Images of the body: the Greek physical education curriculum since the Second World War

Abstract

Between the years 1950 and 1974 there was a conservative view regarding physical education (PE) and the perception of the body in Greek PE curricula. PE was seen as an ideological means of legitimising political dominance. Before the Athens Olympic games of 2004, educational authorities were assigned the duty of promoting the Olympic spirit in education, and a new PE and sports curriculum was developed. The main question of this paper is why PE was not perceived as an autonomous subject, but had to be related to the State’s major political and ideological agendas, in the context of both dictatorship and democracy. A Foucauldian perspective is adopted concerning perceptions of the body as an agent of power, and Bernstein’s framework will be used to analyse PE curricula.

Keywords:

• curriculum history
• educational reform
• ideology
• politics
• secondary education

Notes

¹The origin of the Latin phrase is the poet Juvenal: in his poem Satire X, he tried to answer the question as to what people should desire, and pray for, in life. The Greek phrase comes from the sixth century BC, and was used during the Olympic Games. Since then it has become a motto for the interconnection and relationship between the state of the body and the state of the mind, and in particular the balance between them.

²Thucydides, History of the Peloponnesian War (trans. by Koutalopoulos, Athens: Patakis Editions, 2012), 2.41.1: ‘and therefore, we claim the whole of the polis as school for Greece, since our polis throughout its activities stands as a model’.

³Thucydides 2.38.1–2, and 2.39.4.

⁴Daniel McLean and Amy Hurd, Kraus’ Recreation and Leisure in Modern Society (Ontario: Jones and Bartlett Publishers, 2012), 53.

⁵Plato, Republic (Athens: Kaktos Publications, 1992), 376 a–c, 403 d–e, 412 a. Plato in his Republic declared that physical education is as important as intellectual education, and physical education is needed to maintain the polis’s security, both external and internal. Plato himself mentioned the kinds of physical education that should be experienced by young people, according to their current and future social status.

⁶Vassil Girginov and Jim Parry, The Olympic Games Explained: A Student Guide to the Evolution of the Modern Olympic Games (Oxford: Routledge, 2005), vi.

⁷Michel Foucault, Surveiller et punir. Naissance de la prison (Athens: Kedros, Greek translation, 1979), 181–226; Graham Burchell, ‘Peculiar Interests: Civic Society and Governing ‘The System of Natural Liberty’, in The Foucault Effect: Studies in Governmentality, ed. Graham Burchell, Collin Gordon and Peter Miller (Chicago: University of Chicago Press, 1991), 119–50, esp. 120–1; Michel Foucault, Power/Knowledge: Selected Interviews and Other Writings, 1972–1977 (New York: Pantheon Books, 1980). The Foucauldian perspective, of course, focuses on the meaning of discipline exercised from the medieval period until the dawn of modernity (Foucault, Power/Knowledge, 39).

⁸Michel Foucault, The Foucault Reader, ed. Paul Rabinow (New York: Vintage Books, 2010); Mimi Orner, ‘School Marks: Education, Domination and Female Subjectivity’, in Foucault’s Challenge: Discourse, Knowledge and Power in Education, ed. Thomas Popkewitz and Marie Brennan (New York: Teachers College, 1998), 278–94. Although Foucault himself strongly suggests the virility of Athenian polis as a core element (The Foucault Reader, 346–7), it should not be forgotten that the ‘technology of the self’ was another core element of political life in the Athenian polis, since ‘the technologizing of the self happens in part through the stories we tell others and ourselves about who we are’ (Orner, 280) and as Thucydides (2.37–41) proclaimed these stories were the base upon which the Athenian polis was constructed (‘who are we’ is question of much more importance than the ‘we are not like them’ aphorism). Nevertheless, it should be admitted that the whole story of the Olympics (and of other Games), and in a broader sense of the physical activities and the prominence of the body, is a gendered one, since women were abolished into the ‘passive’ regime (along with slaves) (The Foucault Reader, 345).

⁹Adrian Niculcea, ‘Historical and Systematic Modern Observation concerning the “Filioque Addition”’, International Journal of Orthodox Theology 1, no. 2 (2010): 96–116; Alexander Vasilev, History of the Byzantine Empire: Vol. 1, 324–1453 (Madison: University Of Wisconsin Press, 1952), 238.

¹⁰Ioannis Markantonis, Παραδόσϵις στην ιστoρία της Παιδϵίας (Lectures on the History of Paedia) (Athens, 1981), 132.

¹¹Jeremiah Heath Russell, ‘Athens and Byzantium: Platonic Political Philosophy in Religious Empire’ (unpublished PhD thesis, Louisiana State University, 2010).

