Teaching Values- An Olympic Education Toolkit - International ...

SECTION 4 THE FIVE EDUCATIONAL VALUES OF OLYMPISM
B: FAIR PLAY
FAIR PLAY IS A SPORTS CONCEPT, BUT IT IS APPLIED WORLDWIDE TODAY IN MANY DIFFERENT WAYS. LEARNING FAIR
PLAY BEHAVIOUR IN SPORT CAN LEAD TO THE DEVELOPMENT AND REINFORCEMENT OF FAIR PLAY BEHAVIOUR IN
THE COMMUNITY AND IN LIFE. FAIR PLAY IS NOT CAUGHT; IT HAS TO BE TAUGHT.
“FAIR PLAY IS A HUMAN RIGHTS ISSUE. IT IS THROUGH EDUCATION THAT EACH AND
EVERY ONE OF US… MAY ACQUIRE WIDER AWARENESS OF UNIVERSAL HUMAN RIGHTS”
(KOICHIRO MATSURA, DIRECTOR GENERAL OF UNESCO. HUMAN RIGHTS AND THE NEED TO KNOW. UNESCO, JANUARY 2001).
Traditionally, fair play was a
sports-related concept that
emphasised playing by the rules.
Referees and officials interpreted and
enforced the rules through penalties and
punishments. Today fair play has a
meaning beyond sport and beyond just
following the rules. This “spirit of fair play”
is hard to define, but is easy to identify
through specific types of fair play behaviour
(e.g. shaking hands at the end of the
game). The concept became so popular that
almost every country has developed an
equivalent in its own language. While fair
play was originally grounded in the value
systems of Euro-American culture, fair play
has received global recognition as a basic
principle of human rights.
Fair play does not happen automatically
when children and young people
participate in team or group activities. In
fact, research from many countries
supports the concern that some
competitive sports activities actually
contribute to unfair behaviour – cheating,
substance abuse and aggression. 4 Fair
play – in sport or in any other context –
has to be taught, and because it is an idea
that children seem to grasp readily,
teaching fair play is a useful concept in a
Below Athens 2004: A
fair play flag is
displayed before the
Group F match
between Germany and
Mexico during the
2004 Olympic football
tournament.
variety of educational contexts. 5
Children have a strong sense of what is
fair. Therefore, fair play can be taught in
primary classes as well as in higher age
groups. The activities that follow reflect
this wide range of application.
4 Bredemeier, B. J., Shields, David, L., Weiss, Maureen
R., Cooper, Bruce A.B. (1986). The relationship of sport
involvement with children’s moral reasoning and
aggression tendencies. Journal of Sport Psychology,
8(4), 304-318.
5 Bredemeier, B. J. & Shields, D. (1995). Character
development and physical activity. Champaign, IL:
Human Kinetics.
82 TEACHING VALUES