Gender issues in Physical Education classes, teacher education and Critical-Historical Pedagogy
RPGE – Revista on line de Política e Gestão Educacional, Araraquara, v. 27, n. esp. 1, e023015, 2023. e-ISSN: 1519-9029
DOI: https://doi.org/10.22633/rpge.v27iesp.1.17923 6
are related (GOELLNER, 2013; DAOLIO, 2014), are more exposed and in which the issues
related to the gender universe are made explicit through gestures, speeches and silencing.
Moreover, due to the influences of a view focused on biological aspects, often, even
today, the differences found were (are) transformed into inequalities, sometimes homogenizing,
sometimes segregating, leading some to be fitter than others, generating unequal stimuli
between boys and girls; naturalizing and normalizing the social constructions made about
women and men and generating sociocultural codes that reinforce that the male universe is
superior to the female (LOURO, 2003; DAOLIO, 2014; BOURDIEU, 2019).
Thus, a constant historical work carried out through the contribution of specific agents
such as the State, the school, the church, the family and other institutions, reinforces male
domination, acting on psychological, social and emotional factors, in an invisible and
insensitive way, creating an unconscious perception of the construction of identities and
differences, leaving the impression that what is symbolic (social construction), in fact it would
be a consequence of the biological aspects. Through this internalization, the dominated (who
do not have enough instrumentalization – critical incapacity – to act otherwise), reproduce the
current ideology, unconsciously reflecting it in their lifestyles and worldviews; aspects that can
be termed as symbolic violence (BOURDIEU, 2019).
In this sense, the Historical-Critical Pedagogy materializes with the analysis of social
practice and the understanding of gender issues, to advance beyond the superficiality of
biological difference, penetrating the scientific knowledge accumulated to reflect on reality,
going beyond common sense. Therefore, reducing the teaching performance to merely
biological aspects (in certain superficial cases) or arising from common sense, disregards the
historical subject and its social context, leading to an impoverishment of the vision about the
students, crystallizing ways of being, acting and thinking (NICOLINO; SILVA, 2013). In
addition, the construction of gender stereotypes is reflected in stigmatized body practices
(games/behaviors of boys and girls), which can lead to devaluation or overvaluation of these
practices and their practitioners, restricting the field of action of boys and girls, men and
women, causing embarrassment, discrimination, intolerance and violence (PRADO;
ALTMANN; RIBEIRO, 2016).
Thus, it is understood that bodies are assigned different meanings in different times and
contexts; socio-cultural constructions that can and should be confronted from the moment they
plaster behaviors and propagate inequalities that lead to social ills. Moreover, in being
constructions, they are susceptible to deconstruction or reconstruction, in the sense of