Tensions regarding Self-Knowledge from (and beyond) the BNCC

ABSTRACT

This article brings reflections on self-knowledge in school physical education. To this end, it proposes to tighten its framework within the BNCC, which is understood as a socio-emotional competence linked to the construction of school students' identities. From this point, it brings self-knowledge closer to physical education and the Life Project proposal, then outlines discussions woven in alliance with Eastern philosophy, the stylistics of existence, and the philosophy of difference. And finally, it problematizes self-knowledge in school physical education, seeking to highlight the role of body movement in enabling the conceptual inflections triggered here.

Keywords
Self-knowledge; General Competencies (BNCC); School Physical Education; Aesthetics of Existence; Philosophy of Difference

RESUMO

Este artigo traz reflexões sobre o autoconhecimento na Educação Física Escolar. Para tanto, propõe tensionar seu enquadramento na BNCC, em que é compreendido como competência socioemocional ligada à construção das identidades dos alunos escolares. Deste ponto, aproxima o autoconhecimento à Educação Física e à proposta do Projeto de Vida, depois traça discussões tecidas em aliança com a filosofia oriental, a estilística da existência e a filosofia da diferença. E, por fim, problematiza o autoconhecimento na Educação Física Escolar, buscando evidenciar o protagonismo do movimento corporal na viabilização das inflexões conceituais aqui desencadeadas.

Palavras-chave
Autoconhecimento; Competências Gerais (BNCC); Educação Física Escolar; Estética da Existência; Filosofia da Diferença

Introduction

Among the ten general competencies of basic education observed in the National Common Curricular Base (Base Nacional Comum Curricular – BNCC)) – is self-knowledge, more specifically in competency 8, entitled self-knowledge and self-care (Brasil, 2017). Within this general educational guideline, self-knowledge is understood as a socio-emotional competence, according to which, pedagogical work must enable the student to “[…] know themself, appreciate themself and take care of their physical and emotional health, understanding human diversity and recognizing their emotions and those of others, with self-criticism and the ability to deal with those emotions” (Brasil, 2017, p. 10).

In the wake of this enabling logic, it is observed that the BNCC organizes competency 8 in a way that highlights a firm and explicit commitment to the construction of students' identities. Given this framework, we ask: does self-knowledge fully fit within this enabling logic? From this question, another emerges: can self-knowledge be understood as a competence?

With these questions, we are interested in tensioning the framework attributed to self-knowledge in the BNCC, but, to do so, it will be necessary to understand, firstly, what we are calling tension here.

When we come across the term tension and its derivations, it is important to affirm the provocative dimension of the term, which forces thought to think in different ways. In this sense, the word tension suggests an inflection of the word’s intensity, widely observed in post-structuralist philosophy, and refers to the dynamics of the flows that occur in our relations with the world (Deleuze, 2006). Thus, the term tension deals with the movements that shake the formalities of organizing educational exercise in the relational dynamics, in which these formalities are put to the test, making the composition and dispersion of the meanings of the educational action possible¹.

And to address this tension, we first invested in a genealogical analysis², to diagnose³ the terms with which the BNCC understands self-knowledge, and how it aligns it with a general teaching competence in basic education. From this alignment, we bring self-knowledge closer to the specific field of physical education and the proposal for building the Life Project – which integrates it with the other general competencies of the BNCC, particularly communicative skills. Afterwards, we outline heterogeneous and differential discussions⁴, woven in alliance with different understandings about self-knowledge extracted from the context of Eastern philosophy, the stylistics of Foucauldian existence, and the context of the Philosophy of Difference. And finally, we problematize self-knowledge in the context of school physical education, seeking to highlight the role of body movement in the practical feasibility of the discussions triggered here.

Before moving forward with this proposal for a writing composition, it is worth highlighting that the notion of alliance, mentioned above, is close to the thought of Gilles Deleuze, who used to compose his studies in alliance with other thinkers – his so-called intercessors. And to form an ally, Deleuze dared to create neighborhood zones between different intercessors, located both in the Arts, and in Sciences and Philosophy, in order to mobilize communication that is dispersed in different directions, breaking with the tendency to categorize and hierarchize knowledge. (Deleuze, 1997; Schöpke, 2012; Lapoujade, 2015).

Thus, in alliance, we intend to write here about the notion of self-knowledge that, in Deleuzian fashion, draws attention to a disparate, subversive and connective attitude in the composition of this concept that grows, intensifies, and differentiates itself indefinitely⁵. The writing about self-knowledge that is woven in alliance affirms the procedural, compositional and unfinished character of this concept, in addition to affirming a thought that is always in passing and in direct relationship with that dimension of turbulence (Schöpke, 2012), which prevents any fixation of an identity full of self-knowledge.

Self-knowledge in the BNCC

As already highlighted, the BNCC places self-knowledge as a socio-emotional competence that, together with cognitive skills (which involve knowledge, science, and culture) and communicative skills (which involve issues of digital culture technology, argumentation, and development of the Life Project work), helps organize the ten general competencies of basic education (Brasil, 2017).

