From Foucault’s Toolbox to the Varal de Problemas: On the Forging of a Methodological Instrument

Abstract

This article aims to present the Varal de Problemas. It is a methodological instrument designed to promote the collective generation of problems among faculty members of the Núcleo Docente Estruturante in an undergraduate Physical Education program. The instrument was developed and implemented in a doctoral thesis that sought to understand the effects of naturalizing the term “não escolar” on initial teacher education and professional practice in Physical Education. Guided by Michel Foucault’s thought, the method was conceived as a mobile practice, sensitive to shifts in knowledge and oriented toward the continuous construction of a unique research trajectory. Using the metaphor of the clothesline (varal) as a space for display, the instrument invited faculty members to post responses to ten guiding questions via the Google Jamboard platform. The recorded responses created a visible field of problems, where perspectives, tensions, and singularities intersected. In the next stage, participants revisited the problems in individual remote sessions to expand, refine, and shift what had been initially recorded. As a procedure involving careful handling of the research object with the participants, the Varal de Problemas combined practical and operational organization with collective visibility and the possibility of re-elaboration. In this way, it produced results while keeping the process of problematization active, rejecting interpretive closure and enhancing the unstable and productive nature of the investigative process.