Goodbye Renaissance man: globalized concepts of physical education and sport in Singapore

Abstract

This paper provides an analysis of physical education and sport as educational concepts that have informed Singaporean society in its journey from newly independent state to developed nation status. Their early development owes much to the influence of Loughborough University. The initial concepts had their foundation in the 1933 UK syllabus for Physical Education modified by broader trends in education experienced after the war years. The core concept was responsibility for personal development in all domains not only physical but also cognitive, affective, moral and social. An historical focus on discipline had been progressively replaced via the Swedish influence by one of the well-rounded physical development through a range of targeted exercises. This component was complemented by games, athletics and gymnastics, which offered opportunity for social development. Physical education was a broad education through the physical as opposed to the narrower education (or at worst, training) of the physical. The concepts of physical education found fertile soil in Singapore because of a fortuitous congruence between political and educational objectives of the 1960s, particularly the goal of a more cultivated citizenry. With present-day Singapore now absorbing the global commodification of body and sport, the match between these evolving concepts of health and sport and an engaged and active population may be proving less fortuitous than hoped for with the foundation of the College of Physical Education in 1986.