Reclaiming Physical Education in Higher Education Through Critical Pedagogy

Abstract

In this paper, the theoretical basis and practical alternatives of critical pedagogy are applied to graduate courses in physical education. An autobiographical sketch is used to illustrate how critical pedagogy tries to affirm the “personal” and bridge it to the “political.” The faulty paradigmatic assumptions on which physical education in higher education is based are then analyzed and deconstructed. These paradigmatic assumptions are important factors for the crises facing physical education and society at large. Finally, an example of implementing critical pedagogy in the university classroom is provided, relating how students and the instructor can (a) connect the content and the objectives of courses to the broader social issues, (b) scrutinize and try to eliminate conventional relations of power in the classroom, and (c) bring the personal and the political into the learning process.