In light of this general educational guideline, the guidance and organization of pedagogical didactic work regarding specific teaching contents must provide the mobilization of different resources, strategies and tactics, which enable students to solve certain problems that are presented inside and outside the school universe⁶.

It is also worth noting that work involving self-knowledge at school needs to be integrated with the other nine general skills. However, even though this integration is important to interconnect the different skills in teaching, we ask: how does the BNCC delimit self-knowledge to make it function as a general skill that crosses the general context of basic education?

To begin to answer this question, it is worth noting that competency 8 brings the notion of self-knowledge closer to the concept of self-care, as a powerful strategy to give meaning to the exercise of self-knowledge in the context of basic education. It is this approach, suggested above, that gives us clues to understand the attribution of self-knowledge as a general teaching competence. This is because, in general terms, the exercise of self-care comprises the adoption of a series of prescriptions of a preventive, behavioral, nutritional, hygienic nature, among others, involving the relationship between health, physical development, and the practice of physical activities that, when incorporated by students regularly, would provide access to self-knowledge and self-acceptance (Brasil, 2017).

Thus, by focusing on an eminently preventive and prescriptive discourse to address issues concerning self-knowledge, we note that the rapprochement between self-knowledge and self-care, in the name of competency 8, is much more than the sum of two different concepts. Obviously, they can work together, since competence directs to a specific treatment that subjugates self-knowledge in terms that can be engendered in the preventive and prescriptive logic implicit in the discourse of self-care.

Another strategy observed in the BNCC to address self-knowledge is to bring it closer to the students' search for self-esteem, self-confidence, self-acceptance, self-awareness, and self-image. In this set of searches, which involve the prefix self, the pedagogical work deals with the way in which students perceive themselves to, and from there, propose affirmative and constructive actions that address psychological and emotional issues for the construction of personal identities. Thus, within these identity constructions, students find interesting possibilities to deal with their limitations and potential, in addition to improving their skills in adapting their conduct to better coexist with differences.

Despite the good and assertive intention of pedagogical work implicit in this endeavor – after all, the relational dynamics in fact need to be qualified for greater openness and acceptance of differences – the big problem is that when we define the construction and qualification of this relational dynamic within already pre-established identity standards, we stop valuing differences as they are in themselves. And that is where the work involving self-knowledge slows down and becomes extremely limited.

According to Butler (2015), identity discourse operates within a policy of control and conduct of life, which is closed within a given logic already consolidated in the sociocultural context, defining a priori what it means to be in the world⁷. Thus, as an already consolidated construction, identity discourse makes reality more acceptable, stable, comparable, and associable. In this sense – just to illustrate the alignment with this discourse – the BNCC even recommends, for example, that self-knowledge be worked on through the presentation of stories, through which students could recognize themselves, identify themselves and, through this recognition and identification, promote self-knowledge (Brasil, 2017).

In the specific field of physical education, self-knowledge appears in the context of gymnastics, which is one of the six thematic units that organize the content and practices related to this school subject in the BNCC. In this delimitation, self-knowledge is worked on, preferably, at the end of Elementary School (in the 8^th and 9^th years) as content that exponentially crosses the so-called Body Awareness Gymnastics⁸, which are defined as:

[…] practices that employ gentle and slow movements, such as the repetition of postures or awareness of breathing exercises, aimed at obtaining a better perception of one's own body. Some of these practices that make up this group have their origins in ancient bodily practices from Eastern culture

(Brasil, 2017, p. 218).

In the wake of this delimitation, the learning objectives regarding self-knowledge focus on teaching concepts related to these practices, in addition to also being concerned with their origins and historical-social contextualizations, which help to outline a specific identity for this gymnastics category (Brasil, 2017).

Although the learning objectives also focus on experiencing these body awareness practices and sharing sensations arising from these practices (Brasil, 2017), there is a clear tendency to focus pedagogical strategies within a more interested line of identity construction in defining self-knowledge within an already consolidated historical perspective, rather than opening up to what self-knowledge can become, in the unique relationship that students operate with their own learning processes.

It is worth highlighting that this option to delimit self-knowledge within already consolidated historical constructions is completely reasonable, as it facilitates the exercise of educational guidance, by clearly delimiting some fundamental references, through which self-knowledge appears under the control of terms that guide the pedagogical action.

Projections of Self-Knowledge in the Life Project

In this same direction of identity construction, the proposition of the Life Project is also based. This is a reflective work proposal, in which students are encouraged to question their own lives. Thus, they analyze past situations, considering the challenges of the present so that they can better prospect their futures (Pacheco, 2010).

It is worth noting that the Life Project is related to self-knowledge and socio-emotional skills, but is developed, according to the BNCC, in the context of communicative skills, which expand the work of self-knowledge, projecting it in the direction of current sociocultural demands. In line with this idea, it is observed that the Life Project operates as an important device to contribute to the construction of students’ identities (Brasil, 2017).

