Educational legacies of mega-sport events for Africa

Abstract

Current anticolonial discourses in Africa frame a public agenda for positive social transformation underpinned by a human justice framework. Sociologists studying social and educational legacies associated with mega-events have been instrumental in a critical analysis thereof. This paper firstly examines multiple understandings of ‘legacy’, and secondly provides an overview of educational programmes of five consecutive Summer Olympic Games (2000 to 2016). The Agenda 2020 of the International Olympic Committee (IOC) is founded on the commitment to deliver on selected Sustainable Development Goals proposing a neo-colonial framework for educational practices and top-down development. Developing nations need to make informed decisions for optimally leveraging meaningful social transformation and educational practices associated with sport mega-events. Within South Africa, intersecting development and educational agendas from different levels of engagement (international to national and local) by stakeholders, form different configurations to allow space within physical education and school sport practices for sport mega-event educational legacy programmes.

Keywords: Educational legacy; Olympic Games; Olympism; Sport-for-development; Physical education.