Contributions of phenomenology to Brazilian school Physical Education: pathways to the communication field and the curricular area of languages

Abstract

This paper aims to present and discuss the contributions of phenomenology to Brazilian school Physical Education. It is a theoretical-narrative essay based on work and concepts from Maurice Merleau-Ponty and Elenor Kunz to think of their reverberations in literature and educational policies. We searched in the Brazilian literature for authors who explicitly assume a phenomenological posture in dealing with school Physical Education. The paper points to the German-descent Sich Bewegen theory as the origin of the critical-emancipatory approach. In a second moment, it addresses the contributions of phenomenology to education and, more specifically, to Physical Education as a curriculum component of Brazilian primary education. We notice that the main contribution of phenomenology to Brazilian Physical Education lies in understanding human movement as a dialogue between man and the world. Such an understanding enabled a review of the field’s identity and a re-orientation of school Physical Education in Brazil within curriculum policies, specifically in dialogue with the fields of languages and communication.