According to the analysis of Mainardes (2006) and Lopez (2022), one of the main motivations for composing the Life Project is that which relates it to the students' desires for improving living conditions. In this way, a starting question that helps in mobilizing this project would be: what levels of life improvement do the students want to achieve? The search for answers to this question provides a measure of the success that students intend to achieve.

It is necessary to recognize that the Life Project proposal is quite effective in the way it intends to address issues concerning self-knowledge at school. This is a project that makes students think about their own lives, challenging them to set goals to be achieved in the short, medium, and long term. And to support these projections, the students profess their interests and find in the constitution of this project, spaces for reflection on the practices of regulating existence that they would need to adopt, to ultimately achieve the desired goal. With this, the Life Project helps students to seek and recognize, for themselves, good choices, which would provide favorable conditions for the success of their professional futures (Martins; Pasqualini, 2020) .

The problem with this ingenious undertaking is that the search for and recognition of good choices demands an overt – and even subliminal – movement of regulation, adequacy and adjustment of conduct which, when in excess, diminishes the potential for action and expression of students, always orienting this power towards demands external to individual desires and needs. And, as we know, these external demands generally compete in favor of a pre-established sociocultural order, which continually asserts itself, shaping individual potential as appropriate.

And to shape students' potential as appropriate, the current educational system uses a widely efficient tactic, which directly interferes with the operationalization of students' exercise of thought. This tactic boils down to the following: investing in aligning the action of thinking with the exercise of recognition, identification, adequacy, and many other cognitive operations that can function within the logic of identity construction.

In light of this identity logic, students become entangled within an already given domain of reality construction, to which they must continually adjust. To do so, they must be interested in, welcome, and adopt already pre-determined identities, among those available in the gondola of possibilities outlined within the scope of culture and align their life projects in the wake of this subliminal entanglement.

It is worth highlighting that the thinking that operates through the dynamics of recognition, identification, and adequacy is highly culpable, that is, it is a form of construction of the exercise of thinking that ends up blaming the students themselves who, knowing what they should or should not do, end up being the ones responsible for fitting in, or not, within certain already consolidated social identities. In this sense, if the competence of self-knowledge occurs, primarily, along the lines of this identity logic, the blame falls on the students themselves if the Life Projects they propose do not work out.

Other Genealogies about Self-Knowledge in the BNCC

This discussion above helps to highlight a certain rationality in the elaboration and implementation of self-knowledge in the BNCC which, in turn, subliminally organizes a highly effective and efficient political technology for the control of the school students.

To support this idea, we looked for research developed by Muños (2022), in his doctoral thesis, according to which the definition of skills and competencies in the BNCC is much more than a simple guideline for better directing the work of teachers in the classroom, as it presents a set of strategies and tactics – that is, a set of biopolitical technologies – that directly affects students within the school space, restricting them, shaping them and controlling them as appropriate within the current educational market policy.

According to Gadelha (2009), this set of biopolitical technologies produces conditions of existence increasingly aligned with neoliberal logic. This logic, in turn, translates into “[…] a broader and strategic movement that makes economic (market) principles the normative principles of the entire society” (Gadelha, 2009, p. 177). In this sense, biopolitical technologies imprint on contemporary identities a certain “economic-business normativity” (Gadelha, 2009, p. 158) that transforms

[…] what would a consumer society be like in a company society (business or service society), inducing individuals to modify the perception they have of their choices and attitudes regarding their own lives and those of their peers, so to increasingly establish competitive relationships among themselves

(Gadelha, 2009, p. 177-178).

It is within this transformation, operated by economic-business normativity, that biopolitical rationality is established. For Muños (2022), the imposition of this biopolitical rationality operates, in turn, on national educational guidelines, adapting them within a global trend, of a neoliberal nature, which seeks to standardize and commodify the field of education, basing educational work in the acquisition of skills and abilities.

In reading Libâneo (2016) and Libâneo and Silva (2020), the big problem related to this normative and commodifying logic is that it loses sight of the processes and singularities, due to the valorization of the results that control and limit the projects of life, giving a false impression to students that they have the ability to self-manage their own ways of being and existing in the world.

In the case of socio-emotional skills, among which we highlight self-knowledge here, they would be at the service of building a more successful subjectivity, within the neoliberal⁹ and market scenario in which we live, and less prone to admitting antisocial behaviors, which would less likely represent for successful students to be involved in problems of conduct (Muños, 2022).

Ultimately, combining the reading of Muños (2022) with the studies of Libâneo (2016) and Libâneo and Silva (2020), we could say that socio-emotional skills serve to promote behavioral changes capable of shaping and monitoring students as they should, in order to guarantee better working and consumption conditions, which depend directly on the incorporation of certain standards/habits of health and well-being – duly framed as market and consumption products – without which the formation of future successful entrepreneurial individuals is not sustainable.

