Narrativas de pessoas trans/travestis sobre as aulas de Educação Física na cidade de Manaus/AM: ecoando vozes dos/as (in)visíveis

Abstract

This study addresses the narratives of trans/travesti individuals regarding their experiences in Physical Education classes in the city of Manaus, Amazonas, Brazil. It was developed and presented to the Graduate Program in Education at the Federal University of Amazonas (UFAM) as part of Research Line 1: Education, State, and Society in the Amazon. As a social institution, the school is characterized as a space of tensions, challenges, and possibilities. Through schooling, individuals have their lives transformed and shaped according to the demands of social life. Within the school environment, issues related to gender, gender identity, and sexual diversity are manifested elements considered crucial for understanding processes of subjective constitution as well as the dynamics of inclusion and exclusion present in everyday school life. In this context, educational public policies are also embedded, understood as a set of guidelines, laws, and programs aimed at systematizing and regulating education and its respective stages according to ideological and normative assumptions. Based on these premises, the main objective of this research is to analyze the experiences of four (4) trans/travesti individuals in Physical Education classes in the city of Manaus, drawing on their school trajectories. To this end, the study adopts a qualitative, exploratory approach, theoretically grounded in Cultural Studies. The research locus is the city of Manaus, and the participants are four (4) trans/travesti individuals who completed high school in public schools. Data were collected through semi-structured interviews guided by a script consisting of 17 questions organized into six thematic blocks. The narratives were analyzed using Content Analysis, focusing on the interpretation of emerging perceptions and subjectivities, with the aim of granting epistemological visibility to the experiences of the participants. As final considerations, we argue that Physical Education can become a space of emancipation if cisnormative paradigms that sustain inequalities and silence plural identities rooted in this context are challenged. Furthermore, we contend that the initiative to listen to, document, and analyze these local experiences in the city of Manaus represents not only an act of resistance but also an invitation to reconfigure pedagogical practices toward an education committed to respect, dignity, and the recognition of all legitimate forms of existence.