‘Let them see a different path’: social attitudes towards sport, education and development in Sāmoa

Abstract

Drawing on ethnographic data collected over 12 months of field research, this paper contributes to the growing body of literature on sport for development (SFD) by giving voice to alternative constructions of the educative potential of SFD. It does this by exploring the social attitudes of youth, educators, community leaders and government officials in the Pacific island nation of Sāmoa towards sport, education and development. Imagining sport to be like ‘school outside’, my Samoan interlocutors construct sport as an educative platform that prepares young ‘academically unfit’ men to engage an increasingly global political economy in ways classroom education cannot. Viewing international sport as a form of ‘development education’, my interlocutors perceive the educative value of SFD as being rooted in the potential for sport to help move underperforming boys into transnational flows of remittances to the family. In this way, Samoans perceive sport as enabling ‘at risk’ youth to serve their families, to learn English and to become globally minded, ultimately equipping them with the skills needed to achieve transnational futures once beyond their reach. In allowing a grassroots understanding of SFD to emerge, the paper challenges the assumption that the institutions of sport and education are compatible, mutually reinforcing and complementary. Specifically, viewing sport as an alternative to schooling may serve to reintegrate underperforming young men back into an education-to-employment pipeline, but it also carries important implications for the de-skilling of youth and the perpetuation of their positions of marginality. The paper calls into question the role of education and sport in and for development, highlighting important questions that SFD stakeholders should consider.

Keywords:

• Sport for development
• Education
• Development
• Globalization
• Social attitudes
• Mobility
• Gender
• Samoa

Acknowledgements

I would like to acknowledge the educators, community leaders, government officials and youth in Sāmoa who shared with me their experiences, insights and time. I am also thankful for the two anonymous reviewers whose thoughtful comments and suggestions strengthened this manuscript. All shortcomings in this paper are, of course, my own.

Disclosure statement

No potential conflict of interest was reported by the author.

Notes

1. All names used are pseudonyms.

2. This estimate accounts for the Samoan-born diaspora (migrants) and does not include those Samoans born overseas or who have changed citizenship status. Population estimates were taken from the Australian Bureau of Statistics Census of Population and Housing 2011 (https://www.dss.gov.au/sites/default/files/documents/02_2014/samoa.pdf), the Statistics New Zealand 2013 Census (http://www.stats.govt.nz/Census/2013-census/profile-and-summary-reports/ethnic-profiles.aspx?request_value=2(4708&parent_id=24706&tabname=#24708) and the United States Census Bureau American Community Survey 2009 3-year estimates, Table S0201 (http://factfinder2.census.gov/faces/nav/jsf/pages/index.xhtml).

3. In 2011, remittances accounted for 22% (or US $139 million) of Samoa's GDP (World Bank, 2011).

4. However, a majority of successful professional Samoan athletes have been Samoans born and/or raised overseas, giving them access to training, resources, capital and opportunities that Samoans born and/or living in Sāmoa often do not have.

5. In 2014, the Rugby Academy Samoa was launched by former Manu Samoa captain Mahonri Schwalger to help develop young players in Sāmoa ‘so that they could get an opportunity for scholarships to overseas clubs and schools’ (Likou, 2014).

6. Here, I make the distinction that there is no formal ‘feeder’ system in Sāmoa in which student-athletes become professional athletes. I do not imply that the history of sport in Sāmoa has been untouched by missionary/colonial agendas of social control (cf. Gems, 2006) or contemporary educational agendas of positive youth development (cf. Holt, 2008).

7. According to the Annual International Migration Report, in 2011, approximately 615, or 1%, of 56,563 international departures by Samoan citizens were for sporting activities (430 males, 185 females) (Samoa Bureau of Statistics, 2012). Whether these activities were long-term or involved remitting money back to Sāmoa is uncertain.

Additional information

Funding

This work was supported by the University of Minnesota International Thesis Research Grant and a University of Minnesota Doctoral Dissertation Fellowship.