Tematizando a equidade de gênero na educação física escolar: uma experiência com círculos dialógicos

Abstract

This dissertation examines gender equity in school Physical Education through a pedagogical experience based on dialogical circles conducted with high school students at a public school in the state education system of Ceará, Brazil. The study is grounded in the understanding that girls’ unequal participation in school sports cannot be explained merely by individual preferences or differences in performance. Rather, it is produced within pedagogical, cultural, and institutional relations that shape speech, visibility, belonging, recognition, and access to the right to bodily learning. The research draws on discussions of gender, coeducation, curricular justice, intersectionality, and humanization, approaching Physical Education classes as spaces where inequalities are reproduced, but also critically questioned and transformed. The main objective is to analyze students’ engagement in debates on gender equity in Physical Education classes, in order to understand the extent to which dialogical circles foster critical reflection, the resignification of meanings, and commitment to transforming exclusionary practices. Methodologically, the study adopts a qualitative participatory approach, grounded in Freirean dialogicity. Data were produced through a diagnostic questionnaire, dialogical circles, field notes, portfolios, records of bodily practices, and audio recordings. Empirical material was analyzed through method triangulation. The findings show that restrictions on girls’ participation are associated with unequal occupation of space, boys’ centrality in games, fear of making mistakes, embarrassment about exposure, physical strength taken as a criterion of legitimacy, and the operation of gender norms and hegemonic masculinities that shape initiative, presence, and recognition. These inequalities are also expressed through interruptions in speech, symbolic disqualification, invisibilization of contributions, and difficulties in developing a sense of belonging within bodily practices. Throughout the intervention, dialogical circles, articulated with the analysis of news reports, the development of educational campaigns, the experimentation of collaborative practices, and the collective construction of rules, helped make conflicts explicit, name injustices, and challenge naturalized meanings in everyday school life. The study also found that the expansion of public speech and the critical examination of gender relations generated shifts in how students came to understand participation, respect, cooperation, and justice in Physical Education classes. These changes, however, did not occur in a linear way, as they were crossed by resistance, silencing, relational tensions, and institutional constraints. The dissertation concludes that dialogical circles, articulated with a curricular reorganization committed to equity, curricular justice, coeducation,and intersectionality, constitute a powerful pedagogical pathway for denaturalizing inequalities, expanding students’ critical consciousness, and strengthening fairer practices in school Physical Education.