69ý

Curriculum

The World Cup as Teachable Moment? How One Teacher Approached It

By Stephen Sawchuk — November 22, 2022 3 min read
Josh Sargent of the United States controls the ball during the World Cup, group B soccer match between the United States and Wales, at the Ahmad Bin Ali Stadium in Doha, Qatar, Monday, Nov. 21, 2022.
  • Save to favorites
  • Print
Email Copy URL

The World Cup returned Sunday after a short hiatus caused partly by the COVID-19 pandemic. And as a big worldwide event, it’s also become a chance for some teachers to introduce complex themes of international politics.

Soccer is a national pastime in the rest of the world, and while it generally takes a backseat to other sports in the United States, it’s still popular among U.S. youth (and the most popular sport among both boys and girls in Maine and Vermont.)

Richmond, Va., teacher Elliot Barr—who’s also a superfan and podcaster and the —saw it as an opportunity to unite some of his biggest passions: soccer, social studies, and working with young people.

Barr teaches social studies at the Richmond Alternative School, which serves 16- to 19-year-olds. The school helps students who are nontraditional, some of whom have children or are working, with the aim of getting them to pass the GED high school equivalency exam. 69ý do a lot of reading and writing in their classes—often comparing and contrasting two texts on the same issue, something they’ll have to master in order to notch a good score on the exam.

So Barr thought: Why not explore the World Cup historically?

At the core of the lesson, Barr said, was this insight: International relations, controversy, and even propaganda are inscribed within the bounds of the competition.

Richmond, Va., teacher Elliot Barr used the World Cup to anchor a social studies lesson for students in his alternative school. He’s also an experienced podcaster who covers the local professional soccer club and the contribution of Black owners, players, and coaches to soccer.

“Even though these tournaments are great fun, they have a political element to them. We spoke about what’s going on in Qatar with migrant workers and with LGBTQ issues,” he said, referencing the country’s poor human-rights record and punitive laws for gay people.

“I want to use this event to showcase for my kids that it’s something to know about sports watching: Businessmen will buy these teams we love, and they might have shady practices going on.

“It is a fantastic event, it’s fun,” he continued. “But behind that backdrop, you , and a , and when you pull it apart holistically, there’s a lot of controversy there.”

Putting a lesson together

For the lesson, Barr researched online, pulling from resources and looking for interesting reading materials. He landed on two texts: one discussing how soccer made its way from Britain to South America and the details of the very first World Cup, in 1930; and a second focused on the 1934 competition, in which an ascendent Benito Mussolini used it to bolster his fascist program in Italy on an international stage.

Then, Barr had students respond to a series of questions, all while having them think a bit about what the texts reveal about how various countries constructed their national identity through the soccer championship.

For additional writing practice, Barr had students compare and contrast the shutdown of the World Cup in two time periods—first, because of World War II, and then, the more recent pause as a result of COVID-19.

69ý were also interested in learning more about the controversies that have come up around this year’s tournament, which have made national news for primary and secondary educators in the United Kingdom: Thousands of principals showed the games to students this week, even

Those topics are worth discussing in this country, too. On social media, researchers at the University of Massachusetts Amherst for teachers on how to think about several additional themes: advertising, press freedom, and human rights in Qatar; the cost of building soccer stadiums; and gendered media coverage.

The insight that the World Cup illuminates contemporary international political conflicts, Barr noted, isn’t even a particularly new one.

Russia’s hosting of the World Cup in 2018 brought howls of indignation, coming just four years after it annexed the Ukrainian region of Crimea—a precursor to its invasion this year of Ukraine. And in 1978, host country Argentina won in what remainstainted by allegations of match-fixing. (It happened just two years after a military junta took control over the country and continues to be analyzed as an attempt to influence international opinion.)

For Barr, who has loved soccer ever since his mom forbade him to play U.S.-style football—“You’re not going to get a concussion,” she said—it was also a chance to open up some of his students’ perspectives. Some of them thought the game was boring; others were entirely unfamiliar with the sport.

“It kind of opened their eyes and experiences,” he said. “A lot of them have never even seen or heard of soccer or knew that it was a popular sport. It kind of pulled them in.”

Related Tags:

Marina Whiteleather, Director of Social Media & Audience Engagement and Maya Riser-Kositsky, Librarian and Data Specialist contributed to this article.

Events

This content is provided by our sponsor. It is not written by and does not necessarily reflect the views of Education Week's editorial staff.
Sponsor
Artificial Intelligence Webinar
AI and Educational Leadership: Driving Innovation and Equity
Discover how to leverage AI to transform teaching, leadership, and administration. Network with experts and learn practical strategies.
Content provided by 
This content is provided by our sponsor. It is not written by and does not necessarily reflect the views of Education Week's editorial staff.
Sponsor
School Climate & Safety Webinar
Investing in Success: Leading a Culture of Safety and Support
Content provided by 
Assessment K-12 Essentials Forum Making Competency-Based Learning a Reality
Join this free virtual event to hear from educators and experts working to implement competency-based education.

EdWeek Top School Jobs

Teacher Jobs
Search over ten thousand teaching jobs nationwide — elementary, middle, high school and more.
Principal Jobs
Find hundreds of jobs for principals, assistant principals, and other school leadership roles.
Administrator Jobs
Over a thousand district-level jobs: superintendents, directors, more.
Support Staff Jobs
Search thousands of jobs, from paraprofessionals to counselors and more.

Read Next

Curriculum Opinion There’s a Better Way to Teach Digital Citizenship
Many popular resources for digital-citizenship education only focus on good online behavior. That’s a problem.
Alexandra Thrall & T. Philip Nichols
5 min read
digital citizenship computer phone 1271520062
solarseven/iStock/Getty
Curriculum Letter to the Editor Christian Nationalism vs. Spirituality in America’s 69ý
A retired teacher responds to the Oklahoma state schools superintendent's guidance on teaching the Bible in public schools in the state.
1 min read
Education Week opinion letters submissions
Gwen Keraval for Education Week
Curriculum How Oklahoma's Superintendent Wants 69ý to Teach the Bible
Oklahoma's state superintendent directed schools to teach the Bible and to place a copy in every classroom.
4 min read
A hand holding a magnifying glass hovers over a Bible opened to the Ten Commandments.
Marinela Malcheva/iStock/Getty
Curriculum Should the Bible Be Taught in Public 69ý?
Are recent pushes to include the Bible about cultural literacy—or a pretext for politicians who want Christianity in public schools?
10 min read
bible lying on a school desk with a lesson plan and calendar
tamaw/E+