Toward body-based pedagogies of recognition: alternative pathways in anti-racist school Physical Education

Abstract

The development of a school physical education program committed to educating students about ethnic-racial relations remains a challenge to the implementation of Laws No. 10,639/2003 and No. 11,645/2008, especially in early childhood education. This article analyzes how teachers participating in the Center for the Study of Ethnic-Racial Relations (NERER), part of the Belo Horizonte Municipal Education Network, mobilize pedagogical practices that confront racism and reorganize experiences of bodily culture. This is a qualitative study based on narrative interviews conducted between 2023 and 2025. The results show that continuing education produces epistemological shifts that transform conceptions of the body, childhood, curriculum, and teaching, moving beyond approaches centered on the sporadic inclusion of Afro-Brazilian and Indigenous content. As a contribution to the field, we propose the category “Bodily Pedagogies of Recognition,” understood as a political-pedagogical perspective in which bodily experiences promote a sense of belonging, ancestry, curricular justice, and recognition of Black childhoods.