Colonial difference and the cultural curriculum of physical education

Abstract

This article challenges the concept of difference as appropriated by critical multiculturalism, Cultural Studies and post-structuralism, theoretical fields that epistemologically underpin the so-called cultural curriculum of Physical Education. It discusses the notion of difference adopted by post-structuralism and ventures into an approximation with the decolonial thought materialized in the notion of colonial difference. The proposal was not to hijack the concept of difference to confine it in a box; quite the opposite was desired, that is, to encourage new dialogues without disregarding the discourses and power relations that constitute the post-structuralist difference. By mobilizing the Latin American discussion, it is possible to highlight that the interplay between knowledge, memories, histories, cosmologies and experiences of collectives placed within colonial difference provides an understanding of the Difference beyond language issues, implicated as an ontological dimension, for difference is something one lives and feels; it is to be. The cultural curriculum activates the fields in different ways, whether at the beginning of the thematization, when listening to perceive students' meaning regarding bodily practices, or during the journey, when teachers organize their didactic actions. In addition, political and economic contexts are elements that cut across and directly interfere with schools in the so-called Third World.