Redefining the body through physical education at school, in face of the ideal body stereotype constructed in contemporary society

Abstract

This interpretative article presents a reflection on the role of school physical education in resignifying the body in the face of the stereotyped body created in contemporary times. It makes reference to the contributions from body researchers, especially Le Breton, and to ideas from sociologists such as Durkheim and Foucault and anthropologists such as Mauss. It also refl ects upon the body issue in physical education practices in which teacher and students both hold body resignifying possibilities through an awareness process that helps to overcome fragmentation and proposes interdisciplinarity as a key element. This refl ection demands that the reality of pedagogical practices be recognized in school physical education as a freeing social space, and not as a mere emulator of non-critical practices. KEYWORDS: body – contemporary times – resignification – media – School Physical Education.