Apontamentos de estudantes de educação física sobre gênero e prática profissional

Abstract

The current study, at master's level, falls into the Research Knowledge and Educational Practices Line of the Post-Graduation Program in Education at the Federal University of Uberlandia (UFU). It proceeds from the assumption that thinking about higher education is to understand that it is not only as a locus for the construction of a profession. It is also required that, during the training period, students can discuss the cultural relations that permeate our society, among them, the relations between gender and professional practice. It is recognized that in the school context is essential to problematize the gender relations based on a social, cultural and political construction, having regard to the importance of deconstructing such male-female binary opposition that produces hierarchical and unequal relations between men and women. It has as purpose to problematize the notes of Physical Education students (Bachelor and Licentiate degree), from a Higher Education Institution in the Alto Paranaíba-MG region, about gender and professional performance, as well as to identify how they perceive such discussions during their initial training in the area. It was used as methodological procedures, questionnaire for characterization of the physical education students at a college in the interior of Minas Gerais. Moreover, it was conducted 2 focus groups with 5 participants each, to check the perception of such students in relation to: concept of gender; importance of discussing this theme in the initial training; gender interference in the professional performance. Both instruments, due to the COVID-19 pandemic, were applied remotely. As a result of the application of the questionnaire of the profile, it points up that the majority of students are white (50%), with the majority of participants belonging to the male gender (72.7%), single (72.7%), with monthly income of 1 to 3 salaries (95.5%), workers (68.2%), do not have student loans (68.2%) and those who do, most of them are benefited by FIES (57.1%). In relation to the results of the focus groups (1 and 2), it was noticed that, in general, the participants do not have a well-defined concept about the gender terminology propose by the literature in the area. Even not knowing how to name gender and avoiding this concept in their speeches, the students showed more interested in the discussions of the 03 focal points, and according to their report they felt impacted in the face of issues that are so relevant to their formation. The majority of the graduates stated that gender studies were not offered in the curriculum, but even so they were receptive and sensitive to the discussions, principally those regarding the inequalities of naturalized opportunities between men and women in Physical Education and in sport. In the face of such important aspects understood by the results of the research, we highlight that the debate is still superficial and scanty, when the debates about gender overcome the walls of schools and move forward into the gyms, sport, tatami, swimming pools and the fitness world. We conclude that it would be essential to amplify these studies on gender in the initial formation in Physical Education, placing emphasis on the plural and social aspects in the construction of identities, fundamental issues for future insertions of the graduate students in the world of work.