It is clear, therefore, that the BNCC fulfills much more than a simple referential function. It contains efficient political strategies and tactics for controlling students at school. And much of this efficiency involves valuing socio-emotional skills – as highlighted by Muños (2022) in his studies – which, when integrated with other skills, help to build the formation of future successful entrepreneurial individuals.

Tensions about Self-Knowledge

At this moment, we dare to leave, for a moment, the alignment attributed to self-knowledge in the BNCC, to think about it differently.

And, to begin with, we could say that self-knowledge is distinguished from all purely theoretical, objective, and rational knowledge, precisely because of its vivid and singular characteristic, which escapes any and all efforts at abstraction and universalization. Thus, when we touch on issues concerning self-knowledge, we enter a domain distinct from that in which the terms apply, in their static formalities. And it is there, in this ascension – always episodic, provisional, and performative – that we escape the perspective of skills, giving way to an intensive and dynamic movement of building thoughts.

It is in this intensive and dynamic movement of the construction of thoughts that we come across self-knowledge in its irreducibility, as a brilliant expression that is confused with the exercise of living itself. Thus, as an intensive and dynamic movement, which differentiates itself as long as there is life, self-knowledge always demands a point of instigation, that is, a triggering agent that is only tangible by the subject of knowledge when it feels the emergence of a certain urgency, or , also, of a certain disturbing need, which emerges within itself, tracing the grooves of self-knowledge always in the process of elaboration in existence¹⁰.

Perhaps, this same unsettling urgency and need brings Eastern and Western philosophical traditions closer together when dealing with self-knowledge. Despite the evident distinctions in how these different cultures dealt with the topic, the emergence of urgency and a disturbing need seem to constitute common factors for both traditions, which give way to self-knowledge.

It was like this, for example, with the warrior Arjuna, in the Indian epic poem Bhagavad Gita¹¹ and also with the young Greek aristocrat, Alcibiades, in the Socratic dialogue Alcibiades I, portrayed by Plato, in classical antiquity. In the first case, Arjuna, in front of the battlefield, on the verge of a deadly and bloody confrontation between peers – who should coexist – finds himself overwhelmed by the need to surpass his intellective capacity and, thus, alleviate his suffering. And it is precisely there, at the dawn of this dramatic and inevitable urgency, that Arjuna asks Krishna¹² for knowledge, who only then transmits it as subtle wisdom, only mobilized when we allow ourselves to withdraw into ourselves, in the search for the divine being within us.

In Alcibiades I, in the ancient Western tradition, another urgency is evident that, of course, does not compare to that of Arjuna, but, nevertheless, it is equally disturbing. On the verge of occupying a position in the Greek government and thus assuming what he was born to do, as a rich and influential aristocrat that he was, Alcibiades asks his master Socrates for knowledge, asking him: “Master, what must I do to govern well? ”. And Socrates, in turn, like someone who becomes sensitive to the emergence of urgency, responds: “Take care of yourself! Take care of yourself!”¹³ (Foucault, 2006a, p. 91). And it is this same unsettling urgency and need that probes behind the scenes of our choices that, one by one, follow the paths of existence.

Combining here with the analysis that Foucault makes about the stylistics of existence, we could say that it is in the midst of this unsettling urgency and need that self-knowledge emerges as the starting engine of all our achievements, leading to a “training of the self on itself” (Foucault, 2006b, p. 146) that indefinitely escapes the simple recognition, identification and, adequacy of Life Projects, in order to trace the furrows of an ascetic, laborious, and visceral movement, in the midst of which we polish the art/technique of living.

In addition to this idea, we would like to approach another one here: if self-knowledge is not a free movement that is given to everyone who, out of good will, simply wants to know themselves; if self-knowledge is born from a disturbing need and an urgency that emerges, asking for passage; self-knowledge is also what provokes us, what makes us uncomfortable. In other words, self-knowledge is that movement that forces thought to think and that, therefore, calls us to think in our own terms, without reference to any other.

It is in this domain, of a thought that is forced to think, that the referential function of self-knowledge as a general teaching competence in the BNCC becomes unreasonable, or at least limited. Therefore, self-knowledge is always other, indefinitely, going beyond identity discourses and preventive and prescriptive logics for constructing the exercise of self-knowledge.

Thinking about self-knowledge in this other domain of thought construction – which escapes its pre-established referential functions – is to think of it, in Foucauldian fashion, as an exercise in the stylistic invention of existence. Thus, as an invention and art of living, self-knowledge does not have a presupposed image, as it is pure differentiation in the performative trait of the subjects who permanently elaborate and polish their existences. In this differential approach, self-knowledge escapes the representation model that, ultimately, guides the organization of skills and abilities that build the goals of the educational exercise.

To better understand this conceptual movement outlined here, it will be necessary to take a step back and ask: what does it mean to think within this inventive and compositional logic attributed here to self-knowledge? It is within this discussion that we also seek, at these times, an alliance with Deleuzian studies.

