“Olympism” Revisited as Context for Global Education: Implications for Physical Education

Abstract

The modem Olympic Games, which in their current form originated in the 1890s as an educational reform movement, have become a “profound and deeply embedded component of our global culture” (Segrave & Chu, 1996a, p. 31) Challenges, paradoxes, and future possibilities of a revisioned Olympic education are explored in this article. The context for these reflections is an Olympic curriculum project based in Athens, Greece and focussed on the development and implementation of an international teacher's resource book for elementary schools. In this perticular project, negotiated through the complexities of contemporary curriculum theory. Olympic Eurocentric universal ist values, and cross-cultural diversity, a great deal was learned about whether the transnational phenomenon of the Olympic movement is an appropriate context for helping teachers throughout the world address global educational priorities. The preliminary conclusions have significant implications for physical education.