Meeting over beating: Pierre Parlebas’ alter-education of sport (1950–2022)

ABSTRACT

From the 1950s and onwards, Pierre Parlebas developed an original approach to education, which over time has spread beyond the borders of France. This study focuses on how Parlebas was led to develop the concept of an ‘alter-education of sport’ and analyses those concepts through the lens of contemporary democratic societies. It will show how his involvement in community life influenced his work, and how much he was committed to promulgating the role that physical education has in improving community living. In the wake of the May 1968 protest movement in France, his main focus became the criticism of competition in sports. He has systematically prioritised mutual support and cooperation over competition and has worked to spread this idea worldwide. His democratic worldview, with its specific focus upon young people and physical practices, condemns all forms of oppression and calls upon others to do so as well.

KEYWORDS:

• Democracy
• physical education
• sport
• new education
• cooperation

Acknowledgements

The author would like to express his gratitude to the Fédération des Maisons des Sciences de l’Homme de Bourgogne Franche-Comté, which gave the author its financial support for the publication of this research.

Disclosure statement

No potential conflict of interest was reported by the author(s).

Notes

¹ Blaise Desplechin-Lejeune, Jean Saint-Martin and Pierre-Alban Lebecq, ‘L’UNESCO, l’éducation physique et le sport: Genèse et évolution d’une éducation corporelle internationaliste (1952–1978)’, Stadion. International Journal of the History of Sport 34, no. 1 (2008): 132.

² Ministère de l’Éducation nationale, de l’Enseignement supérieur et de la recherche, ‘Programmes d’enseignement du cycle des apprentissages fondamentaux (cycle 2), du cycle de consolidation (cycle 3) et du cycle des approfondissements (cycle 4)’, Bulletin officiel spécial 11 (November 26, 2015): 46.

³ Ministère de l’Éducation nationale et de la Jeunesse, ‘Programme d’éducation physique et sportive du lycée général et technologique’, Bulletin officiel spécial 1 (January 22, 2019): 2.

⁴ Comité de rédaction, ‘UNESCO, première conférence des ministres du sport’, Éducation physique et sport 140 (1976): 75.

⁵ Blaise Desplechin-Lejeune, ‘Par le sport, pour le sport et dans le sport. La politique sportive de l’UNESCO depuis les années 1970’, in Histoire du sport et géopolitique, ed. Thierry Terret (Paris: L’Harmattan, 2011), 117.

⁶ Christina Uhlenbrock and Henk Erik Meier, ‘Defining an Organizational Role in a Contested Field: The Evolution of UNESCO’s Approach to Physical Education’, International Journal of the History of Sport 35, no. 11 (2018): 1130–48.

⁷ Guilhem Véziers, Une histoire syndicale de l’éducation physique (1880–2002). La force du militantisme (Paris: Syllepse, 2007), 279.

⁸ The Centres for Training chose holiday camps as a vehicle for introducing active methods into public education. Secularism, coeducation and social mixing are the three pillars of this ideology, which was conceived to respond to children’s needs: Geneviève Vannini, Les CEMÉA et leur action en Europe et en Afrique de 1937 à la fin du XX^e siècle. Une contribution originale à la diffusion de l’Éducation nouvelle (PhD thesis, Université de Paris, 2013); Geneviève Vannini, ‘Les CEMÉA et la formation des moniteurs de colonies de vacances (1937–1950): un moyen efficace de diffusion de l’Éducation nouvelle’, in Réformer l’école. L’apport de l’Éducation nouvelle (1930–1970), ed. Laurent Gutierrez, Laurent Besse and Antoine Prost (Grenoble: PUG, 2012), 287–96.

⁹ Jacques Gleyse, ‘Les méthodes actives (L’Éducation Nouvelle), en éducation physique et sportive. Le rôle décisif d’Ernest Loisel (1882–1943)’, Stadion. International Journal of the History of Sport 37, no. 1 (2011): 15–32.

