The meaning of “ludic practices” in Physical Education

Abstract

This paper presents advances of a research that focuses on the theoretical perspectives on the game as content to be taught, in the Jurisdictional Curriculum Designs (Diseños Curriculares Jurisdiccionales, DCJ) of higher education in Physical Education in Argentina. Specifically, this work is focused on three DCJs, since they name their subjects as “Ludic practices” and, therefore, represent up-to-date meanings of what this paper seeks to analyze: the “ludic” as a category. For this analysis, first, some interesting criticisms by Grillo are presented, about thinking of the ludic as a natural quality, together with Rivero’s critical perspective on the adjectival use of the concept; this choice because both offer local views that directly discuss the meaning that circulates in the designs. Secondly, Benveniste’s ideas are developed, as they prove theoretically useful at the moment of thinking about the ludic, overcoming the aforementioned criticisms, in order to later advance with the analysis of the training curricula regarding the ludic for a triangulation with the social and analytical categories.