Body (s) and school physical education

Abstract

Choosing a narrative research approach has allowed me to build a partial but deep body of knowledge about what really happens in a primary education center in the city of Barcelona. Interacting from within my feminine, white, Latin American, Spanish-speaking body I have tried to understand the kind of subjects that can be molded by schools, focusing on corporal aspects. I have studied physical education classes from a social-constructivist point of view (Gergen, 1991; Burr, 1995; Giddens, 1995; Castells, 2000; Hernández, 2000, 1996, 2000, 2004, 2005; and Butler, 2003, 2006, 2007, among others) and a constructionist methodology (Guba & Lincoln, 1994), combining document analysis, interviews and ethnographic studies (Denzin, 1997). The results consist of an approximation to a thorough understanding of corporal aspects, keeping in mind social dynamics and current cultural factors, aiming to develop an epistemological approach towards physical education in schools. This study is an attempt to catch a glimpse of school as a space for socializing with others while negotiating soothing corporal practices, but also as a space to re-signify and rebuild meaningful knowledge that helps children live in adverse contexts. This study also depicts the current state of physical education as a pedagogical practice that is no longer concerned with creating useful corporal and motor knowledge for subjects in action. Sadly, this situation results in a net loss of its transformational potential, because it overlooks alternative projects created by singular subjects in the margins of the hegemonic pedagogic plan, which in turn obstructs the advancement of our educational discipline.