Epistemological tensions in Physical Education. The case of conceptual exclusion in the disciplinary standards for teacher training in Chile

Abstract

Epistemological tensions usually occur due to different interpretations of topics that are part of a disciplinary field, which would also occur in Physical Education. This would require broad dialogues that make tensions visible to generate a study and an epistemological positioning that can contribute to the discipline. The first objective of this essay is to understand some epistemological tensions around Physical Education. And, as a second objective, to analyze some conceptual exclusions in the disciplinary standards of Physical Education for initial teacher training in Chile. In the development, some examples of conceptual exclusions in Physical Education are presented. Subsequently, the philosophical discussion on the validity of the concepts that allude to the physical dimension of the human being is presented, where there are those in favor and against excluding them epistemologically. It continues with a comparison of the 2014 and 2021 guiding standards of the Physical Education Pedagogy careers in Chile, where it is highlighted that some terms have been excluded, such as physical activity. It is concluded that these exclusions are not consistent with the curricular bases of Physical Education and Health of the school environment. Neither are they consistent with the presence of these terms in the specialized language of the discipline at the national and international level. Therefore, it would be necessary to reflect on the representativeness of those curricular decisions regarding Higher Education. © Copyright: Federación Española de Asociaciones de Docentes de Educación Física (FEADEF)