Social Representations of Football and Teaching in Physical Education: An Experience Report from a Supervised Internship

Abstract

This experience report was developed in the context of supervised internship in a third-grade elementary school class at a municipal school in Jequié, Bahia, Brazil, comprising 25 regularly attending students aged between 7 and 8 years, during the second semester of 2025. The objective was to analyze social representations of soccer and their implications for Physical Education teacher education, based on experiences gained during supervised teaching practice. Thirteen visits to the school were conducted, including two observation sessions, two co-teaching sessions, and nine teaching sessions, all recorded in a field diary. As a diagnostic resource, the Free Word Association Technique (TALP) was used, based on the stimulus term “Games and Play Activities,” whose application revealed the centrality of soccer in the students’ imaginary. During the activities, competitive and aggressive behaviors, resistance to the proposed adaptations, and manifestations related to gender divisions were observed, particularly in activities involving physical contact between boys and girls. The results demonstrated the strength of previously constructed representations of soccer and the challenges faced by the teacher in training when developing proposals that move beyond the logic of performance and competition. The experience contributed to teacher education by enabling the articulation of academic knowledge with concrete situations from the school context, highlighting the need for continuous and critical pedagogical practices capable of assigning new meanings to Physical Education content.