EPISTEMOLOGY IN QUESTION: PHYSICAL EDUCATION ACCORDING TO FEF-UNICAMP GRADUATE STUDENTS

Abstract

This study looks into Physical Education views expressed by graduate students (Master and Ph.D. candidates). Qualitative and quantitative research was conducted through questionnaires applied to students enrolled in the FEF-Unicamp Graduate Program. Data were organized and analyzed by the program Interface de R pour les Analyses Multidimensionnelles de texts et de Questionnaires (Iramuteq) and Hermeneutics analysis. The results allow us to find some trends: Physical Education’s multidisciplinary nature; views that illustrate an orientation toward social intervention and/or the scientific field as a rationality supporting social practice, showing differences between these two aspects according to students’ research areas. These stances indicate disputes between graduate areas of Physical Education which reveals the epistemological debate going on in the last decades, reinforcing dichotomies and pointing out some solutions based on dialogue.

Keywords
Knowledge; Concept formation; Physical Education; Graduate Programs