PHYSICAL EDUCATION EPISTEMOLOGY: an analysis of Unicamp’s physical education graduation course’s scientific production

Abstract

This article aims to present a summary of the results of a survey on the scientific programof the Graduate Faculty of Physical Education, UNICAMP from 1991 to 2008. The studytook as a reference to epistemological analysis, considered as a meta-analysis, studiesor second order, seeking understanding of the scientific research in a given field ofknowledge - the first order - in science and to stimulate a process of self-reflection andself-critical about their results and about the processes and conditions of its production.The analysis was composed of two dimensions: the logic that articulates the elementsof the production of knowledge required in each study and seeks to understand thehistorical, political and material conditions that determine the social production. Sometheoretical and methodological issues emerged with the analysis of these results: a) thedistinction between fact and value, or between knowledge and interest; b) differencesand similarities between the natural ande the humanities in the scientific field of physicaleducation; c) the manifestation of the new epistemologies; d) as a critical alternativeoption to change the situation, considering that more than amount of science research,is to decide what kind of science we need. The social responsibility of the researchermay come from the critical awareness that science is not neutral and that no neutralitystart in the choosing the problems to research and how to approach it.