LICERE - Revista do Programa de Pós-graduação Interdisciplinar em Estudos do Lazer
Licere is a edited magazine published by the Interdisciplinary Leisure Graduate Program at the Universidade Federal de Minas Gerais/Brazil, non-profit. It is open to receive contributions from professionals from the most different areas of expertise and training, as long as they are intended to contribute to the progress of the discussion on Leisure in our context.
O acesso ao saber e ao pensamento crítico tem sido atravessado por disputas que reduzem possibilidades. Entre cortes, desigualdades e promessas não cumpridas, ler e escrever ultrapassam o campo acadêmico e se colocam como gestos de posição e exercício da cidadania. No campo dos Estudos do Lazer, o desafio também se mostra. O lazer, pensado como experiência de criação e reflexão, perde espaço quando as condições de imaginar e aprender são limitadas. Não se trata apenas de ausência de conhecimento, mas do enfraquecimento do próprio solo que sustenta o pensamento. Esta edição é um convite a olhar para além das disputas visíveis. O que está em jogo aparece também nos silêncios das escolas, nos corredores das universidades e nas decisões que orientam o futuro. Reconhecer a educação como prática de liberdade é tarefa que exige confrontar-se e afirmar-se.
Copyright (c) 2025 LICERE - Revista do Programa de Pós-graduação Interdisciplinar em Estudos do Lazer https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-nc/4.0/
Junho sempre nos lembra de tantas histórias de resistência, mas também nos aponta para as inúmeras possibilidades de uma convivência mais harmoniosa e empática. A capa desta edição, com seu gesto simbólico de união e amor, busca capturar exatamente este momento, convidando você, leitor, a refletir sobre o papel vital que os estudos do lazer desempenham na construção de um mundo mais inclusivo. Ao pensarmos no lazer e no orgulho, logo percebemos que essas não são questões passageiras, restritas a uma única data como o 28 de junho, Dia Internacional do Orgulho LGBTQIAPN+. Elas fazem parte de um processo contínuo de transformação e inclusão. No campo dos estudos do lazer, isso ganha ainda mais força, pois temos a capacidade de impactar e moldar as experiências cotidianas de todos que participam desses espaços. Nosso convite é claro: que possamos, com ainda mais respeito e empatia, transformar o lazer em um verdadeiro ponto de encontro. Um lugar onde as diferenças não são barreiras, mas elementos que enriquecem e fortalecem nossa convivência e identidades plurais.
Esta tese, de natureza exploratória e qualitativa, objetivou analisar o lazer em midiatização, perspectiva desenvolvida considerando as interpenetrações entre os campos sociais. Nesse sentido, o lazer tem se tornado cada vez mais relevante na configuração das práticas sociais digitais na internet. Como meio de entretenimento e disputas, o chamado “lazer em midiatização” configura-se como uma prática de lazer sob os auspícios das tecnologias digitais, mais comunicativa, interativa, ubíqua e repleta de concessões quanto à liberdade de uso dos indivíduos. O estudo analisou as práticas de lazer promovidas pelas redes sociais digitais, buscando compreendê-las nos processos comunicacionais e interacionais. A investigação focalizou os fluxos e circuitos comunicacionais da plataforma de streaming Oldflix no Instagram, tendo como corpus publicações e comentários do perfil @oldflixbrasil coletados durante 2020-2024, período que possibilitou inferir o streaming como conteúdo de lazer e produto cultural midiatizado. A hipótese levantada é de que os fluxos de lazer (conteúdos, publicações e comentários) produzidos nas interações das redes/perfis geram matrizes culturais e interacionais entre lazer e mídia, relacionando esse produto a um lazer midiatizado. O objetivo geral foi analisar os usos e circuitos do lazer a partir das redes sociais digitais da Oldflix, categorizando os fluxos de comentários dos usuários para situar as práticas sociais do lazer por streaming. Ademais, o estudo buscou compreender como os circuitos relacionados às publicações e aos comentários que circulam nas redes Oldflix revelam sentidos sobre o lazer e as práticas relacionais-comunicativas. Como aporte teórico, utilizaram-se referências acerca do lazer no espaço das redes sociais, do lazer digital, da midiatização e da circulação, dos fluxos comunicacionais, bem como das matrizes comunicacionais e interacionais. Metodologicamente empregou-se teoria fundamentada para análise de comentários em confluência com a análise temática qualitativa para as publicações, mediante codificação sistemática que permitiu identificar categorias emergentes sobre os fluxos comunicacionais do lazer midiatizado. Os dados demonstraram que os circuitos de lazer do @oldflixbrasil mobilizam o consumo, a memória, os discursos e as interações digitais, confirmando que os fluxos comunicacionais geram matrizes culturais entre lazer e mídia. Esses resultados revelam que o streaming constitui espaço de sociabilidade digital onde os usuários não apenas consomem conteúdo, mas constroem vínculos e ressignificam práticas culturais. A investigação contribui para compreender como o lazer se reconfigura na cultura digital, evidenciando novas formas de midiatização das práticas sociais contemporâneas.