Self-knowledge as Thought and Creation

For Deleuze (1999), the exercise of thinking is confused with the movement of life itself and, if there is a peculiar characteristic that can be attributed to life, such a characteristic would be its continuous differentiation: we try to control it, we try to organize it, we try to regulate and adapt it continually, but life always escapes and changes¹⁴. It is in this differential direction of affirming life that Deleuze dares to explore his studies on the exercise of thought, in order to affirm its creative, inventive and compositional nature, through which we intensify the exercise of living.

Contrary to this affirmation of life, the Western philosophical tradition, in general, has opted for another affirmative path, which tries to cover in every possible way this creative nature of the act of thinking, to validate other functions of thought, guided by the model of representation¹⁵.

And to sustain this representation-based approach, the Western philosophical tradition needed to affirm at least three basic assumptions. The first of them states that it is necessary to assume that thought is a natural exercise, which comes from the good will of the thinking subject. Secondly, it is necessary to assume that the body, affections, and sensations lead us to error, consequently, these factors distance us from the truth – which leads us to the need to always seek the rectitude of thinking, only guaranteed by reason. And, finally, within the Western philosophical tradition, it is necessary to guarantee a priori the affirmation of a method duly legitimized by science, without which the subject who thinks in the light of this tradition is not capable of producing knowledge (Schöpke, 2012, p. 25-26). By strictly following these three assumptions, the thinking subject reaches legitimately neutral, impartial, and objective knowledge, valid for any place and any time¹⁶. By betting all its chips on the model of representation, the Western philosophical tradition has made the exercise of thought sedentary.

But what would sedentary thinking be? It is a type of thinking that makes the action of thinking and the act of representing equivalent. In this equivalence, instead of affirming its inventive, compositional and differential function – which gives lightness, fluency, and freedom to the exercise of thinking – we opt for the affirmation of an image of thought already given and, therefore, heavy, static, and sedentary (Schöpke, 2012).

To the detriment of this sedentary function of thought, Deleuze dares to ask: would it be possible to think without asserting dogmatic images? In other words: would it be possible to think of a thought without an image? If we assume the answer to these questions is yes; What would a thought without an image be?

To answer these questions, Deleuze needed to conceive another philosophical logic, foreign to that understood as the science of the laws of thought¹⁷. And to achieve this other logic, Deleuze draws on some clues observed in Spinoza – a 17^th century philosopher – regarding affections, to highlight the following: the sedentary function reduces the power of action and expression of thought, generating sadness; in contrast, when thought dares to break with its sedentary function, the action of thinking becomes unsettled, that is, it leaves its common place, forcing thought to think differently. As an effect of this disaccommodation, we produce joyful affections, which expand our power of action and expression (Schöpke, 2012).

It is in this lifelong, joyful, and differential direction of composition of the exercise of thinking that Deleuze conceives his philosophical logic. Ultimately, it is a logic that sets thought in motion, by affirming its open and sensitive dimension to accepting interference and the chain of mutations that continually displace thought.

(In)conclusive preambulations

Approaching this philosophical discussion, woven from the thought of the philosopher Gilles Deleuze, we dare to affirm that self-knowledge escapes sedentary logic, forcing thought to think between the lines of representation. In other words, we could say that self-knowledge is confused with the movement of differentiation of thought which, in turn, is only achieved when we dare to exercise thought outside the logic of general teaching skills.

Thus, when we insist on reading self-knowledge in the light of skills, a certain absence of what self-knowledge can become and modify becomes evident. This absence does not disqualify the formal focus of general competencies, given that their broad efficiency and effectiveness is undeniable when the idea is to assert a referential function that, in the case of competency 8, intends to organize a priori the strategies and tactics for approaching and treating self-knowledge at school.

However, it is worth highlighting that this referential function is far from appearing as a neutral, objective, and purely innocent starting point for organizing educational work. As we have seen, based on the genealogical path developed in this manuscript, the focus given to self-knowledge in the BNCC (and, in general, the focus given to general teaching skills) assumes more commitment to functions related to the control and biopolitical organization of school students, than with the educational action actually constituted in the classroom.

Now, if self-knowledge is outside the scope of competencies, to get to it, it will be necessary to go beyond the terms – which organize general teaching competencies – and shift attention towards the relationships that effectively put self-knowledge on the scene in the school context. And it is precisely there – in this shift of attention that is oriented towards the outside – that we come across a more open domain of mobilization of self-knowledge, in the midst of which a more micropolitical and intensive level of perception of educational reality is installed, which forces us to think about self-knowledge in different ways.

As a way to better understand this conceptual movement, outlined above, it would perhaps be interesting to briefly revisit some alliances that Deleuze makes with his intercessors, to think about this aforementioned and repeatedly highlighted point. By aligning himself with Nietzsche and his philosophy, Deleuze (2001, p. 85-89) points out:

Thought never thinks alone […]. Thinking depends on the forces that take over thought […]. Thinking, as an activity, is […] an extraordinary event in thought itself, for thought itself. Thinking is the umpteenth power of thought […]. Violence must be exerted on it as thought, a power must force it to think, launch it into an active becoming.

