Issn 1983-8034 Ethics, bioethics and physical education

Palavras-chave: Bioética. Ética. Educação. Educação física e treinamento.
Resumen
Ética, bioética y educación física: revisión sistemática de una necesaria convergencia
Este artículo pretende identificar las publicaciones sobre ética y bioética en el campo de la educación física en revistas científicas. Se realizó una revisión sistemática de la literatura en enero de 2020 en las bases LILACS, SciELO, Web of Science, Biblioteca Virtual en Salud, PubMed, Scopus, Eric y SPORTDiscus. Se encontraron artículos en inglés publicados entre 2005 y 2018, de estos 12 se seleccionaron por los criterios de inclusión. Resultaron cuatro categorías: la educación física como medio para el desarrollo personal en escuelas, potencialidades del deporte como herramienta para la educación moral formadora de virtudes, nivel de conocimiento de los profesionales de este campo sobre la ética y la ética en la formación profesional. Si bien registran en la literatura cuestiones relacionadas con la ética y la bioética en la educación física, es necesario ampliar los estudios sobre este tema, todavía al margen de la producción científica en el campo.
Palabras clave: Bioética. Ética. Educación. Educación y entrenamiento físico.

The authors declare no conflict of interest.

Research
Ethics and bioethics are close and necessary concepts regarding the field of physical education (PE). Ethics can be understood as an exercise of reflection on morality, by ideal standards of what may be good for individuals and society ¹. Bioethics, in turn, can be understood as applied ethics, characterized by the systematic study on moral dimensions, using a variety of precepts and methods in an interdisciplinary context, conceived based on the society, culture, and moral values of contemporary civilization ².
PE is a field of knowledge and a professional field whose object of study consists in practices applied to motor skills, or human movement, as well as the culture of body movement, focusing on the different forms and modalities of physical exercises, such as gymnastics, games, sports, fights, and dances, aiming at meeting the social needs in the fields of health, education and training, culture, high-performance sports, and leisure ³. For this study, we chose to use the term “physical education professional” to designate both professionals with a Bachelor’s degree and those with a Teaching degree.
Ethical issues related to academic education, professional practices, and interpersonal and social relationships emerge in the education of PE professionals as well as in other undergraduate programs focused on health care ⁴. PE is an area that dialogues with knowledge of education, sports, and health and, therefore, the teaching and practice of PE is perceived as a path to the physical, intellectual, social, and emotional. Taking this into consideration, implications arise for PE professionals to expand their understanding of subjectivity and the reconstruction of their practices ⁴, demonstrating the need for lifelong training consistent with the changes observed in contemporary times.
In this scenario of the search for a critically- active continuing education, a harmonious relationship, based on ethics and bioethics, implies commitment of the involved subjects, that is, students, teachers, educational institutions, and PE professionals. In addition, the understanding of the existential dimensions within the area of PE can and should be contextualized ⁵ in concrete everyday practices.
We can perceive that studies investigating the topics “ethics” and “bioethics” in PE indicate
that these are still mostly related to the school environment, with discussions and reflections on reflective practices and sports, with debates on moral development and values education ^6-9. However, to strengthen an ethical professional practice, it is essential to understand the ethics of everyday life in the everyday contexts of PE ¹⁰. Hence, research on ethical training and on the role of universities in educating professionals in the field of PE for increasingly complex and plural workplaces is necessary ¹¹.
PE professionals are surrounded by ethical issues and are co-responsible for the well- being of students/clients/patients ¹². Taking this into consideration, continuous professional development and qualification programs should aim at the ethical reflection of the practices and challenges encountered in the daily lives of these professionals, seeking to expand opportunities to reflect on real ethical issues, dilemmas, or problems in their own contexts ⁸.
Nevertheless, the international and national scientific literature seems scarce due to the numerous possible existing ethical conflicts, alluding to the culture of body movement, especially in the modalities in which PE professionals exercise their skills. Thus, the key question of this study is to identify how the discussion on ethics and bioethics related to PE takes place in the scientific literature.