Políticas Públicas de Esporte e Lazer em Perspectiva Local
Essa dissertação propõe-se a compreender os desafios que se impõem às articulações entre as pastas de Esporte e Lazer e de Educação, do município de Belo Horizonte, para a concretização de ações colaborativas entre esses setores, à luz da intersetorialidade. O conceito da intersetorialidade emerge como resposta ao aumento das demandas sociais complexas, consolidando-se, inicialmente, como instrumento de fortalecimento da política de saúde. Posteriormente, afirma-se como estratégia fundamental para enfrentar os desafios contemporâneos do Estado, ao reconhecer que as políticas públicas, enquanto sistemas de ação, e os problemas públicos, como fenômenos complexos, exigem abordagens integradas de gestão. Para a condução desta pesquisa, adotou-se a abordagem qualitativa, com base em estudo de caso, envolvendo análise documental de legislações e documentos oficiais disponibilizados pelas secretarias, além de consultas realizadas às páginas digitais da Prefeitura de Belo Horizonte. Complementarmente, foram conduzidas entrevistas com sete burocratas de médio escalão, responsáveis pelo desenvolvimento de ações e projetos articulados entre as pastas da SMEL e da SMED, com o objetivo de compreender os arranjos institucionais dessas pastas, bem como as estratégias adotadas e os principais entraves à execução conjunta dessas políticas. Os resultados indicam que, embora existam esforços para a consecução de ações integradas sob o direcionamento da intersetorialidade, tais iniciativas ainda ocorrem de forma pontual e com baixa densidade, enfrentando desafios como escassez de recursos, pouca institucionalização e forte dependência de iniciativas individuais. Observa-se, ainda, que as ações de esporte e lazer tendem a ser operacionalizadas a partir da estrutura da educação, o que tem contribuído para sua continuidade no âmbito municipal.
Organization of Parasports Policy in Brazil
Like the entire evolutionary process, in sports legislation we had constant changes that contributed and still contribute to the development of public sports policies, with regard to Brazilian parasport, which emerged in 1958, in Rio de Janeiro with the creation of the Clube do Optimism, implementing the first sport adapted for PwD in the country, wheelchair basketball. Faced with this rise of parasport, laws are beginning to highlight sport as a right. As an example of this we have the Federal Constitution of 1988, which is worth highlighting as a major step in terms of national sports policy, in its article 217, sport is now considered a right of each individual, also highlighting the autonomy of associations sports and the direction of financial resources for educational sports. What we consider is that, since making sport the right for each individual, it signals the participation of PwD in sports. Therefore, this work is a theoretical essay on the political organization of parasport in Brazil.
