Youth and gender in school Physical Education

reflections from records within a situated context of teaching and learning

Abstract

This work presents reflections on the daily teaching of Physical Education at a Federal Institute in the State of Rio Grande do Sul, Southern Brazil. We have reviewed theoretical constructs by authors from the Sociology of Education, Sociology of Youth and School Physical Education. The objectives point to three guiding aspects of our analysis: to situate the ways of teaching of one Physical Education teacher, based on issues that involve youth and gender; describe how those issues underpin the teacher’s teaching; and explain the intersectionality in this process. We conducted a qualitative research with field diaries as methodological instrument – containing observation logs and records about the classes – and reports from the teacher. The results indicate that the debate about transsexuals in sport with young students can be important to break the prejudices that often support the discourses on this issue. We consider that there are engenderments, approximations and intersectionalities that imply the students’ participation and involvement, based on their knowledge related to gender issues in their youth, as well as their identity, social and epistemological relationships to knowledge developed in Physical Education.