Borba Gilioli

The clash between the health perspective and the body culture perspective influences the preparation of the Paraná State Public Physical Education Textbook (LDP-EF), which opposes the guidelines of the National Curriculum Parameters for Secondary Education (PCN-EM), which defends the health paradigm. In this sense, the aim of this research was to analyse, in the light of historical-dialectical materialism, how and to what extent the content systematised in the LDP-EF can contribute to students’ education. The proposals contained in the LDP-EF include actions similar to those in the documents criticised, emphasising solidarity and cooperation, which are essential elements for the social cohesion needed to maintain society. Although it contains proposals for activities that would apparently require students to be critical, creative, autonomous and free, it neglects systematised knowledge, which is a prerequisite for these elements. Contradictorily, there are aspects in the LDP-EF that offer students the possibility of understanding the contents of Physical Education: some analyses consider both the specificity of the contents and their relationship with the structure of capitalist society.