The text presented here aims to construct a critical review of the book “Mechanical emotions”: the History of the Shanghai Amusement Park (1934-1968). Based on the discussions brought forth by historian Hennan Gessi, we will also discuss the different scales of this leisure enterprise, which, beyond its itinerant route in various cities in Brazil, originated in Argentina and drew various influences, in its mechanical apparatuses, from Europe and the United States. From the concepts addressed by the researcher, we will provide a brief summary of the notion of leisure throughout History and how it has shaped and been shaped by society. Following this introduction, we will discuss the trajectory of the Shanghai amusement park through its scale shifts across Latin America, until its ultimate conclusion in the city of São Paulo and its move to the Penha neighborhood in Rio de Janeiro.
Luiz Antonio Simas’s Thought and Leisure Studies
In this article, we seek to bring Luiz Antonio Simas's thinking closer to the field of Leisure Studies. We specifically relate themes and concepts that provoke alternative perspectives on carnival, football, and education. Written collectively, we chose a narrative style that also conveys our encounters with the author and expresses how we were affected by his work. Simas is a historian, writer, and elementary school teacher who, alongside other scholars, reflects on and proposes worldviews grounded in everyday experiences commonly associated with popular culture. Beyond his ideas expressed in prose, poetry, and chronicles, orality is a key dimension of his way of thinking, seeing the world, and presenting a Brazil shaped at the margins of dominant power structures. This text aims to bring to Leisure Studies a desire for dialogue with his thinking, using as reference some of his works, public lectures, and interviews, in the temporality in which they reached us and helped shape us as a study group. In doing so, we aim to share pathways for possible academic dialogues, particularly regarding the body in its different expressions within leisure experiences.
The Perception of Student-Athletes at the Federal University of Minas Gerais Regarding the Challenges of University Sports at the Institution
This study investigates the challenges of university sports at the Federal University of Minas Gerais from the perspective of 86 student-athletes, using a mixed-methods approach with both qualitative and quantitative techniques. The results highlight structural, financial, social, and institutional limitations that directly affect sports practice and participant engagement. The study emphasizes the importance of strengthening support for sports as part of academic development and well-being, as well as the need for public and institutional policies that promote inclusion, equity, and student retention in university sports.
An Overview of the Intersections between Leisure and Health in Brazilian Periodicals
The relationship between leisure and health cannot be seen as a matter of chance; rather, it must be understood in connection with the transformations in the ways of living, working, and having fun in contemporary society. It is not uncommon to find research that seeks to understand how leisure can improve physical or mental health indicators. When articulating critical understandings of both health and leisure, it becomes clear that neither concept should be reduced to individual or behavioral factors. In light of these considerations, this article aims to analyze Brazilian academic production that addresses the relationship between health and leisure. To this end, a qualitative literature review was conducted, focusing on four national journals: Licere, RBEL, Movimento, and Motrivivência. We found that most of the studies acknowledge the unequal access to leisure, as well as the precariousness of public policies and the existence of socioeconomic barriers. Still, a functionalist view dominates, seeing leisure mainly as a way to improve health rather than as a practice of freedom with many possible meanings.
Fernanda Stefany Conceição Carneiro da Cunha
The Routine of Children with Cancer and Playful Activities in the Hospital Environment
In this research, our focus is on recreational activities for children with cancer in a public hospital. The general objective is to analyze recreational activities for children with cancer. It is understood here that childhood and adolescent cancer is the leading cause of death among children and adolescents aged 1 to 19 in Brazil, and treatment often requires long periods of hospitalization. Methodologically, this research was developed using a qualitative approach based on hermeneutic-dialectics, where communication, expressed through the children’s words in interviews, underwent discourse analysis. From this, we understand that when provided, recreational activities within the hospital setting act as catalysts in the process of recovery and adaptation, serving as a strategy to cope with the adverse conditions of hospitalization.
The increase in the elderly population in Brazil, driven by demographic changes and sociocultural advances, challenges society to rethink the relationships between aging, leisure, and tourism. This study investigates how academic discussions address this intersection, considering aging as a multifaceted phenomenon that goes beyond the biological cycle. The general objective of this work is to analyze how the topic is addressed in the main academic journals in the field of leisure in Brazil, with emphasis on the SUCUPIRA/CAPES platform. The proposed reflection aims to contribute to the development of more inclusive and diverse public policies and projects. Among the main findings, a scarcity of studies addressing tourism as an effective leisure practice for the elderly was observed. Another aspect identified is that initiatives aimed at leisure for this population often prioritize a perspective centered exclusively on health and assistance. Thus, the research highlights the relevance of public policies that recognize tourism as a form of leisure capable of enriching the quality of life of this segment of the population.
