As percepções discentes sobre a educação física na área de linguagens: uma análise a partir da formação inicial em licenciatura

Abstract

The insertion of Physical Education (PE) into the area of languages, as presented in national curricular documents, has generated debates concerning the understanding of school PE, its role in the school environment, and the knowledge that should guide its pedagogical practice. Although this insertion has been formalized in curricular documents and scientifically evidenced, its appropriation in initial teacher education occurs heterogeneously, shaped by different conceptions of PE constructed throughout the history of the field that compete for meanings surrounding school PE, society, and teacher education. In this sense, this research had the general objective of understanding undergraduate students’ perceptions of PE as part of the area of languages at the Faculty of Physical Education and Sports of the Federal University of Juiz de Fora (FAEFID/UFJF), considering the relationships established between these understandings and the curriculum that permeates teacher education throughout the undergraduate program. The specific objectives were to analyze how initial teacher education has addressed PE within the area of languages and the adequacy of this educational proposal to the undergraduate students’ educational trajectories. This is a qualitative, descriptive study conducted with 15 undergraduate students from FAEFID/UFJF enrolled from the fifth semester onward. The methodological approach involved a bibliographic review, document analysis, and semi-structured interviews, with the data analyzed through Bardin’s (1977) content analysis. The analyses showed that most undergraduate students recognize PE as part of the area of languages; however, this recognition is sometimes not accompanied by an in-depth understanding of what this inclusion represents for the curricular component, the school, and pedagogical practice. Distinct and diffuse understandings were identified, shaped by different conceptions of PE, some of which are distant from the critical and post-critical theories that underpin PE within the area of languages. We also identified that this perspective is addressed in a limited manner in initial teacher education, being restricted to a small group of courses, faculty members, and the Institutional Teaching Initiation Scholarship Program (PIBID). The curricular analysis also revealed a mismatch between the proposed teacher education program and the educational trajectory actually experienced by undergraduate students, marked by the overlapping of the bachelor’s degree, curricular fragmentation, and a significant presence of technical-instrumental components. In this process, the Basic Area of Entry (ABI) model appears as an element that intensifies this fragmentation and the marginalization of the teaching degree within the education offered by FAEFID/UFJF. On the other hand, the data revealed educational spaces and experiences that enable other understandings of school, teaching, and society. Among these spaces, PIBID occupied a significant place in the undergraduate students’ trajectories, enabling closer contact with educational reality, reflection on the school context, and the construction of teacher identities consistent with PE within the area of languages. We therefore infer that undergraduate students’ perceptions are produced through a continuous, contradictory, and nonlinear movement, shaped by disputes over power and diverse meanings, without a single and indepth understanding of school PE as part of the area of languages. We argue, therefore, that understanding PE as part of the area of languages cannot be limited to its presence in curricular documents; rather, this perspective needs to be meaningfully present in initial teacher education and appropriated by undergraduate students as a fundamental part of the construction of their future teacher identities.