Inclusive physical activities have been present in the curriculum of the Faculty of Physical Education (FEF) at Unicamp since the beginning of the 90s, including undergraduate education, specialization courses Postgraduate Course , dissertations, theses and actions aimed at the community, such as adapted sports courses offered as extension projects. The central proposal, which today involves the participation of teams in championships and Paralympic games, is to train human resources that can work with people with disabilities (PWDs) and provide them with autonomy and insertion in different spaces and leisure. “In almost thirty years of operation, adapted sports and adapted school physical education are considered in three undergraduate subjects. These students also help in classes open to the public, as the proposal is to combine theory and practice”, explains Maria Luiza Tanure, extension coordinator at the college. In six editions, the specialization course in adapted physical education has improved dozens of professionals and is already preparing the new schedule for 2019.
In 2017, one of the new features was the return of some Paralympic festivals, organized by the students themselves. One of them was the AdaptaFEF, structured during the Adapted Sports discipline. Around 150 children, with and without disabilities, spent the afternoon at the college, immersed in eight Paralympic sports. Keeping an eye on the initiative, Campinas City Hall included the proposal in the 2017 Virada Cultural program and is already planning the participation of students from municipal schools for 2018. This year, the organization has already announced the date: November 9th. At a national level, the FEF also highlighted actions on National Paralympic Day, officially celebrated on September 22, in partnership with the Brazilian Paralympic Committee. “We were together with 48 other cities in the country with the aim of helping children access sports. Most families with PWDs do not even know that there are adapted physical activities and the quality of life that practicing them can provide”, comments professor Maria Luiza, from the Adapted Motor Activity Laboratory (LAMA). For three years, FEF has also participated in the “Science and Art of Vacations” program, carried out by the Dean of Research. In July and January, dozens of students from public schools in Campinas spend around a week in various scientific activities. The practice of Paralympic sport is one of them, including goalball, the only specific modality for people with disabilities.
See what the 1st Paralympic Festival of the Faculty of Physical Education at Unicamp was like
Edison Duarte and José Julio Gavião are among the pioneers in the area at FEF and are also part of LAMA. The focus of the two professors is on high-performance Paralympic sport. Over the years, they participated in Brazilian delegations, classifying and preparing athletes. “This extramural practice is very positive for teaching because we are able to share these experiences and prepare several students to follow this path”, says Gavião. It is in extension projects that school initiation and high performance converge. These include wheeled fencing, archery, handball, swimming, rugby and weightlifting. “High-performance sport is so rich and specialized that sometimes we run the risk of using it inappropriately when thinking about initiation, that is, people take the same content to the classroom that they see on television, we need to be aware of how this is passed as they are two very different facets, which do not diverge but rather connect at some point”, comments Gavião.
Informal extension in the area began in the 80s
Edison Duarte tells the beginning of the area, based on an adapted physical activity project, in 1988, together with professor José Luiz Rodrigues, Paulo Araújo and Ana Isabel Figueiredo. There were five people with motor difficulties. Then people with visual impairments arrived to train, brought in in 1991, with the arrival of Professor Gavião. In 1994, when he took over as director of the college, he invested in accessibility. “To receive these people, we made adapted ramps, gates and bathrooms, which increased demand for activities”, says Duarte. He also remembers the first adapted motor activity festival on campus, in 1990. The proximity with Brazilian committees and confederations intensified. In 2000, LAMA was officially created and, ten years later, Unicamp hosted the XNUMXst Brazilian Paradesportive Congress. “All these actions were never dissociated from research. It was, for example, from a doctoral thesis that wheelchair fencing emerged, established bases and expanded throughout Brazil”, adds the professor.
Watch the video "Adventure of the Senses”, produced by TV Unicamp in 2005, which publishes undergraduate and postgraduate work, based on the work completed on the Performing Arts course:
Current coordinator of rugby and handball projects, José Irineu Gorla completed a postgraduate degree at FEF and, years after teaching at several universities, returned to the institution as a professor in the Department of Studies in Adapted Physical Activity, in 2006. Gorla was, in fact, the creator of wheelchair handball for competition in the country, based on a project developed in Paraná with professor Décio Calegari. Unicamp included the proposal in the extension schedule in 2007. A year later, it also set up a wheelchair rugby team. Although people's quality of life is the central focus of the projects, “training naturally evolved to the point where athletes sought new challenges in regional and national competitions”, says the professor. Between 2009 and 2012, the teams from Unicamp and Adeacamp (Associação de Esportes Adaptados de Campinas) won titles in the Brazilian championship of the sport and, step by step, they advanced into other areas of the country and welcomed new members. “This flow of people here is very healthy, as we have an immense universe of studies, always with the effective participation of undergraduate and postgraduate students”, celebrates Gorla, whose laboratory, LAFEA-Physical Assessment in Exercise and Adapted Sports, It is attached to “Ginasinho”, a place where athletes, all with some physical disability, train weekly.
Active in research on physical assessments of Paralympic athletes, what the professor highlights is the proven physiological improvement in people with disabilities who regularly practice sport. “In addition to improving respiratory and cardiovascular functions, the socialization and challenge that come with physical activity encourage athletes not to stop exercising,” he explains. Knowing the needs and specificities of each player, as well as their physiological responses, is essential for research, development of new products, new methods and exercises, for example, that do not injure players. Much of LAFEA's investigations are carried out in partnership with the Biomechanics and Rehabilitation of the Locomotor System area of the Hospital de Clínicas (HC) at Unicamp, connecting sports sciences and medicine. “If we are unable to understand that a modification in the spinal cord, due to a possible accident, has altered that athlete's body, we run the risk of making mistakes with him in training and even injuring him”, explains Gorla. Spinal cord injury is even part of the content of undergraduate classes. Part of the course is outside the classroom, with students experiencing wheelchairs, available in the Gym. “Future physical education professionals experience college architectural accessibility issues and participate in adapted games. This practice arouses the interest of many students in internships, scholarships and, later, in professional or academic work”, highlights the professor.
Inclusive physical education is a challenge in schools
The Brazilian Law on the Inclusion of Persons with Disabilities (2015) establishes that schools cannot refuse to enroll a student because of their disability nor charge extra costs. The current model seeks a school organization that can include all students. If on paper, it is an achievement, in practice, schools still face numerous challenges to implement what is in the law. In physical education, it is no different. According to Maria Luiza Tanure, the biggest difficulties lie in training professionals to set up and conduct classes with all children – with or without disabilities –, doing the same activities together. “Adapting a class is not simple because children without disabilities can sometimes find a game boring when including a PWD. This, in turn, ends up knowing only traditional sports and is unable, in practice, to experience them”, confirms the teacher, who does not deny that, in all studies carried out in the area to date, special children have limited participation in sports. physical education classes. Based on this issue, FEF invested in research, with support from Fapesp, and training courses in the city's schools. To actually include children with disabilities in classes, it is necessary to restructure classes and content. “It is not enough to adapt modalities and build ramps, the principle of inclusion must guide all the values of school physical education”, evaluates Maria Luiza Tanure. By identifying this niche of activity, “not only college students have been trained, but also teachers from different schools, forming a network for the development of adapted school sports”, she concludes.
