Physical education as a scientific and pedagogical practice: reflections according to the philosophy of science

Abstract

The purpose of this essay is to contribute to the debate that is set into Brazilian Physical Education around its scientific and/or pedagogical status. Brazilian authors have referred to this subject, adopting some themes from the philosophy of science developed by A. CHALMERS, G. FOUREZ and J. ALVES-MAZZOTTI. The initial conclusion is that Physical Education is not a scientific discipline, but a field of knowledge and pedagogical intervention, which expresses projects socially and historically conditioned, which lead to the construction of the object of the scientific research, exercising and transforming itself constantly within the academic community. In the context of the scientific practice, the aim of science . to produce knowledge in the context of the physical and social worlds ≬ requires internal epistemological control, the scientific community's specific task. In the pedagogical practice, the project of Physical Education, which the author defines as a "critical appropriation of the culture of body movement", requires suitable methodologies of research, which respect the ethics-normative dimension, inherent to the pedagogical practice.