Sport and Education: The Institutionalization of Pedagogical-Didactic Debates in Professional Training within Rio de la Plata’s University Environments

Abstract

Throughout the 20th century, sporting practices became one of the main contents of Physical Education (PE). Different pedagogical and didactic approaches tried to demonstrate and support the educational nature of these bodily practices, highlighting their potential in terms of the acquisition of healthy habits, modes of socialization, values in moral terms, among other dimensions. In instances of higher education, intense debates were held on the ways of conceptualizing sport in the education of future teachers. On this basis, this study investigates the debates institutionalized within the training of PE teachers and graduates in the Rio de la Plata university environment, specifically regarding the educational nature of sport. Based on that, we will compare the different ways of including these bodily practices in two institutions: the Universidad Nacional de La Plata, Argentina and the Universidad de la República, Uruguay. This journey allowed us to highlight the hybridi- sations and fragmentation in the treatment of sport, an issue that invites us to problematise the different constructions of the sport field that coexist in education.