Youth narratives in physical education teacher training: mediations and projects of being in choosing a higher education course

Abstract

This article analyzes (auto)biographical memorials of four young students who entered the Physical Education course at the Federal University of Pelotas at age 18 or younger, using Jean-Paul Sartre's progressive-regressive method as a theoretical-methodological framework. The narrative research, of a qualitative-quantitative nature, investigates the human and institutional mediations that constituted the formative trajectories of these young people and determined their professional choice for Physical Education. The analysis reveals that professional choice is not an isolated act, but a singular totalization of multiple mediations (family, teachers, coaches, friends) and formative spaces (school, club, street, beach). The significant episodes identified in the narratives (entry into sport by medical recommendation, injuries, city relocations, pandemic) functioned as biographical turning points that reoriented trajectories. Three of the four students mentioned doubts about which course to take, but identification with sport and the affective relationship with bodily knowledge were determinant. The research demonstrates the heuristic and political potential of narrative research with young people, showing how life narratives allow us to understand processes of subjectivation, the constitution of identities, and the elaboration of future projects. The progressive-regressive method enables a dialectical analysis that articulates singularity and universality, individual praxis and collective history, contributing to a critical understanding of Physical Education teacher training.