41

The research is based on the observation of major disparities in the preparation and teaching of Physical Education content in secondary school courses. We formulate the hypothesis that these differences can be partly explained by variations in connection with the students´ social characteristic. The way teachers define the content of what can legitimately be taught and the types of justifications they advance are highly dependent on the types of student bodies with which they are dealing. Such socially differentiated choices lead to an uneven distribution of skills and knowledge in Physical Education between teaching institutions, thereby exacerbating the process of inequality between students. We could observe that the teaching of Physical Education oscillates between a traditional approach, the illusion of a shared culture and the reproduction of social discrimination. There is a legitimate concern in relation to the adaptation of teachers to students as it can produce devastating effects. There is a certain preoccupation that an abusive use of continuous strategies in relation to student´s presumed expectations would deprive schools from their roles of emancipation. Even if teachers do not systematically yield to this “adaptation at all cost” functioning in the classroom, there is still a tendency for students to suffer passively this sociocultural profile.