In addition to this thought, it is also worth highlighting another, which Deleuze seeks by allying himself with Proust, in which he observes the following: “Without something that forces thinking, without something that does violence to thought, it means nothing. More important than thinking is what ‘gives us thought’; […] the essential is outside of thought, in what forces us to think” (Deleuze, 2010, p. 90).

By stating that thought never thinks alone, and that violence must be exerted in the exercise of the construction of thought so that, in the emergence of this disaccommodation, the action of thinking is erected, Deleuze draws attention to the outside, that is, for the extrinsic factors that trigger the inventive and compositional work of constructing thoughts.

Finally, another alliance requires passage here, in which Deleuze seeks an allegory observed in Spinoza, a 17^th century philosopher, to say that these extrinsic factors are like the winds that arrive from behind, pushing us to move forward, in order to trace the furrows of a wandering trajectory, which we don't really know where it will lead to, unless we accept the challenge of letting ourselves be carried by the direction of the winds that blow (Deleuze, 2002).

We dare to say that it is in the blowing of these winds that the missing part of self-knowledge is nestled when observed in the light of skills. It is worth noting, however, that the unfathomable presence of this breath does not disqualify the referential function of self-knowledge, but draws attention to the need to go beyond it indefinitely in the educational relationships effectively constituted with students, in the midst of which, the winds blow, animating the teaching and learning processes. Thus, between winds that come and go, we go beyond the terms that frame self-knowledge and stop relying excessively on identity and prescriptive logics, which align it with the exercise of identification, adequacy and adjustment of individual behaviors.

As an unfolding of this breath of wind, other possibilities for expressing self-knowledge appear stealthily and unfinished, which, instead of endorsing what we already know about the process of self-knowledge, dare to intensify the creative, disparate, and singular power of sensibilities, in the encounter and in the acceptance of differences, in oneself and in others, to create more flexible, lively and open ways of life.

Inflections for School Physical Education

Starting from these discussions observed in the sections above, we ask: how can we be sensitive to the passage of the winds that propel us forward in the context of school physical education? Or, put another way: how to be sensitive to the differential expressions of self-knowledge in the school context?

It is not important here to present complete answers to these questions mentioned above, nor to transform this discussion into a kind of general theory about self-knowledge at school. However, it is worth noting a fact that could perhaps offer clues to deal with these issues in a more open, free, and powerful way. And the fact is this: we, in physical education, are continually crossed by movement in all the contents and practices that revolve around this school subject. We could even say that movement is one of the great passions of physical education, inside and outside of school!

For Deleuze (2006, p. 93), movement “[…] implies a plurality of centers, a superposition of perspectives, an overlapping of points of view, a coexistence of moments that essentially deform representation”. It is from this moving and pluri-centric place that the differential expressions of self-knowledge pulsate, beyond any dogmatic image that dares to represent it.

Perhaps this concept of movement, presented by Deleuze, causes some strangeness, as in the field of physical education there is a historical tendency to look at movement from a completely different perspective, which tends to privilege the framework of regularities, rather than this pluri-centric dimension highlighted by Deleuze.

This regularized and regularizing framework fed the hygienist, militarist, and sportsman-like approaches, which cover a large part of the history of school physical education, and which are still present in pedagogical practice today. However, when we open up play, sensitive, creative, expressive work and many other open proposals that demand cooperative and collaborative action from both students and the teacher themselves, we find a way to access this movement that essentially deforms the representation.

Even when we open spaces for competitiveness in physical education classes, these joyful affections can appear widely, as long as the expression of this competitiveness is always monitored and measured in the mobilization of collective relationships, due to the production of a relational dynamic that increases the power of action of the agents involved. In this regard, it is worth noting that this version of competition involves the notion of Educational Sport¹⁸, which refers to a practice of mobilizing sport governed by the principles of participation, inclusion, emancipation, co-operativism, regionalism, and co-education, that is, by principles that make us more sensitive subjects to the unfathomable direction of the winds that pass us in the ongoing relationships within an educational encounter.

We are aware that this discussion regarding sports also triggers mechanisms of representation and subjective identification when worked on at school, therefore incurring the same dangers that self-knowledge faces when observed in the light of regularities. However, what we want to highlight here is the potential of sport in intensifying relationships between school students, which can change the perception of those involved in other areas that have not yet been fully regularized.

Such a change can happen, for example, when we relax the rules of the game, adapting them according to current demands, or even, when we open possibilities for negotiating the rules with students, to meet problem situations perceived by the students themselves during the course of the collective relationship. In the presence of these other perceptual domains, intensification can occur on different fronts, in addition to the competitive front that is already so characteristic of sports practices.

Furthermore, what we want to highlight here is the potential of sport to be constituted in other ways, which may even admit the emergence of other principles, in addition to those already outlined in the context of Educational Sport. Therefore, the possibility of including sport in this heterogeneous and differential discussion is not based on what we already know about sport, but rather on what it can become and change indefinitely, in response to the situational demands installed in the practice of the sports game.

