CONTRIBUTIONS AND SHORTCOMINGS OF THE NATIONAL COMMON CORE CURRICULUM FOR THE DEVELOPMENT OF BODY LITERACY IN PRIMARY EDUCATION

Abstract

This study aims to examine how Body Literacy can be developed on the basis of the reference document for Brazilian basic education – the BNCC. This is a qualitative study with exploratory and descriptive objectives, carried out through documentary analysis. The corpus for analysis consisted of the ‘Introduction’ chapter of the BNCC and the sections relating to the teaching of Physical Education in primary education. This focus is justified by the fact that the thesis project to which this study is linked has bodily literacy in primary education as its central theme. The theoretical framework used to carry out the analysis was the attributes of bodily literacy proposed by Whitehead (2019). The results indicate that the term ‘bodily literacy’ does not appear in the BNCC, although the attributes of bodily literacy are implicitly present. The importance of physical practices and physical culture is evident throughout the analysed sections, as reflected in the concern with ‘what to teach’; whilst the challenge of bodily literacy lies in ‘how to develop’ it, whilst valuing the process of human development. Such discussions are increasingly important in a context where everyone is becoming ever more immersed in virtual life.