¹⁰ Fabienne Serina-Karsky, ‘Repenser l’environnement scolaire pour accueillir l’enfant à l’école: l’exemple d’écoles nouvelles du XX^e siècle’, in Histoire des élèves en France, Volume 2: Ordres, désordres et engagements (XVI^e–XX^e siècles), ed. Jérôme Krop and Stéphane Lembré (Villeneuve d’Ascq: Presses universitaires du Septentrion, 2020), 39.

¹¹ The structural reforms of the French educational system led to the dissolution of the New Education movement. See Antoine Savoye, ‘L’Éducation nouvelle en France. De son irrésistible ascension à son impossible pérennisation (1944–1970)’, in L’éducation nouvelle, histoire, présence et devenir, ed. Annick Ohayon, Dominique Ottavi and Antoine Savoye (Bern: Peter Lang, 2004), 235–69.

¹² Although controversial in France, the science of motor action was relatively successful abroad. Several specialised research groups were created at the end of the twentieth century in Spain (‘Grupo de investigación en acción motriz’ at the University of Lleida, ‘Grupo de investigación de praxiología motriz, entrenamiento deportivo, didáctica de las actividades físicas y salud’ at the University of Gran Canaria, University of the Basque Country), in Latin America (‘Grupo de Estudos Praxiológicos Brasil’ at the University of Santa Maria) and to a lesser extent in North Africa (University of Chlef).

¹³ Christophe Prochasson, Les intellectuels, le socialisme et la guerre, 1900–1938 (Paris: Seuil, 1993), 17.

¹⁴ Paul Christesen, Sport and Democracy in the Ancient and Modern Worlds (New York: Cambridge University Press, 2012), 7.

¹⁵ Samuel Hayat, Démocratie (Paris: Anamosa, 2020), 71.

¹⁶ Pierre Parlebas, ‘Pour une alteréducation du sport’, Libération, August 25, 2003, 22.

¹⁷ Pierre Rosanvallon, La société des égaux (Paris: Seuil, 2011).

¹⁸ Lorna R. McLean and Jamilee Baroud, ‘Democracy Needs Education: Public Performance, Peace, and Pedagogy, Julia Grace Wales’, Paedagogica Historica 56, no. 4 (2020): 503–19; Cécile Ottogalli-Mazzacavallo and Loïc Szerdahelyi, ‘The Fight Against Gender Inequality in French PE in the Late Twentieth Century: The Career and Pedagogical Innovation of Annick Davisse (Regional Teaching Inspector for PE)’, International Journal of the History of Sport 35, no. 6 (2018): 606–22.

¹⁹ From 1959 to 2020, Pierre Parlebas wrote more than 250 articles, which appeared in professional journals, scientific journals, books, book chapters, academic works, etc.

²⁰ In France, until 1989, an ‘École normale’ was a teacher-training school.

²¹ Jean-Claude Richez and Léon Strauss, ‘Un temps nouveau pour les ouvriers: les congés payés (1930–1960)’, in L’avènement des loisirs. 1850–1960, ed. Alain Corbin (Paris: Aubier, 1995), 386.

²² An ethos is an ‘objective systematic set of provisions with an ethical dimension; it is a set of practical principles’ and Parlebas’ ethos caused him to immediately resist any form of domination. see Pierre Bourdieu, ‘Le marché linguistique’, in Questions de sociologie (Paris: Éditions de Minuit, 1980), 133.

²³ From 1945 to 1968, there were two graduate schools in two separate locations: one for men and one for women.

²⁴ Jean Saint-Martin and Benoît Caritey, ‘Le singulier pluriel des formations initiales’, in L’univers professionnel des enseignants d’éducation physique de 1940 à nos jours, ed. Michaël Attali (Paris: Vuibert, 2006), 18.

²⁵ Personal archives of Pierre Parlebas: Pierre Parlebas’ exercise book, third grade class, 1948–1949.

