Physical Education in Brazil: Historical Approaches and Modern Concepts
Physical Education in Schools
Physical education schools teach: gambling, gymnastics, dance, fights, and sports.
Historical Context and Emergence of New Conceptions (Post-1980)
The introduction of physical education in Brazil occurred in 1851 with the reform of Couto Ferraz. Despite its early introduction, physical education suffered prejudice from the start.
Hygienic Militarism
The focus during this period was on hygienism, emphasizing hygiene and health. It valued physical and moral development through exercise. The military objectives of physical education were linked to forming a generation capable of combat and war.
Sportsmanship
This stage emphasized performance, the selection of the most skillful, and the end justifying the means in physical education procedures. School directors and teachers played centralized roles, focusing on mechanical repetition of movements and sports.
Psychomotor Approach
This approach utilizes playful activities, fostering meaningful, spontaneous, and exploratory learning for children. It focuses on preschool children, highlighting their pre-history as a factor in adopting pedagogical strategies and planning.
Developmental Approach
The primary means of physical education in this approach was movement, originally directed towards children aged 4 to 14. It sought reasoning for school physical education within learning and development processes.
Interactionism-Constructivist Approach
This approach emphasizes the construction of knowledge through the interaction of the subject with the world, respecting the student’s cultural universe.
Supercritical Approach
Physical education is understood as a discipline related to body culture, seeking in-depth understanding and teaching.
Critical Emancipatory Approach
This approach stresses the need to target education in deconstructing negative images that students internalize from authoritarian and domesticated practices.
Renewed Health
This approach seeks to raise awareness about the benefits of physical activity for health-related physical fitness. It aims to inform, change attitudes, and promote the systematic practice of exercises.
Systemic Approach
This approach views the human being as an open system that interacts with and influences society.
What Physical Education Can Mean
Physical education can mean three things:
- An area of scientific research.
- A regulated profession in higher education teaching.
- A component of the curriculum in basic education schools.
Human Kinetics
This field studies the intercultural and biological relationships in human motion, proposing a new name for physical education in schools: motor education.
Body Culture Movements
This area studies the contents historically proposed for physical education in Brazil, highlighting regional differences such as games, sports, and dances.
Sports Sciences
This field studies human movement, understanding it as part of sports activities. Derived and adapted sports are the focus in this area.
Physical Fitness
Related to health, physical fitness is a state of well-being contributing to a good quality of life.
Culture of Body Movement
This can characterize physical education as an area of pedagogical intervention, especially in basic education. It values the social issues that arise in the daily lives of students and teachers.
Design of Physical Education
Physical education is a pedagogical practice that deals with the culture of body movement.
The Search for Autonomy
In physical education, it is expected that students become autonomous in relation to body culture, maintaining a program of regular physical activity after classes. To promote autonomy, classes need to be different.