Children's Physical Education during the Argentine civil-military dictatorship (1976-1983). Between conservatism and modernization

Abstract

The aim of this work is to analyse Children's Physical Education Higher Education in the late 1970s andearly 1980s in Argentina. In those years, new meanings and pedagogical methods were redefined and gained curricular space in higher education in Physical Education, especially about childhood as an object of intervention. The teaching of the didactics of children's Physical Education then begins a period of legitimation of professional roles for the initial level, leaving behind a stage of null creation of teaching school positions.

For this, the educational technologies used as a didactic resource are analysed, particularly two series of photographic slides used in those years by the teaching staff in charge of the Children's Physical Education at the National Institute of Physical Education “Dr. Enrique Romero Brest”, one of the main professional training institutes in the City of Buenos Aires. In addition, those slides were also used in various courses and conferences on the subject in different regions of the country, instances of socialization of specific knowledge were mass courses proposed and financed by different official institutions, such as the National Directorate of Physical Education, Sports and Recreation and the National Union of Preschool Educators. It is significant to observe that this historical period is marked in Argentina by a civic-military dictatorship, in which the State assumes a paternalistic role that bends democratizing positions.

Consequently, teacher-training institutions found themselves influenced by deep authoritarianism and whose educational projects were linked to a pedagogical technicality.