²⁶ Ludivine Bantigny, ‘La jeunesse, la guerre et l’histoire (1945–1962)’, in Jeunesse oblige. Histoire des jeunes en France XIX^e–XXI^e siècle, ed. Ludivine Bantigny and Ivan Jablonka (Paris: PUF, 2009), 166.

²⁷ Laurent Gutierrez and Antoine Savoye, ‘Sauver les jeunes générations de la faillite éducative: le combat de Madeleine Guéritte’, in Les acteurs de l’Éducation nouvelle au XX^e siècle, ed. Xavier Riondet, Rita Hofstetter and Henri-Louis Go (Grenoble: PUG, 2018), 43.

²⁸ Vanves Municipal Archives, File ‘Isabelle Parlebas’.

²⁹ Direction générale de l’éducation physique et sportive, Instructions relatives aux programmes d’éducation physique et sportive dans les écoles normales d’instituteurs et d’institutrices (Paris: Imprimerie nationale, 1947), 6.

³⁰ Sébastien Laffage-Cosnier and Christian Vivier, ‘The French Snow Class: How the Focus of a School Innovation Changed from Physical Education to Academic Learning (1953–1981)’, Society and Leisure 38, no. 3 (2015): 330–46.

³¹ This article was published a year later in L’Homme sain, a professional journal dedicated to doctors and physical education teachers.

³² Pierre Parlebas, ‘Éducation physique et éducation philosophique’, Asfidephi 2 (1959): 8.

³³ Ibid., 10.

³⁴ Tony Froissart, ‘La relation enseignant–élèves en EPS: processus éducatif subi ou agi? Fin XIX^e siècle à nos jours’, in L’éducation du corps à l’école: mouvements, normes et pédagogies, 1881–2011, ed. Cécile Ottogalli-Mazzacavallo and Philippe Liotard (Clapiers: AFRAPS, 2012), 40.

³⁵ Michaël Attali and Jean Saint-Martin, ‘The Mission of Scholastic Sport in the Expansion of Sport Practice in France: The Issues Involving Development and Collateral Effects (1938–1950)’, International Journal of the History of Sport 30, no. 9 (2013): 976–88; Michaël Attali and Jean Saint-Martin, ‘Le rôle de l’école dans la genèse d’une culture sportive de masse (1960–1970)’, Vingtième Siècle. Revue d’histoire 95, no. 3 (2007): 181–92.

³⁶ Private archives of Pierre Parlebas: typed document signed by students from three classes at the men’s ENSP ‘Psychopédagogie. Formulation de vœux des trois promotions’, June 1958.

³⁷ Parlebas, ‘Éducation physique et éducation philosophique’, 10–11.

³⁸ Véziers, Une histoire syndicale de l’éducation physique (1880-2002).

³⁹ Pierre Parlebas, interview by Willy Hugedet, January 19, 2018.

⁴⁰ Pierre Parlebas, ‘L’éducation physique en miettes’, Éducation physique et sport 85 (1967): 12.

⁴¹ Pierre Parlebas, interview by Willy Hugedet, November 9, 2019.

⁴² Claire Verheggen, interview by Willy Hugedet, April 24, 2020.

⁴³ Michèle Barral et al., ‘6 séances de sensibilisation’, Bulletin de liaison des ENSEPS 15 (1969): 28.

⁴⁴ Robert Connell, Masculinities (Sydney: Allen & Unwin, 1995).

⁴⁵ Jean-Luc Martin, La politique de l’éducation physique sous la V^e République. L’Élan gaullien (1958–1969) (Paris: PUF, 1999), 107.

⁴⁶ Équipe des professeurs d’EPS, ‘L’éducation physique au Lycée de Corbeil-Essonnes’, Éducation physique et sport 75 (1965): 26.

⁴⁷ Pierre Parlebas, ‘Pour une éducation physique structurale. Structures et conduites motrices’, Éducation physique et sport 93 (1968): 20.

