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SHAPE America’s new physical education program, introduced earlier this year, has laid the groundwork for multicultural education, enabling students to explore diverse physical activities practiced around the world. This initiative extends beyond simply diversifying sports; it prepares students for a globalized, multicultural world while developing their social, emotional, and intellectual dimensions.

Culture: A Pillar of Identity

Culture is an integral part of our lives. It shapes our identity, values, behaviors, and perspectives. Understanding one’s own culture fosters personal identity, self-esteem, and a sense of belonging.

In today’s interconnected world, it is essential to prepare students to communicate and collaborate with people from diverse cultures. To achieve this, it is recommended to expose children to a variety of cultural traditions and practices, encourage dialogue, and celebrate diversity. This broadens their horizons and challenges stereotypes. By setting an example, we can instill values of respect, empathy, and curiosity in young people, the adults of tomorrow. According to Banks (2019), multicultural education is not merely about learning about cultural differences; it is a powerful tool for promoting a fair and inclusive society.

Promoting Cultures in Physical Education

Physical education provides an ideal entry point for implementing multicultural education. By integrating physical activities or sports from other cultures, we offer students the opportunity to celebrate cultural diversity while developing motor and strategic learning.

Certain disciplines, such as dance, traditional games, and martial arts, lend themselves particularly well to a multicultural approach in physical education. These activities allow students to discover different cultures. Feel free to integrate them gradually into your teaching, at your own pace.

Through its Community, Lü offers innovative, turnkey activities that enable teachers to present their students with educational content featuring activities from other cultures. You can use the content shared by other passionate educators from over 35 countries worldwide or the activities created by the Lü education team to enrich your students’ learning experiences.

Like traditional sports, multicultural activities promote students’ motor development and foster interaction, but they also cultivate open-mindedness, curiosity, and appreciation for the world around them. They also allow students to experiment, to evolve based on the knowledge, perspectives, and references of groups other than their own, and to analyze their own culture through a different lens (Butt & Pahnos, 1995). In this way, young people can develop a global perspective and cultural sensitivity, essential skills for navigating an interconnected world.

Learning Beyond the Gym

Integrating multicultural physical activities goes beyond learning sports techniques or disciplines. It equips students with the tools to become global citizens who engage with people from all backgrounds while respecting their differences.

By celebrating diversity in physical education, we contribute not only to the motor, psychological, and cognitive development of young people but also to their flourishing as open-minded and empathetic individuals.


References
Banks, J. A. (2019). Cultural diversity and education: Foundations, curriculum, and teaching (6th ed.). Routledge.
Choi, W., & Chepyator-Thomson, R. (2011). Multiculturalism in teaching physical education: A review of U.S.-based literature. ICHPER-SD Journal of Research, 6(2), 14–20.
Experience Life. (n.d.). Fitness around the world. Life Time. Retrieved December 2, 2024, from https://experiencelife.lifetime.life/article/fitness-around-the-world/
Kidztivity. “Exploring Cultural Diversity Through Children’s Activities.” Accessed November 25, 2024. https://kidztivity.com/exploring-cultural-diversity-through-childrens-activities/.
Rio CJ and Saligan LN (2023) Understanding physical activity from a cultural-contextual lens. Front. Public Health 11:1223919. doi: 10.3389/fpubh.2023.1223919