‘I Would Never Personally Tell Anyone to Break the Rules, But You can Bend Them’: Teaching Moral Values Through Team Games

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Abstract
Team games have been seen as an effective vehicle for promoting socially desirable moral values. This paper explores the way in which moral values are taught through team games within the PE curriculum and extra‐curricular activities. The paper draws upon data from semi‐structured interviews and non‐participant observation of games lessons from three secondary schools in England. Evidencesuggests that although PE staff aim to promote moral values theysee this as a by‐product of their teaching of skill development When direct teaching strategies are employed in relation to the teaching of moral values teachers are unclear about to how to implement them effectively in order to achieve the desiredoutcomes. Furthermore, the data suggests conflicts and contradictions between the moral values pupils learn in games lessons and thosethey are taught during extra‐curricular activities and competitive inter‐school matches. In particular, during extra‐curricular activities teachers are more accepting, and insome cases teach, rule breaking and gamesmanship believing it tobe ’all part of the game.‘