⁴⁸ Pierre Parlebas, ‘L’éducation physique, une éducation des conduites de décision’, Éducation physique et sport 103 (1970): 28.

⁴⁹ Serge Berstein et al., ‘De Gaulle et les intellectuels: histoire d’un différend’, in De Gaulle et les élites, ed. Serge Berstein, Pierre Birnbaum and Jean-Pierre Rioux (Paris: La Découverte, 2008), 259.

⁵⁰ Liliane Mutel and Janine Ravel, ‘Psychologie du bizutage’, Bulletin de liaison des ENSEPS 10 (1966): 3–6.

⁵¹ Private archives of Pierre Parlebas: handwritten course preparation, ‘Le transfert’, ENSEP for women in Châtenay-Malabry, 1965–1966.

⁵² Monique Filliol, ‘Ski: le chasse-neige virage. But ou moyen?’, Bulletin de liaison des ENSEPS 11 (1967): 19–23.

⁵³ Joëlle Longerinas, ‘Réflexions sur les raisons d’être de l’examen probatoire’, Bulletin de liaison des ENSEPS 11 (1967): 5.

⁵⁴ Barral et al., ‘6 séances de sensibilisation’, 28.

⁵⁵ Departmental Archives of Val-de-Marne, File 4ETP 25: Typed document, ‘Proposals by the co-management commission’, May 28, 1968.

⁵⁶ Personal archives of Pierre Parlebas: typed report of the commission of inquiry, ENSEP young women of Châtenay-Malabry, May 21, 1969.

⁵⁷ Directive no. 69-536, June 5, 1969, Journal officiel de la République française, June 6, 1969.

⁵⁸ Patrick Eveno, Le journal Le Monde. Une histoire d’indépendance (Paris: Odile Jacob, 2001).

⁵⁹ Patrick Eveno, Histoire du journal ‘Le Monde’. 1944–2004 (Paris: Albin Michel, 2004).

⁶⁰ Pierre Parlebas, ‘Plaidoyer pour l’éducation physique. Une discipline enfin autonome?’, Le Monde, August 26, 1969, 11.

⁶¹ Gaston Meyer, ‘Essayez de comprendre’, L’Équipe, August 28, 1969.

⁶² Pierre Rosanvallon, ‘L’universalisme démocratique: histoire et problèmes’, Esprit 1 (2008): 115.

⁶³ Jean-Marie Brohm, ‘La Théorie critique du sport. De Partisans à Quel Corps?’, Staps 126, no. 4 (2019): 129–38.

⁶⁴ For a description of the structure of the holiday camps organised on the Atlantic coast, see: Pierre Parlebas, ‘Les centres de vacances’, in Le grand livre des parents, ed. Cornelia Quarti (Paris: Bordas, 1981), 146–53.

⁶⁵ Vanves Municipal Archives, File 2R 1.3: activity report of the Croix-de-Vie summer camp for the week of August 12 to 18, August 20, 1951.

⁶⁶ Pierre Parlebas, interview by Willy Hugedet, August 21, 2019.

⁶⁷ Departmental Archives of Val-de-Marne, File 512J 647: handwritten letter from Pierre Parlebas to André Schmitt, November 12, 1969.

⁶⁸ André Schmitt, ‘Le sport dans les centres de vacances’, Vers l’éducation nouvelle 234 (1969): 3–10.

⁶⁹ Departmental Archives of Val-de-Marne, File 512J 646: typewritten letter from André Schmitt to Gérard Guillemard, December 26, 1968.

⁷⁰ Gérard Guillemard, interview by Willy Hugedet, October 4, 2019.

⁷¹ In 1973, Vers l’éducation nouvelle had a print run of about 33,000 copies, and by the end of the 1970s it had reached 20,000 copies. Today, Pierre Parlebas is still a member of the editorial committee of the journal.

⁷² From 1969 onwards, Pierre Parlebas trained in mathematics applied to human sciences to develop analyses based on game theory and graph theory. He worked with academics such as Marc Barbut and Georges-Théodule Guilbaud from the Sorbonne. In the early 1970s, he also earned a university degree in linguistics in order to understand the communication phenomena at work in physical practices.

