages: 2016 (n = 611), 2017 (n = 451), and 2020 (n = 286). A longitudinal trend study was designed using multivariate analysis of variance MANOVA tests and latent growth modelling. Results show that the teachers’ perceptions of Olympic knowledge had a significant growth rate, while skills development and network/social exchange do not show significant changes over the time periods. Longitudinal findings suggest the continuity of the Olympic education programs as the basis for strengthening the Olympic intellect and social capital formation.

O Valor da Educação Olímpica: um Estudo Longitudinal do Programa Transforma Rio 2016

Article

Full-text available

Apr 2022

O Programa Transforma foi o Programa Oficial de Educação Olímpica e Paralímpica Rio 2016 com o objetivo de ensinar valores, promover ideais e contribuir para o desenvolvimento humano. O presente estudo examina seu legado educacional explorando o desenvolvimento de habilidades pessoais, a formação olímpica e a partilha de experiência entre os professores em diferentes momentos. Um estudo de tendência longitudinal foi desenhado e as relações entre as variáveis foram estimadas usando análise multivariada de testes de variância e modelos de crescimento latente. Os dados foram recolhidos entre professores que frequentaram o Programa Transforma em 3 fases distintas: 2016 (n = 611), 2017 (n = 451) e 2020 (n = 286). Os resultados mostram que as percepções dos professores sobre a formação olímpica tiveram uma taxa de crescimento significativa, enquanto o desenvolvimento de habilidades e as experiências não apresentam mudanças significativas ao longo dos períodos. Os resultados longitudinais sugerem a continuidade dos programas de educação olímpica como base para o fortalecimento do intelecto olímpico e da formação de capital social. Quando esses programas estão inseridos em práticas pedagógicas contínuas, a formação Olímpica pode ocorrer ao longo do tempo, levando a um legado educacional positivo.

A Practical Investigation of Olympic Education in Disaster-affected Tohoku Region: Analysis of High School Students’ Image of ‘Recovery Olympics’ and Current Issues

Article

Feb 2022

The 2020 Tokyo Olympics and Paralympics Games referred to as “Recovery Olympics” are supposed to encourage in recovery of the Tohoku regions affected by the 3.11 Great East Japan Earthquake. Tsukuba International Academy for Sport Studies established in 2015 as part of SPORT FOR TOMORROW initiative under Japan Sports Agency has since been holding Olympic education program every year at Rikuzentakata City, one of the disaster-affected areas. However, few studies have examined the contents of Olympic (or Paralympic) education in these areas. Therefore, this study shares knowledge through practice of Olympic education in a high school with an aim to suggest better practice in the area for its continuation post-2020. In 2019, an Olympic education class for 120 high school students was conducted followed by an open-ended questionnaire survey to the students. Questions consisted of: i) impressions of the class, ii) image of Tokyo 2020 Games, iii) current self-challenges and regional issues, and iv) how to use the Olympics. Text mining the obtained data revealed that respondents had a positive image of the Tokyo 2020 Games. Self-challenges and regional issues associated with reconstruction were clarified in answers to the survey, where some respondents revealed their future designs to contribute towards the development of local community. Some respondents also connected the class learning contents to providing solutions for local issues. Overall, the findings as discussed in this study were considered as useful knowledge for future practical Olympic education.

