Education of the Body and Childhood: Power and Coercive Violence to the Body of Children at School

This research seeks to discuss the social relations established through the body of children and adults control in the school play, as well as analyze the issues of power and violence that permeate these relationships. Therefore, it is based on the assumptions of the Sociology of Childhood, which considers children as social actors, capable of interacting with the environment where they are inserted and assign senses to their actions. The methodology used was ethnographic orientation, focused on childhood and children culture. The research was developed in a public school in Brasilia, the capital of Brazil, through participant observation and conversations with the children. It was observed the children's daily life in the times and spaces where they used to play at school, during 4 months. The data were categorized and analyzed based on interdisciplinary theoretical references. The results suggest that children are not inert to the social action logic established by the institution. On the opposite, they are active and react to the conditions imposed upon them. By playing, the children are able to exert power through the interactions with their pairs, but not with coercive purpose – as adults do. Thus, it is also possible to infer that the children are organized in their social relations expressed in the games and that in turn reflect the relations of power. The children reveal this set of relationships by their body when they play. As a central challenge, we highlight the necessity need to reflect about the education of the body, on the organization and socio-cultural systems, which can generate symbol violence and injustice against children.