Abstract

The overarching objective of this thesis was to study the relationship between children’s sport, resilience and the culture of peace to lay the groundwork for the values underpinning children’s sport as a model of education for peace and consequently the conceptualisation of children’s sport for peace. 

A systematic literature review was undertaken to identify, evaluate and integrate different studies on the research topic with a view to answering the objectives and hypotheses.

This provided the foundations for the model of children’s sport for peace, based on sportspersonship (fair play), the educational values of peace (culture of and education for peace), the cornerstones of child resilience and nonviolent communication in all its educational and athletic dimensions.

Children’s sport was reconceptualised as an activity that promotes competition as a learning value, unlike the demands to win in sport, which is virtually comparable to child labour.

One important contribution was the transposition of Children’s Rights created by Korczak (1929) into the field of children’s sport, most of which coincide with the rights of children who practise sport as postulated in the Children’s Rights in Sports Principles (United Nations, 1988), which involved a review and theoretical development from the historical creation of the current rights of children who practise sport.

The main conclusions of the thesis are that children’s sport fosters the development of their resilience through their continuously learning how to find alternative ways to overcome the adversities that arise in sports competition. Similarly, resilient children are capable of asserting their own rights as children, their right to play and the rights that protect people who do sport in the face of adult coercion which focuses on triumphalism as the only outcome of competition.

Finally, the practice of sport by children was seen to be a suitable way of fostering education in the culture of peace, education for peace, and ultimately the construction of the values of sport for peace.

In short, children’s sport, children’s resilience, the culture of peace and education for peace are an ensemble of concepts that promote the values of peace, offering a new conceptualisation represented by children’s sport for peace.