Education of the body and educational policy: from superior formation to the school yard

Abstract

Physical education at schools and its relations with sports do not cease to be problematic. Several social, cultural and political interests involve or affect the theoretical-practical points of views and the programmatic approaches that are being deployed around this relationship. In this paper we review some key documents related to the physical education and school sports in Uruguay, generated in three areas: the first, from what has been known as «National Education Debate», processed during 2006; then, the project sent to the Parliament from the Executive Branch the same year in which the obligation of physical education in primary education is stablished and finally the Physical Education Higher Institute at the University of the Republic (ISEF-UdelaR) 2004 studies plan for the formation of graduates in Physical Education. The document is focused on the discursive forms in relation to the education of the body, thought out from a set more or less scattered, more or less fragmentary of actions with which the State, from different institutions, is present in an educational policy. Thus, the purpose of the article resides in generating some of the assumptions on the continuities and ruptures between the academic and professional training of skilled personnel and school physical education today, making focus in the notion of physical education.