Beneficios de un enfoque activista de la educación física en la participación deportiva de niñas de Educación Primaria

The lack of participation of girls in sport shows the persistence of gender inequalities in our society. The objectives of this study were to learn about the barriers girls have to practice sport in Physical Education (PE) classes and the benefits of applying the activist approach to them. The study included 20 girls and 28 boys between the ages of ten and 12, the PE teacher and the researchers. Two didactic units (DDUU) were developed in which reflective activities appeared in gender issues in which girls were worked to increase their participation through empowerment and treatment of non-perpetuation of situations in which hegemonic masculinity was manifested. Data were collected through focus groups with the students, teacher interviews, and the gender-oriented reflexive activities themselves, on which narrative analysis was performed. The results showed improvements in girls’ sport participation from the perceptions of girls themselves, the teacher and the principal author, thanks to the critical and reflective daily work that contributed to their empowerment process.