⁷³ André Boulogne, Gerard Guillemard, Jean-Claude Marchal and André Schmitt, Le boustrophédon, jeux de pleine nature, grands jeux (Paris: Scarabée, 1974).

⁷⁴ Departmental Archives of Val-de-Marne, File 512J 646: typewritten letter from Pierre Parlebas to André Schmitt, October 26, 1970.

⁷⁵ Pierre Parlebas, ‘Éducation physique, sociométrie et pédagogie’, Éducation physique et sport 108 (1971): 15.

⁷⁶ Parlebas, ‘L’éducation physique, une éducation des conduites de décision’, 26.

⁷⁷ Thierry Terret, ‘Éducation physique et sports de base’, in L’Éducation physique au XX^e siècle. Approches historique et culturelle, ed. Jacques Gleyse (Paris: Vigot, 1999), 127–38.

⁷⁸ Rosanvallon, La société des égaux, 108–223.

⁷⁹ Marcel Gauchet, La démocratie contre elle-même (Paris: Gallimard, 2002), 157.

⁸⁰ Rosanvallon, La société des égaux, 360.

⁸¹ Paul Ricœur, Soi-même comme un autre (Paris: Seuil, 1990), 211.

⁸² Pierre Parlebas, Contribution à un lexique commenté en science de l’action motrice (Paris: INSEP, 1981).

⁸³ Pierre Parlebas, ‘Psychologie sociale et théorie des jeux: étude de certains jeux sportifs’ (state thesis, Université de Paris 5, 1984).

⁸⁴ Pierre Parlebas was a strong advocate for the dissemination of motor praxeology on an international scale. He took on more and more responsibilities in the academic world. In 1987, he left INSEP for a position as a university professor in sociology at the Sorbonne (Paris). He was director of the UFR of Social Sciences from 1991 to 1996, dean of the Faculty of Humanities and Social Sciences until 2001, and a member of the National Committee of the National Centre for Scientific Research (CNRS) and the National Council of Universities (CNU). He was also director of the Laboratoire d’Étude des Méthodes et Techniques de l’Analyse Sociologique (LEMTAS) until his retirement in 2002.

⁸⁵ Departmental Archives of Val-de-Marne, File 512J 649: Pierre Parlebas, ‘Motricité ludique et modèles institutionnels’, Lettre de liaison du Groupe d’étude Vie physique et jeux 40 (September–October 1984).

⁸⁶ Departmental Archives of Val-de-Marne, File 512J 649: typed report of the meeting of Groupe de recherche Jeux et pratiques ludiques, October 20–21, 1984.

⁸⁷ Pierre Parlebas, Jeux sportifs. 24 jeux sans frontières (Paris: CEMÉA, 2001), 20.

⁸⁸ Gérard Guillemard et al., Aux quatre coins des jeux (Paris: Scarabée, 1984), 15.

⁸⁹ Pierre Parlebas, ‘Vers des jeux sans animateurs’, Vers l’éducation nouvelle 434 (1989): 13.

⁹⁰ Pierre Parlebas, ‘Les jeux paradoxaux’, Éducation physique et sport. Le Cahier 3 à 12 ans 343 (2010): 26.

⁹¹ Pierre Parlebas, ‘Jeu sportif, rêve et fantaisie’, Esprit 5 (1975): 795.

⁹² Michaël Attali and Yoan Grosset, ‘D’un modèle sexué à l’éducation de l’élève: les différences ont-elles disparu ? (1942–1979)’, in Sport et genre, Volume 3: Apprentissage du genre et institutions éducatives, ed. Jean Saint-Martin and Thierry Terret (Paris: L’Harmattan, 2005), 263–82.

⁹³ Pierre Parlebas, ‘Coopération et opposition dans les sports et jeux traditionnels’, Éducation physique et sport. Le Magazine 343 (2010): 35.

