Introduction: Critical Emancipatory Approach in Physical Education
To begin to understand what the Critical Emancipatory approach to school physical education aims to achieve, we have separated two quotes from the main author of this approach, Elenor Kunz:
“Sport is now a highly valued cultural product all over the world, at least in the economic sense” (Kunz, 2001, p.23).
“the practice of sport must have the meaning of values and norms that ensure the right to practice sport” (Kunz, 2001, p.72).
What is the Critical Emancipatory Approach in Physical Education?
The Critical Emancipatory approach in school Physical Education is a didactic pedagogical proposal for Physical Education with a critical bias, which questions the alienating nature of Physical Education classes, based on the standardization of sports practices.
The approach proposes liberating students from a solely individualistic, competitive and authoritarian view of sport and games, transforming this view into one based on values and norms that ensure everyone has the right to participate.
Objectives of the Critical Emancipatory Approach in Physical Education
The Critical Emancipatory approach aims to teach through body movement activities, developing skills such as autonomy, social competence (social interaction) and objective competence (reading, interpreting and criticizing reality through language), with the main content of the pedagogical work of School Physical Education being Human Movement (movement culture).
Concepts of the Critical Emancipatory Approach in Physical Education
The Didactic Pedagogical Transformation of Sport
The Didactic Pedagogical Transformation of Sport of the critical emancipatory approach in Physical Education is a teaching of liberation from false illusions, false interests and desires, created and constructed in students from a world view, which is presented to them from certain closed and standardized ‘knowledge’ that is made available to the student by the socio-cultural context in which they live.
In the view put forward by the Critical Emancipatory approach, the student is being taught in a context full of illusions and contradictions that need to be deconstructed, as they cause alienation, oppression and limit a critical and emancipated view of social life.
See also – Renewed Health Approach
Work, interaction and language in the Critical Emancipatory approach
Teaching in the Critical Emancipatory approach in school Physical Education involves three aspects:
- Work = Objective competence: Students receive information and knowledge in order to experience sport in a broader way.
- Interaction = Social competence: Students should understand relationships in a broader social context, understanding the different social roles of individuals.
- Language = Communicative competence: Students should be taught to read, interpret and criticize reality in its relationship with sports, expressing themselves verbally or corporally.
The transcendence of limits in the Critical Emancipatory approach
- A direct way of transcending limits – the successful participation of the students must occur through the manipulative experience itself, in other words, through the student’s experience and discoveries in the sport.
- A learned way of transcending limits – the student’s learning must be clearly expressed by him or her, either through verbal language or through the language of (body) movements.
- Creative or inventive way of transcending limits – students must learn the importance of questioning and asking questions about their discoveries, about what they have learned and experienced in class, thus understanding the cultural significance of that practice.
See also – Physical Education Course Plan Template with BNCC
Critical Emancipatory Approach Methodology in Physical Education
The characteristics of the Critical Emancipatory approach in Physical Education involve some methodological strategies that can be used by the Physical Education teacher at school: discovery, role-playing or experience, problematization, expansion, collective reconstruction of knowledge.
Critical Emancipatory Approach in Physical Education Lesson Plan
Theme: Handball
Objective: To broaden the possibilities for participation and practice of Handball
Class methodology
Discovery: Students know the basic rules and skills for participating in a Handball game
Experience: The class will be divided into two teams. The aim is for the team in possession of the ball to exchange ten uninterrupted passes with each other in order to score a point.
Problematization: Most of the time not everyone touches the ball, what can be done to ensure that everyone can take part in the activity?
Collective Reconstruction: The students will draw up proposals so that the activity has norms and values that allow all the students to participate successfully.
Final considerations
The Critical Emancipatory approach in school physical education is one of the options that physical education teachers can use to escape the alienating model of competitive sport. The Critical Emancipatory approach aims to work on students’ autonomy with a methodology that values creativity and language without neglecting human movement through sports and games as the main content.
Check out Dicas Educação Física ‘s series of posts on pedagogical approaches to school physical education:
- Developmental Approach in Physical Education
- Constructivist Approach in Physical Education
- The Critical Approach in Physical Education
- Systemic Approach in Physical Education