Curricular environmentalization in Physical Education programs in Brazilian Federal Universities

AbstractThe aim of the paper was to analyze evidences of curricular environmentalization in physical education programs in higher education settings in Brazil. Accordingly, the corpus of analysis was composed by guides of academic units that address environmental issues in physical education programs of Federal Universities in Brazil. The corpus was analyzed through Discursive Textual Analysis, methodology that comprises: a) disassembling of written texts ("unitarization"); b) establishing relations (categorization); c) capturing of an emerging novelty (original "metatext"). The "units of meaning" highlighted during the unitarization step were organized into predefined categories based on characteristics framed by the ACES Network for an environmentalized study. This benchmark was chosen due to its academic strength in front of the environmental field, presenting itself as a significant current social (con)text and bringing in its definitions results of historical clashes surrounding the emergency/legitimation of elements that constitute contemporary concepts about the "environment". Thus, it should be expected that at least the key concepts of each category were embraced by academic units that propose a dialogue between the environmental field and the field of physical education. However, the results of this research show a very different reality, putting in evidence sportive and recreational activities in nature as the almost exclusive focus of academic units that address environmental issues in physical education programs of Federal Universities in Brazil. Furthermore, the paper's conclusive arguments present significant evidences about the dimensions of environmental discourses that are being incorporated by physical education curricula in higher education settings, as well as new/"alternative" perspectives that emerge when the environmental and the physical education fields cross paths.