Physical Education in the Framework of the Exame Nacional do Ensino Médio: Knowledge at the Margins of Assessment in the Area of Languages

Abstract

This study analyzes the positioning of Physical Education within the reference framework of the Exame Nacional do Ensino Médio (ENEM), considering the curricular documents that underpin the inclusion of the subject’s knowledge domains in the examination. To this end, we conducted a documentary analysis, as proposed by Cellard, of the following documents: Parâmetros Curriculares Nacionais do Ensino Médio - Parte II (2000), Parâmetros Curriculares + (2002), Orientações Curriculares do Ensino Médio (2006), and the Matriz de Referência do ENEM (2009). The analysis, grounded in Foucauldian discourse analysis and Walter Mignolo’s notion of epistemic subalternity, reveals a subordinate position of the subject within the Languages area, expressed in the lack of consensus regarding its role in schooling, its reliance on the concept of “body language” to justify its curricular and assessment inclusion, and the erasure of Physical Education from the cognitive axes of the examination’s Reference Framework. The study argues for revising the ENEM reference framework to foster academic debate on the place of Physical Education in students' comprehensive education and national assessment processes.