Disrupting the rhetoric of the rings: a critique of olympic idealism in physical education

Abstract

The Beijing olympics prompted educationalists to develop new curriculum resources. These resources focus on the socio-cultural elements of the games, olympism and olympic values, the moral and ethical aspects of sport and select geographical, historical and social dimensions of traditional and contemporary Chinese culture. Typically produced as glossy brochures, such resources helped to disseminate olympic knowledge. However, analyses and evaluations of these resources are rare. Drawing on Showcase China—Beijing 2008, an online resource published by New Zealand's Ministry of Education and previous olympic education resources published in New Zealand, I encourage scholars to question the comfortable and comforting rhetoric in olympic educational resources that increasingly penetrate physical education curricula. In so doing, I offer an alternative perspective and strategies for teachers to deal with these resources in ways I believe will improve their work and help their students to better understand their worlds.

Keywords:

• Olympic education
• Olympic history
• Critical literacy

Acknowledgements

Foremost thanks to Douglas Booth, whose guidance, support, suggestions and encouragement have been invaluable throughout the writing and revisions. I would also like to thank the reviewers for their constructive feedback which has been extremely useful in crafting this final version.

Notes

1. In defence of using a lower case ‘o’ for the olympics, olympism and olympic movement I align with Booth's (2005, p. 222) argument that ‘the olympics do not warrant the veneration of a capital letter. The ancient games were held at Olympia, hence the use of the upper case as a recognised geographical name. Any resemblance that the modern sport pageant may have to the ancient version or to the place called Olympia is remote and allusional—hence the lower case “o”. Nor does the philosophy of olympism have a greater claim to a capital letter than liberalism, humanitarianism, authoritarianism, utopianism, or fascism’.