Brazilian Research Groups in the Field of Leisure Studies in Brazil
Leisure Studies have established themselves as a powerful interdisciplinary field for understanding social dynamics. This research mapped research groups affiliated with CNPq that interface with the area, investigating relationships between production, circulation, and group involvement from an interdisciplinary perspective, as well as the importance and representativeness of their association, ANPEL, among others. Using a qualitative and quantitative approach, an online questionnaire was applied to the identified groups. The analyses revealed strengths and challenges, such as the need to strengthen participation from diverse fields in specialized conferences and publications, the existence of research groups fully dedicated to knowledge production in the field, and the representativeness of recognized associations. Ultimately, this study aimed to update the mapping of the field and highlight its interfaces in order to understand the forces that influence the visibility and strength of the area.
How do They Play? Profile of Use of Two Playgrounds in the City of Parintins/AM
Play is a child's right. A survey was carried out on the Benedito Azedo (BA) and Pichita Cohen (PC) municipal playgrounds located in the city of Parintins, Amazonas, characterizing children's games and their usage profile. This was a systematic non-participant observation, using two scripts, photographs and a field diary. In September 2023, three researchers carried out the observation for a full week, recording the games played by children up to the age of 12, in each of the parks, from 4pm to 8pm. The PC park caters more to older children than BA. Both parks predominated in physical exercise and turbulent play, showing the need for free movement. There is still a need for more parks throughout the city that provide different environments for construction and make-believe play.
Copyright (c) 2025 https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-nc/4.0/
The Public Complaint about Leisure Public Policies
This ethnography investigated how the complaints, actions, and strategies of the management of Parque Alim Pedro, in Porto Alegre (RS), sustain its activities and public administration amid changes in leisure policies. By following the park's coordinator and a delegate of the Participatory Budget, records from participant observation, field diaries, and interviews revealed that the coordinator established a community support network, strengthening ties in both public and familial spheres. However, despite her efforts to engage collaborators and sustain activities with a leisure policy recognized by the community, she faces coercion and difficulties in collective agreements within political arenas and with youth groups.
Meanings of Leisure in the School Environment for Early Childhood Physical Education Teachers in São Luís (MA)
Discussing leisure means addressing an essential human right; however, it is still often regarded merely as pastime or recreation. This study aimed to understand leisure as a tool for the integral development of early childhood education students within the school environment. Additionally, it sought to identify the school's perspective on leisure, analyze the methodologies employed by teachers, and discuss the importance of integrating leisure into the educational setting. This research is qualitative and exploratory in nature, grounded in the theoretical-methodological framework of Discourse Analysis. The study was conducted in São Luís – MA, with a sample of eight Physical Education teachers from the region. Data collection was carried out through semi-structured interviews, investigating the meanings these teachers attribute to leisure. The results and discussions revealed that leisure is perceived through constructivist-interactionist, biological, cultural, sportive, and cathartic lenses. The study concludes that leisure is considered important by social actors within the school environment; however, the methodologies employed still reflect practices from the 20th century. Moreover, leisure is presented as a polysemic concept, and schools do not adequately address the central theme of this research.
This article is the report of a study that aimed to analyze the relationships of LGBTQIA+ people with football as a space and experience of leisure, whose methodology was qualitative in nature, based on ethnographic assumptions. The focus was on the Predadores team from Belo Horizonte, whose subjects were gay, cis men, with a life trajectory permeated by prejudice, playing football as leisure and experiencing amateur football. This phenomenon identifies with a “dissident” leisure and football, as they expose undesirable existences and discrimination by the heterosexual norm, putting tension in the football environment. The motivations for playing football are related to the family environment; affective-sexual appeal and passion for the sport. By exposing their dissident bodies and sexuality, these individuals question certainties on and off the football field, claiming for themselves the right to sport and leisure.