¹²Government Gazette 87/31-12-1836; Sifis Bouzakis, History of Modern Greek Education, 1821–1989 (Athens: Gutenberg, 1995), 40–44; Douglas Dakin, The Unification of Greece 1770–1923, Greek trans. A. Xanthopoulos (Athens: MIET, 1972), 108–16.

¹³Maria Karantaidou, P.E. in Greek Secondary Education (1862–1990) and the Institutions for P.E. Teachers’ Education (1882–1982) (Thessaloniki: Kyriakidis Bros, 2000); Chronis Lamprou, ‘P.E. Curricula of Primary and Secondary Education and Courses of Study for P.E. Teachers’ Education in P.E. and Sports Faculties (1983–2008)’ (unpublished PhD thesis, University of Athens/Greece, 2012), 73, 97. A fundamental distinction in terminology needs to be drawn here: due to the ideological perception of the direct succession of the modern Greek language from its ancient form, the terms ‘gymnastics’ and ‘physical education’ are traditionally used in Greek education as equal and identical, regardless of the differentiation of their meaning and content (especially in current literature of the field) (Karantaidou, 17). Since it is also mentioned that the ‘theory of the ancient Greek model was identical to English sporting system’ (Lamprou, 103), is not surprising the term ‘sports’ has been used in education simultaneously and alternatively to the terms PE and gymnastics. According to the 1975 Constitution Act and the 1976–1977 education reform law, the term ‘PE’ is preferred over the term ‘gymnastics’ to define the school subject, despite objections on the part of the Pedagogical Institute (the education authority). By the Act of 147/1976 (Government Gazette 56/1976) the (educational) PE Administration includes simultaneously PE projects and the school gymnastic activities. It is clear that the terminology around this school subject is highly disputable.

¹⁴Government Gazette 7/1871, Ministry of Education Directive 2147/8-4-1871 ‘On Military Exercises for Pupils’ and Government Gazette 139/1883.

¹⁵Law ΑΧΗ/1887. See more details on this issue in Dakin, The Unification of Greece; Nicos Mouzelis, Post-Marxist Alternatives, Greek trans. Basil Kapetangiannis (Athens: Themelio, 1992).

¹⁶Karantaidou, P.E. in Greek Secondary Education, 31.

¹⁷Bouzakis, History of Modern Greek Education, 133–50.

¹⁸For further details on this issue see Efthimios Kapantais et al., ‘First National Epidemiological Large-scale Survey on the Prevalence of Obesity in Greek Adults’, International Journal of Obesity 28 (2004): 72; George Koukoulis et al., ‘High Rates of Obesity Prevalence in Adults living in Central Greece: Data from the ARGOS Study’, Hormones 9, no. 3 (2010): 253–62; Ioannis Kyriazis et al., ‘Obesity Indicators in Pupils of Elementary Education in Urban Areas of Attiki Prefecture’, Archives of Hellenic Medicine 27, no. 6 (2010): 937–43.

¹⁹Foucault, Power/Knowledge, 100–2.

²⁰Foucault, Power/Knowledge, 39.

²¹Foucault, The Foucault Reader, 83.

²²Foucault, Power/Knowledge, 102.

²³The basic scheme was proposed by Marx and was excessively illustrated by Althusser’s structuralist perspective. See Luis Althusser, ‘Idéologie et appareils idéologiques d’État (notes pour une recherche)’, La Pensée 151 (1970): 3–38. For a critique on this methodological thesis see briefly: Foucault, Power/Knowledge, 78–108; Mouzelis, Post-Marxist Alternatives.

²⁴Althusser, Idéologie et appareils idéologiques d’État.

²⁵Althusser, ‘Idéologie et appareils idéologiques d’État’; Michael Apple, Cultural and Economic Reproduction in Education : Essays on Class, Ideology and the State (London: Routledge & Kegan Paul, 1982); Basil Bernstein, ‘Class and Pedagogies: Visible and Invisible’, in Power and Ideology in Education, ed. Jerome Karabel and Albert Henry Halsey (New York: Oxford University Press, 1977), 511–34; Basil Bernstein, Pedagogy, Symbolic Control and Identity: Theory, Research, Critique (London: Taylor & Francis, 1996); Samuel Bowles, ‘Unequal Education and Reproduction of the Social Division of Labor’, in Power and Ideology in Education, ed. Jerome Karabel and Albert Henry Halsey (New York: Oxford University Press, 1977), 137–53.

²⁶Basil Bernstein, Pedagogic codes and Social Control, ed. and trans. Joseph Solomon (Athens: Alexandria 1992); Bernstein, Pedagogy, Symbolic Control and Identity.

