School physical education in times of social distancing: Overview, challenges and curriculum issues +

Abstract

In 2020, the COVID-19 Pandemic hit the world. Measures to tackle it included social distancing, causing schools to close in mid-March 2020. Face-to-face classes turned into online ones. Considering this, we aimed at understanding the position taken by Physical Education in the online class scenario of the Brazilian state of Rio Grande do Sul. We conducted qualitative research with school teachers working with online Physical Education lessons. The instrument was a 20-item questionnaire sent by email. Physical Education followed the activities produced by schools, but we found changes in the way of conducting lessons and highlighted challenges for teachers’ work and effects on the curriculum.