THEMATIZATION OF ATHLETICS IN THE CULTURAL CURRICULUM OF PHYSICAL EDUCATION
athletics; culture; curriculum; physical Education; artistry.
The present study aimed to understand the bodily culture of athletics as a text that can be read, interpreted, and produced through language. Grounded in post-critical theories of the Cultural Curriculum of Physical Education, it expanded the ways of signifying athletics from a multicultural perspective. Thus, the research objective was to provide didactic situations that explore athletics within the framework of the cultural curriculum of Physical Education, fostering the formation of subjects with solidaristic identities. Discussions were mobilized regarding the role of schools and Physical Education in shaping bodily identities in postmodern times, as well as curricular theories in Physical Education and the didactic-methodological aspects of the Cultural Curriculum of Physical Education. The research was conducted at EMEF Joao Belo Alves, located in the rural area of Picui, Paraiba, with 41 students from 6th and 7th grade classes of the final years of elementary school, of both sexes, aged between 11 and 15 years. The methodology was based on a qualitative approach, specifically action research, aiming to transform the reality of teaching and learning. Data collection procedures included observation and field journals, and the analysis employed cultural discourse, placing the bodily culture of athletics at the center of discursive productions to analyze the relationship between knowledge and power within students' discourses. The research was submitted to the Research Ethics Committee (CEP) of the Federal University of Rio Grande do Norte (UFRN) and registered on the Brazil Platform under number 75841623.1.0000.5537, with approved opinion number 6.710.011 on March 19, 2024. As results, it was observed that addressing athletics through the cultural curriculum enabled a shift from a technical sports curriculum to a cultural curriculum. The didactic situations based on the cultural curriculum recognized students' discursive production, promoting a curriculum-writing or a curriculum artistry, producing knowledge that emerged distinctively in each lesson and for each group. Issues such as gender, race, sexual orientation, cultural aspects, social transformations, environmental sustainability, technology, disability, and technical and tactical aspects of athletics, among others, were problematized. Finally, the exploration of athletics from the perspective of the cultural curriculum sought to minimize the distance between students, placing all of them on an equal footing in accessing the knowledge produced during the process. This understanding allows Physical Education classes to become spaces for questioning the truths and hegemonies present in the discursive productions of the bodily culture of athletics, contributing to the formation of subjects with solidaristic identities toward any social markers emerging in the classes, such as gender, race, ethnicity, sexual orientation, and body standards, among others. Such issues, common in a multicultural, contemporary, and globalized school, reinforce the pursuit of a fairer and less unequal society.