With this discussion about sport, what we want to highlight here is that when we give space and voice to those movements that continually differ in relationships, we always find a way to access the winds, that is, the factors that point to differential expressions about self-knowledge in physical education classes. And an important clue to place our attention there, in this outside, is to focus on the quality of relationships, in which these different works (be they playful, sensitive, creative, expressive, cooperative, collaborative, and even competitive) grow and intensify.

It remains for us, as educators, to instill in ourselves relational skills, which stimulate the composition of an attitude of openness, humility, affection, lovingness, and kindness, which are essential to be sensitive to the direction of the winds that reach us from behind, pushing us forwards. And an important tip, to stimulate the development of these relational skills, is to pay attention to the fact that these skills only come together in meetings, projecting themselves on different levels that consider both the encounter of oneself about oneself, and the relational dynamics that we establish with the external space, and with others during physical education classes.

This broadly relational characteristic attributed to self-knowledge makes us think that the pedagogical work involving this concept has more to do with the way in which the educational exercise is installed – with its affective quality and with how much intensification of the educational experience this mode supports, to expand the power of action of the agents involved – than with the content itself, in its thematic and referential superficiality.

Finally, it is worth highlighting that we know how confusing and destabilizing this discussion can be, which requires passage to the winds and to the outside, that is, to a relational domain only tangible when going beyond the terms of organization of educational work, but it is precisely in this confusion and destabilization that self-knowledge leaks into its referential function. And to approach self-knowledge in this way, we ask: how about feeling the direction of the winds that arrive from behind in educational meetings? Perhaps there we can find other more inconclusive, inventive, and different directions regarding self-knowledge in school physical education.

