Swearing and jumping jacks: for a culture of peace in this duel

Abstract

This article, autobiographical in nature and forged in the first years of teaching by one of the authors, sought to identify and overcome four violent manifestations in school physical education classes, among students in the 4th year of elementary school in the Fortaleza municipal school system, which we call oral, mimic-gestural, physical-bodily and inter-gender violence. Faced with this perception, we sought legal and socio-emotional foundations for a minimally successful pedagogical intervention. We adopted life history/autobiographical narrative as the research method for this theoretical work. Some didactic strategies were suggested, thematized and experienced so that the students under analysis would become aware of this phenomenon, identifying, mastering and reducing as much as possible, individually and collectively, these four prevalent forms of violence in their school living together. After discussions mediated by problem questions and generating words, four pedagogical tactics were prioritized: three of a practical nature (the “walk away 10 steps for peace” method; the “your bad/your horrible” game and the “swearing x jumping jacks” game) and one of a theoretical nature (18 semi-structured oral interviews). The research took place between mid-February 2023 and October 2024. We evaluated that the didactic tactics used considerably reduced the four prevalent forms of violent language emitted by these students, achieving the initial goal of raising student awareness - from medium to high - of the phenomenon analyzed, and culminating in a reasonable culture of peace and mutual care in the intra-school space.