Error perspective and consequences evaluation of the professional intervention in physical education: a content analysis

Abstract

Employment in the area of Physical Education offers a series of challenges that have been created by changes established in relationships at work, with the user and with other professional groups. Notions of competence and quality of the services rendered are common demands and generate an increasing search for better professional education and responsibility for tasks specifi c to the area, as well as a concern with the ethical factors of professional intervention in physical education. The purpose of this study was to understand how physical education professionals describe and interpret the consequences of their professional intervention, based on the error perspective. Information was obtained by means of a semi-structure interview, conducted with 11 professionals who were not part of the school system, and who had 7 – 25 years of professional education. The data treatment followed the characteristics of the content analysis, establishing later the analysis categories, namely: 1) Academic Education and Professional Identity, which includes the characteristics and circumstances of professional education, identity and culture and 2) Professional intervention and Accreditation, which includes aspects connected to professional legitimacy and the accreditation process. This study allowed us to consider that, while Physical Education professionals are concerned with the quality of the services offered in the area, they do not clearly defi ne what constitutes a professional error in the area, and neither do they evaluate the consequences of their professional intervention based on this perspective.