Educating in spaces of refuge: pedagogical transformation through Situated Olympism

Background: In the context of increasing global displacement, physical education (PE) and sport-based educational initiatives increasingly operate in spaces marked by trauma and forced migration. Educational interventions for refugee children require pedagogical approaches that extend beyond curricular instruction and moral transmission. Olympic values – often framed as universal ethical principles – can be re-signified through situated, affective, and relational pedagogies in humanitarian contexts. These approaches recognise that values acquire meaning through lived experiences, shared vulnerability, and mutual recognition, rather than through top-down imposition.Purpose: This article examines how university facilitators re-signified Olympic values education through immersive, care-oriented practices during a community-based intervention in a refugee shelter in Nogales, Mexico. It asks: (1) how facilitators negotiated relational and affective pedagogy when working with children and adolescents through activities linked to physical education (PE) and Olympic values education; and (2) how peace, respect, and friendship were enacted as situated practices rather than universal moral constructs. We conceptualise this process as Situated Olympism, foregrounding context, affect, and epistemic humility in value-based pedagogy.Methods: Using constructivist grounded theory, qualitative data were collected from reflective questionnaires and two focus groups with 14 university facilitators. The intervention unfolded in three phases: diagnostic/contextualisation, collaborative co-design and facilitator training, and a seven-day immersive implementation in which facilitators lived and worked alongside refugee children and adolescents. Analysis involved iterative coding and constant comparison.Findings: Three themes emerged: (i) personal and professional transformation of facilitators through ethical responsibility and relational closeness; (ii) the development of affective and relational pedagogies that challenged instrumental and sport-centred instructional approaches; and (iii) the re-signification of Olympic values, not as abstract ideals but as embodied practices of care, listening, and coexistence, co-constructed in everyday interactions.Conclusion: The study contributes to critical sport pedagogy and Olympic education by showing that value-based work in spaces of refuge must be grounded in relational ethics, affective co-presence, and epistemic humility. This shifts emphasis from transmitting values to creating conditions for enacted practice.