²⁷Althusser, ‘Idéologie et appareils idéologiques d’État’; Apple, Cultural and Economic Reproduction in Education; Bernstein, Pedagogy, Symbolic Control and Identity.

²⁸Nicos Mouzelis, Parliamentarism and Industrialization in Semi-peripheral States: Greece, Balkans, Latin America, Greek trans. Basil Kapetangiannis (Athens: Themelio, 1987).

²⁹These tools and their utilities are analysed extensively in Bernstein, Pedagogic Codes and Social Control; Bernstein, Pedagogy, Symbolic Control and Identity.

³⁰Ioannis Vrettos, ‘The Reliability and Legitimacy Problem in Decision Making during the Curriculum Formation’, Pedagogic Review 3 (1985): 115–34, esp. 117, 120; Panagiotis Xochelis, ‘The Curriculum Modernization Problem’, Philologist 23 (1981): 265–71; Nicos Terzis, ‘Viewpoints on Educational Reform’, Philologist 23 (1981): 272–81; Ioannis Vrettos and Andreas Kapsalis, Curriculum: Theory and Know-how for Planning and Reforming (Athens: Ellinika Grammata, 1990), 97, 168. Dimitrios Charalampus, ‘Educational Policy and Educational Reform in Post-war Greece (1950–1974)’ (unpublished PhD thesis, University of Thessaloniki/Greece, 1990), 119.

³¹George Flouris, ‘Disharmony between Educational Legislation, Curriculum, School Text-books and Teaching: An Aspect of Greek Educational Crisis’, in World Crisis in Education, ed. Ioannis Pyrgiotakis and Ioannis Kanakis (Athens: Gregory, 1999), 206–39.

³²Charalampos Noutsos, Curricula and Social Control (Athens: Themelio, 1988); Panagiotis Persians, School Knowledge in Secondary Education, 1823–1929 (Athens: Gregory, 2000); Dimitris Foteinos, History and Comparative History of the Greek Secondary Curricula, 1950–1977 (published PhD thesis, University of Patras/Greece, 2004);George Flouris, Curricula for a New Era in Education (Athens: Gregory, 2005).

³³The Greek education system is highly exercise-oriented. The common excuse pupils address to PE teachers goes more or less like this: ‘Come on, do you think it’s fair to get a low grade from you and not gain admission to university just because I’m lazy in sports?’. An overwhelming moral dilemma for PE teachers.

³⁴Andreas Tassinos, ‘Our Educational System is Unprepared to Accept the “Flexible Zone”’, Scientific Tribune 10 (2009). The ‘flexible zone’ is a time-zone of a quasi-school/class-based curriculum, which, however, was used – in the ‘real’ world of the school daily routine – for maths and language tutoring. These extra hours, offered by the State to schools, for innovation and interdisciplinary projects, were, finally, used for simple tutoring, abolishing any didactic and pedagogic benefits that could ensue from it).

³⁵Flouris, ‘Disharmony’.

³⁶ Olympic Paideia: From Theory to Practice (Athens: Ministry of Education and the Organizing committee of the ‘Athens 2004’ Olympic Games, 2001), 114.

³⁷Ibid., 113, 120–1.

³⁸ Press Bulletin of 7-02-2006 (Athens: Ministry of Education).

³⁹See also Flouris, ‘Disharmony’.

⁴⁰This is projected as an optional didactic tool, when no public school has – even today– a swimming pool, and even some of the middle-class/rank private schools do not have one either.

⁴¹Teaching of dances has an ideological perspective: it would be inappropriate for a Greek student not to be able to dance when it was needed. And this was basically the case for school exhibitions, during the closing-for-summer school ceremony, when students ought to perform dances, honouring the ancestors and their glorious past, the traditions that moulded the newly formed State’s identity. The legislative purpose is also served: the newly formed State is the unquestionable continuation of the ancient (and medieval) State. Therefore, the spirit of the past is vivid in the nation’s present. But if this is not an ideological usage of the PE curriculum, what else would be?

⁴²Government Gazette 347-1977.

⁴³Government Gazette 218-1969.

⁴⁴ Olympic Paedia, 13–23.

⁴⁵See Emile Durkheim, Division of Labor in Society , trans. L. Coser (New York: Free Press, 1984). As Durkheim noted, it is a clear example of ‘mechanical solidarity’.

⁴⁶Foucault, Surveiller et punir.

⁴⁷Bob Jessop, ‘From Micro-powers to Governmentality: Foucault’s Work on Statehood, State Formation, Statecraft and State Power’, Political Geography 26 (2007): 34–40.

⁴⁸ Olympic Paedia, 13; Flouris, ‘Disharmony’.

⁴⁹Foucault, Power/Knowledge, 102.