Toward a Theory of Olympic Internationalism

Article

Full-text available

Jan 1995
J Sport Hist

John Hoberman

Back in 1967, Dr. Wildor Hollmann, one of Germany's most prominent sports physicians and longtime president of the International Federation for Sports Medicine (FIMS), was visiting the International Olympic Academy at Olympia on the day of its annual inauguration, with King Constantine him-self in attendance. Naively assuming that the Academy was an open forum for thinking about the past, present, and future of the Olympic movement, Dr. Hollmann expressed the view that, in the not-too-distant future. the "Olympic idea" itself would inevitably fall victim to the logic of development inherent in the professionalization and commercialization of elite sport. The words were hardly out of his mouth before Dr. Hollmann was engulfed in a storm of indignation, during which an Italian member of the IOC declared that merely expressing such thoughts was in his view nothing less than a desecration of this holy site. 1 Olympic historiography has long been inseparable from the Movement's status as a redemptive and inspirational internationalism. Like so many read-ings of its founder, Pierre de Coubertin (1863-1937), historical interpreta-tions of the Olympic movement have generally taken the form of "either hagiographies or hagiolatries," and not least because the founder himself "proclaimed Olympism beyond ideology." 2 Historical treatments of the Movement since the launching of that provocative claim have thus had no 1. W[ildor] Hollmann, "Risikofaktoren in der Entwicklung des Hochleistungssports.

Tradition, modernity, and the construction of civic identity: The Calgary Olympics

Article

Jan 1996

The Relationship of Sport Involvement with Children's Moral Reasoning and Aggression Tendencies

Article

Dec 1986

The relationships between sport involvement variables (participation and interest) and facets of children's morality (reasoning maturity and aggression tendencies) were investigated for 106 girls and boys in grades 4 through 7. Children responded to a sport involvement questionnaire, participated in a moral interview, and completed two self-report instruments designed to assess aggression tendencies in sport-specific and daily life contexts. Analyses revealed that boys' participation and interest in high contact sports and girls' participation in medium contact sports (the highest level of contact sport experience they reported) were positively correlated with less mature moral reasoning and greater tendencies to aggress. Regression analyses demonstrated that sport interest predicted reasoning maturity and aggression tendencies better than sport participation. Results and implications are discussed from a structural developmental perspective.

Effectiveness of a Two-Year Health-Related Physical Education Intervention in Elementary Schools

Article

Jan 2007

The study aim was to evaluate the effectiveness of a 2-year health-related physical education intervention in a pretest-posttest design. Sixteen elementary schools (764 pupils, mean age: 11.2 ± 0.7) participated in the study. Schools were randomly assigned to the intervention condition (n = 8) and the control condition (n = 8). Making use of direct observation data gathered according to SOFIT (System for Observing Fitness Instruction Time), the moderate-to-vigorous physical activity engagement during physical education classes was significantly higher in the intervention condition than in the control condition. Children's moderate-to-vigorous physical activity engagement during physical education lessons increased with 14% in the intervention condition (from 42 to 56%). No significant effects were found on the accelerometer data. The health-related physical education intervention was found to be promising in promoting physical activity during physical education classes.

Divergence in Moral Reasoning about Sport and Everyday Life

Article

Dec 1984

The observation that sport represents a unique context has been widely discussed, but social scientists have done little to empirically examine the moral adaptations of sport participants. In the present study, the divergence between levels of moral reasoning used to discuss hypothetical dilemmas set in sport and in everyday life contexts was investigated among 120 high school and collegiate basketball players, swimmers, and nonathletes. Protocols were scored according to Haan’s interactional model of moral development. It was found that levels of moral reasoning used to discuss sport dilemmas were lower than levels characterizing reasoning about issues within an everyday life context. Findings were discussed in terms of the specific social and moral context of sport experience.

Athletic Aggression: An Issue of Contextual Morality

Article

Mar 1986

The designation of an act as aggressive involves an implicit or explicit moral judgment. Consequently, research on aggression must address the value issues involved. The present article suggests that Haan’s theory of interactional morality can be used to provide a framework for social scientific research into moral issues. Haan’s model, however, must be adapted to the unique context of sport. This study applies the concept of frame analysis as a procedure for clarifying the moral reasoning associated with athletic aggression. In contrast to similar acts in everyday life, moral ambiguity characterizes some sport acts intended to deliver minor noxious stimuli. The label of aggression must be used with caution when designating such acts.

In a Different Voice: Psychological Theory and Women's Development.

Article