RECLAIMING PHYSICAL-EDUCATION IN HIGHER-EDUCATION THROUGH CRITICAL PEDAGOGY

In this paper, the theoretical basis and practical alternatives of cri tical pedagogy are applied to graduate courses in physical education. An autobiographical sketch is used to illustrate how critical pedagogy tries to affirm the ''personal'' and bridge it to the ''political.'' The faulty paradigmatic assumptions on which physical education in hig her education is based are then analyzed and deconstructed. These para digmatic assumptions are important factors for the crises facing physi cal education and society at large. Finally, an example of implementin g critical pedagogy in the university classroom is provided, relating how students and the instructor can (a) connect the content and the ob jectives of courses to the broader social issues, (b) scrutinize and t ry to eliminate conventional relations of power in the classroom, and (c) bring the personal and the political into the learning process.