A Educação Física no Currículo das Séries Iniciais: Um Espaço de Disputas e Conquistas.

Abstract

The objective of this research was to understand how Physical Education has been constituted as a curricular component, in the hierarchy of knowledges, in the curriculum of elementary grades of a municipal school of Pelotas, after the process of discussion and construction of its Political-Pedagogical Project, Study Plan and School Regiment. It was a qualitative research: data was collected through observation, document analysis and semi-structured interviews. The subjects were the beginning grades’ Physical Education teacher, the pedagogical coordinator and the school principal. In the theoretical field, it referred on studies of the history of curriculum and of Physical Education in schools, as well as on studies about the construction and implementation of curricular policies in different contexts and the respective processes of negotiation and dispute. Data analysis has showed that the way the curriculum is organized at the school researched is not neutral. It reproduces what is socially valid and legitimate. It has also showed that in that sphere the process of dispute in the construction and implementation of curricular policies is not fixed and closed, being, instead, involved in constant relations of power. In the practice of the subjects involved in the school quotidian, curricular definitions are recreated and reinterpreted. The participation of the Physical Education teacher in the school’s curricular discussions has granted a number of conquests, such as: schedule for extracurricular projects of dance, volleyball, soccer and handball; better organization and distribution of hours in the curriculum of the elementary grades; improvement in the conditions of space and structure for the practice of Phys Ed, obtained through the construction of two sports courts, dressing rooms, bathrooms and a dance room. This process makes evident that Physical Education, in that school, is being constituted as a curricular component with status enough to achieve its objectives. Compared to curricular components such as Philosophy, Spanish and Music, subjects which integrated the curriculum of the beginning grades in the school researched after the year 2000 and which, likewise, are taught by specialists, Physical Education, as data show, is more consolidated, occupying a position of more prominence and status.