História dos jogos escolares na Bahia: a realidade da cidade de Salvador (1950–1980)

Abstract

The study in question is part of the Postgraduate Program in Education (PPGE), of the Faculty of Education of the Federal University of Bahia (UFBA), in the thematic line Education, Body Culture and Leisure, integrating the research group BODY. This is historical research, based on the dimension of Social History, as it is characterized by an act of dynamic observation of society, with its also dynamic developments, its movements on the transit of people and powers, also dynamic, assuming different perspectives and possibilities of reading social reality in different ways. We then began to question how socio-historical and political factors contributed to the idealization and materialization of the School Games in Bahia, as an educational practice in the city of Salvador, between the 1950s and 1980s. Therefore, our aim was to recognize the socio-historical and political conditioning factors, notably the ruptures and continuities in the discourses that contributed to the idealization and materialization of the School Games in Bahia, during the period in question, as an educational practice. Thus, the second half of the 20th century was an essential period for the growth and urban development of the city of Salvador, notably due to the efforts made to overcome the phases that followed the loss of power, causing its political and economic decline on the national stage. It was in this context of socio-economic development and urban changes that sporting practices gained more emphasis in the school environment, prompting us to develop a research project on sports activities in the form of school games in the city of Salvador. The city of Salvador was chosen because it is the capital of the state of Bahia, the state's most important economic and administrative center, and because it was believed to have been the first city in Bahia to develop sports activities along the lines of school games. We conducted recorded interviews with social actors who were part of the school games culture in the city of Salvador and then used periodicals archived at the Geographical and Historical Institute of Bahia. Newspapers were chosen because they are objects that are very present in modern life, and the newspaper “A Tarde” because it is an important means of communication with circulation from 1912 to the present day. Based on the analysis of the interviews and the newspapers, we compared them with the information published in the book “História da Educação Física na Bahia: memória de um professor” (History of Physical Education in Bahia: a teacher's memory) and concluded that the Bahia Spring Olympics marked Salvador and Bahia as the first school games, in 1959, the activities were aimed at schools and clubs, and later included the capital's colleges, making it the largest and most important student event in the state, ending in the early 1970s under unknown circumstances.