Circus and curricular innovation in physical education teachers’ education (Pete) in Brazil

Abstract

Circus has become an innovative content for Physical Education (PE) programmes worldwide. In Brazil, various Physical Education Teacher Education (PETE) programs implemented circus instruction in their official undergraduate curricula. Based on a qualitative approach, we analysed professors’ experiences in teaching circus at Brazilian universities. Thirty participants from 22 higher education institutions answered a questionnaire and five of them were selected to respond an in-depth interview. The results confirmed that circus is a sustainable pedagogical innovation in PETE, which contributes to increase sociocultural, historical, aesthetic and technical diversity. However, professors’ approach focuses on basic skills with little regard to its artistic dimension. Furthermore, we found that circus pedagogy in PE may offer a creative logic to play with body and movement which integrates artistic expression to the development of physical ability and conditioning. We concluded that circus may help PE to enhance interaction with arts education.