Notes

• 1
  This tension discussed here can also be observed in pedagogical studies developed in the context of post-critical and decolonial theories. When, for example, Freirean studies (Freire, 1996; 2005) question the notion of content as universal data, capable of being transmitted uniformly in any teaching context, there is also a tension that undermines the formalities that organize the educational exercise, forcing its constant differentiation. The tension, therefore, marks a turning point in pedagogical work, guiding it towards educational processes, that is, towards relationships that are continually mobilized according to the interests and needs of the parties involved.
• 2
  The genealogical analysis used in this manuscript sought inspiration from Foucauldian studies, in which genealogy is understood as a research procedure that aims to restore “[…] the conditions for the emergence of a singularity within a network of multiple heterogeneous processes and mechanisms” (Muños, 2022, p. 24). To carry out this intention, genealogy does not search for the historical origins of what is being researched and, therefore, avoids the search for the essence of things and a certain fixed identity attributed to such researched object. Instead, genealogy: “[…] aims to highlight the singularity of events which, in turn, refer to chance, diversity, discord, error. It looks for discontinuities where continuous developments were found” (Martins, 2000, p. 152).
• 3
  Following the genealogical approach taken in this part of the text, the diagnostic action used here sought support in Foucauldian philosophy, which understands the philosophical exercise as a current diagnostic practice. In this sense, diagnosing means “interrogating the present”, marking what is continually different in it (Castro, 2009, p. 107). In the wake of this idea, it is worth highlighting that, when we situate the intention of diagnosing the terms with which the BNCC understands self-knowledge, what we want is to give space and voice to what presents itself under the sign of difference when the subject is self-knowledge, and therefore continually interrogates the terms of this educational guideline.
• 4
  Taking Deleuze (2006) as a reference, we can say that heterogeneous and differential discussions are ways of composing thought woven in multiple ways, as “cases of resolution” (Deleuze, 2006, p. 260) that are always dynamic and provisional and that, therefore, are doomed to be continually surpassed. They differ from discussions based on the representation model.
• 5
  To clarify this conceptual operation that is announced here (through which the practice of writing about self-knowledge will be constituted), it is important to situate the notion of concept observed by Deleuze and Guattari (1992). According to these authors, “[…] concepts are centers of vibrations, each in itself and in relation to each other. That is why everything resonates, instead of following or corresponding” (Deleuze; Guattari, 1992, p. 31). In this sense, every concept involves a disparate attitude that generates a network of connections between a multiplicity of elements that resonate with each other, continually subverting the exercise of thought. In line with this idea, every concept is an act of thought that is organized intensively, promoting alliances with other concepts that continually differentiate the exercise of thinking (Deleuze; Guattari, 1992).
• 6
  In the wake of this discussion, it is worth highlighting that the BNCC defines competence as “the mobilization of knowledge (concepts and procedures), skills (cognitive and socio-emotional practices), attitudes, and values to resolve complex demands of everyday life, the full exercise of citizenship and world of work.” Thus, in this context, delimited by general teaching competencies, “education must affirm values and encourage actions that contribute to the transformation of society, making it more human, socially fair and also focused on the preservation of nature, showing if also aligned with the 2030 Agenda of the United Nations (UN)” (Brasil, 2017, p. 08).
• 7
  It is important to highlight, however, that Butler (2015) is not against identity politics, but draws attention to the need to overcome it, going beyond binary and normative discourses, of a universalizing nature, to the affirmation of a woven existence in precariousness and in the trace of a performativity in action in relationships, from which a broader struggle for the radical transformation of reality emerges.
• 8
  For information purposes only, here are some examples of practices that fall within the context of Body Awareness Gymnastics: Biodance, Bioenergetics, Eutony, Antigymnastics, Feldenkrais Method, Yoga, Tai Chi Chuan, among other manifestations also called Somatic and Contemplative or Holistic practices.
• 9
  The neoliberal scenario refers to the context in which the interests of neoliberalism emerge, namely: the minimal State, the practice of the free market, and constitutional meritocracy (Muños, 2022). It is in this neoliberal scenario that biopolitical technologies are mobilized to transform citizens and employees into self-entrepreneurs.
• 10
  At the center of this process of elaboration of existence, the principle of self-care pulsates, which Foucault sought back in classical antiquity, in his latest studies on the stylistics of existence. For Foucault (2006a), the principle of care endows subjects with courage, which is the driving force behind all our achievements. It is the courageous attitude that moves the exercise of self-knowledge beyond a purely intellective and static function, preventing the action principle of care from becoming capable of being widely replicated and universalized.
• 11
  Bhagavad Gita means Song of the Lord, it is an ancient Indian scripture that is part of the epic Mahabharata. The Gita, as it is called, consists of 18 chapters, presented in the form of a dialogue between Krishna, the master, and his disciple Arjuna on the eve of the historic battle of Kurukshetra. Much more than a religious text, the Gita is considered a yoga treatise and also an allegory that stages the internal battle that we all must wage between ourselves and ourselves, permanently confronting the good and bad tendencies that permeate our human existences (Vyãsa, 2018).
• 12
  Bhagavan Krishna was a great master who lived in ancient India, before the Christian era. He was a member of a family of monarchs of a large kingdom in northern India. The term Krishna, like Christ, is a spiritual title, which denotes his divine greatness (Vyãsa, 2018).
• 13
  The quote from the Socratic dialogue Alcibiades I is here taken from Foucaultian studies, therefore, it is done indirectly. In the course taught in 1982 at the Collège de France – which was later transcribed and edited in book format, giving rise to the work The hermeneutics of the subject (2006a), Foucault attributes the emergence of the first philosophical formulation of the principle of care to this dialogue of oneself, in the midst of which self-knowledge erupts, as the starting engine of existence.
• 14
  It is important to highlight here the influence of Henri Bergson on this lifelong reading of Deleuze attributed to the exercise of thinking. For Deleuze, Bergsonian philosophy presents life as a movement that continually leaks into the framework of regularities, creating and recreating itself indefinitely. He points out: “Life is the process of difference […] differentiation comes from the resistance encountered by life on the matter side, but, initially, it comes above all from the internal explosive force that life brings within itself […]. Life differs from itself” (Deleuze, 1999, p. 106-107).
• 15
  The representation model supports hegemonic images that operate like a judge, defining what is right and what is wrong, what is good and what is evil and, thus, always demarcating distinctions and dichotomies. In this intellective domain, the construction of thought assumes a judgmental function, which presupposes a certain will to truth, of a largely dogmatic nature, without which representative thought cannot be erected (Schöpke, 2012).
• 16
  For Deleuze, these basic assumptions – also called “implicit postulates” (Schöpke, 2012, p. 26) prevail in the so-called philosophy of identity, which deals with the analysis, understanding, and reflection of everything that does not change throughout of time and which, therefore, is in tune with an identity issue, through which the composition of universal thoughts is organized. The big problem with this thought-building formula is that it is an illusion, given that everything is destined to be continually transformed and differentiated, even though our attachment and our sense of time make it difficult to perceive impermanence.
• 17
  The science of the laws of thought deals with the regularities, which we must obey to think correctly. In light of this science, the only question that really matters is the following: what are the laws that thought obeys? In the wake of this fundamental question, the rectitude of thought is founded, only guaranteed when based on the rails of classical reason (Schöpke, 2012).
• 18
  Educational Sport is one of the definitions of sport defined by Pelé Law n. 9,615, of May 24, 1998. It arises from the understanding that sporting practice is a plural phenomenon that has different senses and meanings, depending on who, where, when, and the way in which it is practiced. According to Educational Sports, selectivity and hypercompetitiveness must be avoided among participants, in order to focus on integral development and training for citizenship (Gonzáles; Darido; Oliveira, 2014).

Availability of research data

the dataset supporting the results of this study is published in this article.

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Edited by

Editor in charge: Luís Armando Gandin

Publication Dates

• Publication in this collection
  05 Apr 2024
• Date of issue
  2024

History

• Received
  31 Jan 2023
• Accepted
  31 May 2023