Can Physical Education Foster Peace and Social Cohesion?

• In Event: Virtual Roundtable Session 2
  In Refereed Roundtable Session: Negotiating Belonging in Education: Identity, Power, Peace and Resistance

Proposal

Can physical education (PE) lead to establishment of peace and social cohesion in the long run? Or does a structured PE curriculum taught to school-going children ensure inculcation of fundamental life skills important for social cohesion and peace? The present study tries to understand this question in-depth. It is done through a combination of in-depth interviews, case-stories and two perception studies from 2300 government schools across 4 states in India where such a structured PE program has run up to 3 years.

The benefits of physical activities for physical and mental well-being of individuals have been well-documented through research across the world. The life skills which may get affected positively vary from- goal setting and planning (Goudas et al.; 2006, Bean, Kendellen & Forneris; 2016), to confidence and emotional regulation (Goudas et al.; 2006, Goudas & Giannoudis; 2008, Bean, Kendellen & Forneris; 2016), to social skills and interpersonal skills like respect (Kendellen & Forneris; 2016).

The existing research also shows some ties between these life skills like: social skills, confidence and conflict resolution; and long term social cohesion and peace (Eisenberg, 2010; Stringer et al., 2009; Davies, Tropp, Aron, Pettigrew and Wright, 2011; White et al. 2021).

The present study tries to understand this link through the 2 questions:
Does a structured PE program inculcate critical life skills in children?
Do these life skills help improve conditions for social cohesion and peace?

For the first question, a mixed-method approach has been taken. A series of FGDs with the different stakeholders revealed the indicators related to the life skills which are most commonly seen and understood from the fields. Based on these understandings, 2 separate perception surveys were done, where randomly selected students and principals from randomly selected schools participated.

For the second question, one case story of a juvenile rehabilitation centre has been analyzed in-depth. A juvenile correctional facility facing challenges with children’s behaviour invited the program implementers to have the program. We try to understand whether this improved the situation for the centre. Analysis of the case story has been done through in-depth one-on-one interviews with the key stakeholders as well as program implementers.

Physical education becomes a crucial driver for social change, because it needs a structured approach to extract the relevant and important learnings from physical activities (Petitpas, Cornelius, Van Raalte, and Jones; 2005). India currently lags behind many countries in terms of both physical activities (Bhawra et al., 2023; NCF-SE, 2022), as well as a consorted effort to establish physical education in schools (ASER, 2022, 2024; Prajapati et al., 2021). The challenges in this respect are manifold and multi-dimensional- from lack of teachers and infrastructure to safety concerns for children, and social norms. The recent policies in India have put a special focus on physical education and has called for an urgent action to the education administrators. The evidence showcasing the benefits- the immediate impact on individual health and mental well-being, and long run social benefit- will contribute towards strengthening the voice to establish a culture of PE in India.

Authors

• Kshitij Patil, Dani Sports Foundation

• Kingshuk Roy, Dani Sports Foundation