A socially-critical curriculum for PETE: students’ perspectives on the approaches to social-justice education of one Brazilian programme

ABSTRACT

Brazil is the largest and most influential country in South America with a population of about 211 million. The reality is a country with a wide gap between rich and poor. Many of its issues of (in)equity are related to a complex mix of factors, such as its large population, ethnic and cultural diversity, class and income disparity, late slavery abolishment, unstable democracy and political governance. At a national level, the former Brazilian government attempted to address the challenges outlined above by passing new legislation in 2007 that expanded the services and scope of the federal universities, particularly in respect to increasing access to tertiary education and providing increased support and infrastructure for people of middle- and low-income families. In this paper we analyse a PETE programme offered at one university in the Brazilian Northeast in response to changes introduced as a result of the 2007 legislation. Drawing on the perspectives of graduates from this programme, we examine how they see the complexity of social justice and equity issues from their experience in the course. Data were generated through focus group and individual interviews with former students. We supplemented this with document analysis of key policy and curriculum artifacts produced by the programme, and consultation with professors from the course to better understand the former students’ experiential dynamics. Each participant expressed a strong affinity for and orientation towards social justice as an integral aspect of school physical education. The curricular restructuring enables students to engage with a broad range of content underpinned by ethical, political, aesthetic, epistemological, pedagogical and theoretical-methodological principles. We consider that this curricular orientation seeks to meet the regional and local needs so that future physical education teachers, in turn, intervene with a more critical socio-cultural perspective in their teaching.

KEYWORDS:

• Complexity thinking
• Paulo Freire
• criticality
• social justice education
• curriculum

Disclosure statement

No potential conflict of interest was reported by the author(s).

Notes

1 The human development index was created by the United Nations Organisation to emphasise that people and their capabilities should be the ultimate criteria for assessing the development of a country. Its use can stimulate debate about government policy priorities as it is a summary measure of average achievement in key dimensions of human development. However, the index likely fails to take into account factors such as inequality, poverty, and gender disparity.

2 According to the International Labour Organisation (a specialised agency of the United Nations), identifying a minimum wage helps protect workers against unduly low pay. Minimum wages can also be one element of a policy to overcome poverty and reduce inequality. In Brazil, it is adjusted annually by the federal government and its value is currently equivalent to $186.83 (dollars) or €168.15 (euros) per month. But many Brazilians earn even less than half of such amount.

3 Character created by the Argentinean cartoonist Quino (Joaquín Salvador Lavado, 1932–2020), well known in South America for political and social criticism.