{"id":112672,"date":"2018-06-11T12:02:00","date_gmt":"2018-06-11T11:02:00","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.transcend.org\/tms\/?p=112672"},"modified":"2018-06-09T21:09:47","modified_gmt":"2018-06-09T20:09:47","slug":"on-the-world-football-cup-and-education-for-a-culture-of-peace","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.transcend.org\/tms\/2018\/06\/on-the-world-football-cup-and-education-for-a-culture-of-peace\/","title":{"rendered":"On the World Football Cup and Education for a Culture of Peace"},"content":{"rendered":"
\"\"<\/a>

QRZ Now<\/p><\/div>\n

11 Jun 2018 – <\/em>School life can be seen as an imaginary \u201cfront-line\u201d crossed in multiple directions by diverse types of violence actually present in almost all societies.<\/p>\n

The violence of the socio-economic system,<\/em> with its continuous adjustments creates poverty and misery for a large number of the world\u2019s population.<\/p>\n

The violence in the political system,<\/em> exercised by governments that pretend to practice fair representation while civil society demands also accurate ethical conduct, transparency, full democratic participation, respect for minorities, and consensus decision making processes.<\/p>\n

Finally, the daily life violence<\/em> is present in private and public spaces and tends to be reproduced in all kind of activities including workplaces, business, sport fields, academia centers, education and community sites.<\/p>\n

In summary, the socio-economic situation that creates marginality and social class gaps injects into society different types of violence rooted in injustice, inequity and frustration. Even sport celebrations come to be – too often – violent nightmares instead of friendly spaces for enjoying good time.<\/p>\n

In the last years this has been happening widely in football matches and in many other sports. We need to approach sporting events from another angle.<\/em><\/p>\n

The Football World Cup should be a joyful celebration for adults, children, youngsters, and for the whole population at large. It is a worldwide festival in which people live affixed to TV matches, scores, results, bets, penalties, famous football players\u2019 names and infinite winning combinations.<\/p>\n

The Cup is the main subject of conversation in friendly talks with neighbors, family members and working partners. It becomes an open topic for dialogue; for defending different options and positions; for sharing sport passions and expectations; for lunching or dining with others and mainly for sharing free time in a jolly and collective way.<\/p>\n

It is a kind of celebration that facilitates meetings, open communication, exchange of different ideas and socialization through affective (and effective!) relationships. All of them valuable patterns applicable in a teaching-learning process. <\/em><\/p>\n

We have an extraordinary opportunity to make this celebration a new learning experience in the education field where the importance of living together, respect for \u201cothers,\u201d interculturality as a social strength and the sense of collective work toward shared social goals can be discussed as dimensions of an ethical and political \u201ccurriculum.\u201d<\/p>\n

Why not transform the World Cup into a democratic education space where football \u201cpopular knowledge,\u201d experiences, stories and practices can be approached as relevant teaching resources for a better understanding of the present world?<\/p>\n

Why not approaching the World Cup as a teaching tool giving us the chance to re-think diversity in our societies – which are usually learnt as a kind of construction over unique cultural, ethnic and geographical roots?<\/p>\n

We can develop studies of \u201cfar and exotic\u201d countries (how \u201cfar and exotic\u201d can they be, when their peoples are our next-door neighbors in the same streets of our multicultural cities?).We can suggest readings on unknown geographical sites; research on different ways of government and laws; arts, crafts and customs; religions and cults.<\/p>\n

We can also propose new themes on the past and present history of diverse regions; economic relationships; trade and business; common problems shared by many states and also suggest collective search for solutions.<\/p>\n

These topics might open possibilities for reflecting, exchanging and learning in an active process and\u00a0 . . . all these possibilities are certainly more creative than only \u201cwatching\u201d the international matches.<\/p>\n

The possible application of the World Cup as an educational resource in creating Culture(s) of Peace requires a reorientation of the traditional learning approach taken to such global sporting events where educators generally develop a mechanical recitation <\/em>of the countries listed in the Cup and a passive observation<\/em> of unknown countries lost on the maps – suddenly becoming well-known Big Ones due to favorable match outcomes.<\/p>\n

The football teams offer via their diversity and differences – and their multiple ways of life and visions – the possibility of rich dialogue and exchange, generating new lessons on political, religious and cultural pluralism. This dimension should enrich the learning process and become a fundamental pillar in the democratic and civic formation of children, youngsters and adults.<\/p>\n

The construction of these values; the defense and the recognition of the right for self-governance of nations; the right to peace as a human right; the respect for the international law; the learning of the collective and social efforts of human beings throughout history in order to be actors in social and political, transformation – all these themes<\/em> are part of the pedagogical proposal presented in this article.<\/em><\/strong><\/p>\n

It\u2019s time that countries decide to be \u201cgood football teams<\/em>\u201d where \u201ceach football player\u201d <\/em>contributes from its \u201cposition\u201d<\/em> to the urgent construction of \u201cscores and results\u201d<\/em> that support harmony, peace, non violence and international solidarity.<\/p>\n

These \u201cfootball teams,\u201d<\/em> when engaged in \u201cfair play\u201d<\/em> and mutual respect for each other create and model vital lessons of brotherhood and understanding- lessons that the world certainly needs today.<\/p>\n

Let\u2019s seize the educational opportunities the World Cup gives us as this global celebration comes to a start in a few days \u2026<\/em><\/strong><\/p><\/blockquote>\n

_____________________________________________<\/em><\/p>\n

\"\"<\/a><\/em>Prof. Alicia Cabezudo, Ph.D. is a member of <\/em>TRANSCEND International<\/a><\/em>, Vice President of the International Peace Bureau-Geneva, of Open University of Catalonia-Barcelona, School of Education University of Rosario-Argentina, former Vice President\/Conveyor of IPB Latin American Chapter, IPB Education\/Council of Europe\/UNESCO\/ Global Citizenship Education Team Consultant, and International Association of Peace Educators-AIEP. <\/em>acabezudo@unr.edu.ar\/<\/em><\/strong><\/a> – Alicia.cabezudo@ipb.org<\/em><\/strong><\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Why not transform the World Cup into a democratic education space where football \u201cpopular knowledge,\u201d experiences, stories and practices can be approached as relevant teaching resources for a better understanding of the present world? Why not approaching the World Cup as a teaching tool giving us the chance to re-think diversity in our societies – which are usually learnt as a kind of construction over unique cultural, ethnic and geographical roots? <\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":4,"featured_media":111889,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[40],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-112672","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-transcend-members"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.transcend.org\/tms\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/112672","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.transcend.org\/tms\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.transcend.org\/tms\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.transcend.org\/tms\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/4"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.transcend.org\/tms\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=112672"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.transcend.org\/tms\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/112672\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.transcend.org\/tms\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/111889"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.transcend.org\/tms\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=112672"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.transcend.org\/tms\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=112672"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.transcend.org\/tms\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=112672"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}