⁹⁴ A specificity of this game is that the players are not divided into teams. The ball is thrown, and when the ball touches or hits them, they sit down immediately. Seated players can get up again if they touch the ball as it passes by or when another player gives it to them: Pierre Parlebas, ‘Les universaux du jeu sportif collectif. Un exemple: la balle assise’, Éducation physique et sport 140 (1976): 15.

⁹⁵ Parlebas, ‘Les jeux paradoxaux’, 26.

⁹⁶ Pierre Parlebas, ‘L’éducation physique et sportive’, in Orientation et premier cycle, ed. Jean Delay (Paris: Bourrelier-Colin, 1973), 192.

⁹⁷ Departmental Archives of Val-de-Marne, File 512J 649: Pierre Parlebas, typed document, ‘Projet de recherche’, 1983.

⁹⁸ Pierre Parlebas, ‘La dissipation sportive’, Culture technique 13 (1985): 35.

⁹⁹ Pierre Parlebas, ‘Les danses et jeux traditionnels sont-ils d’actualité?’, Éducation physique et sport 1 105 (2001): 5.

¹⁰⁰ Pierre Parlebas, ‘L’affectivité, clef des conduites motrices’, Éducation physique et sport 102 (1970): 26.

¹⁰¹ Michaël Attali and Jean Saint-Martin, ‘Outdoor Physical Education in French Schools During the 20th Century’, Journal of Adventure Education & Outdoor Learning 17, no. 2 (2017): 148–60.

¹⁰² Ministère de l’Éducation Nationale, Collèges. Programmes et instructions (Paris: CNDP, 1985), 315.

¹⁰³ Arrêté du 18 juin 1996, Bulletin officiel de l’Éducation nationale 29, July 18, 1996.

¹⁰⁴ Ministère de l’Éducation nationale, ‘Programmes du collège. Programmes de l’enseignement d’éducation physique et sportive’, Bulletin officiel spécial 6 (August 28, 2008): 7.

¹⁰⁵ Ministère de l’Éducation nationale, ‘de l’Enseignement supérieur et de la recherche’, Bulletin officiel spécial 11 (November 26, 2015): 155.

¹⁰⁶ This is a well-known fact with regard to the programmes adopted in 1985, 1996 and 2008.

¹⁰⁷ Ministère de l’Éducation nationale, ‘de l’Enseignement supérieur et de la recherche’, Bulletin officiel spécial 11 (November 26, 2015): 161.

¹⁰⁸ Jean-Marc Lemonnier, Michaël Attali and Elodie Parisse, ‘Young People’s Disillusionment with French Education before 1968: Sport, the School Curriculum and Social Change’, Social History 41, no. 1 (2016): 54–71.

¹⁰⁹ François Dubet and Marie Duru-Bellat, L’école peut-elle sauver la démocratie? (Paris: Seuil, 2020).

¹¹⁰ After a period of steadily increasing prosperity and progress in France, the momentum slowed considerably as institutions were faced with new challenges such as the rise of individualism and the predominance of mass culture: Jean-François Sirinelli, Les vingt décisives, 1965–1985. Le passé proche de notre avenir (Paris: Fayard, 2007).

¹¹¹ Ludivine Bantigny, ‘Le principe d’Antigone. Pour une histoire de la désobéissance en démocratie’, Pouvoirs 155, no. 4 (2015): 17–28.

¹¹² Pierre Parlebas, interview by Willy Hugedet, October 10, 2018.

¹¹³ Parlebas, ‘Pour une alteréducation du sport’, 22.

Additional information

Notes on contributors

Willy Hugedet

Willy Hugedet is a physical education teacher and PhD in Sports History. He recently defended a thesis entitled ‘Pierre Parlebas’s Democratic Ideal Calls into Question the Bodily Education (1950–2020)’. His main interests within the history of physical education are innovation, New Education and the place of nature in physical exercise.