Leisure Education and the Experience with Summer Camps
This article reports the training of licentiate and bachelor’s students in Physical Education at PUC Minas through the course Education for Leisure, part of the Leisure Studies track. The discipline aims to train professionals to work in programs that promote leisure and quality of life, in addition to developing recreational socio-educational projects for different audiences. To meet these objectives, theoretical and practical actions are carried out, of which the fieldwork at the Serra Cerrado Camp, developed since 2007, stands out. The article seeks to reflect about professional training and practice, with an emphasis on interventions in leisure facilities of this nature. It questions how this experience contributed to the personal and professional development of the participants. The methodology adopted was the application of a closed questionnaire to the graduates, via social networks. The testimonies allowed us to summarize reflections proposed in the courses and in the discipline, as well as to understand aspects of training for work in leisure in contemporary times.
In Brazil, the inclusion of Persons with Disabilities (PwD) was driven by the 1988 Federal Constitution, which also established social control mechanisms. This qualitative case study investigated the role of the Municipal Council for Persons with Disabilities (CMDPD) in Contagem/MG concerning the Sports and Leisure policy, in conjunction with the Municipal Secretariat of Culture, Sports, and Youth (SECEJ). The research used interviews with 13 council members and an analysis of 33 meetings minutes. The results were divided into three categories: council structure, council members' profiles, and deliberations. Despite 17 years of existence and a consolidated structure, the CMDPD showed low representation in the sports and leisure area. Its actions between 2017 and 2020 were considered fragmented and not very assertive, focusing on proposals for temporary events and projects. The council was unable to significantly influence the format of the public policy for PwD in the city.
Childhood, Neoliberalism and the Expropriation of Play
ABSTRACT: This article seeks to identify the characteristics of childhood and play in capitalist society under neoliberal pillars. The research is sustained by the historical-dialectical materialist conception. By understanding the relationship between social being and historical context, we analyze how childhood and play occur today, as a product of capitalism. The neoliberal political theory extrapolates the sphere of the market and imposes determinations on the objective life and subjectivity of individuals inserted in capitalism. Its analysis allows us to comprehend the determinations on children's lives and how play is configured. We noted the countless determinations that characterize children's play. We conclude that the overcoming of capital requires the educational work of Physical Education teachers, collaborating with the production of knowledge, heading towards the revolution by the working class, towards socialism and emancipation.
A Study of the Historical Evolution of the Cinematic Platformer Subgenre
Cinematic Platformer is a game subgenre. The objective of this study is to analyze the mechanics of the subgenre to observe the historical evolution of games. The 56 analyzed games belong to a list created by the community. They were evaluated based on objective criteria to determine whether or not they included certain mechanics. Finally, it was observed that there are two phases of the subgenre: a classic phase that lasts until the year 2000, and a renaissance phase that emerges in the 2010s with a new perspective on the subgenre.
Mud Invasion from the Fundão Dam and its Consequences in the Leisure of the Embroidery Women of Barra Longa (MG)
The objective of this article is to report the impacts on the daily lives and leisure activities of the embroiderers of the city of Barra Longa, after the collapse of the Fundão dam in Minas Gerais. A direct approach was made with them, in search of sufficient elements to support the research, among them, the centrality of embroidery as a leisure activity. Among the negative impacts caused by the invasion of the mud, the losses of family histories told through embroidery and the impairment of socialization among the embroiderers, moments considered by them as leisure, stand out. It was found that embroidery not only represents a source of leisure and income, but also of recovery of memories and resilience, whose environmental impacts, time will never be able to remedy.
Fun Life and Economic Crisis in Rio Branco
This study examines aspects of leisure life amidst the economic crisis in the city of Rio Branco, the capital of the state of Acre, between 1910 and 1914. It focuses on the early sporting initiatives, particularly horse racing, foot races, and bicycle races, as well as the Bar Acreano, which served as a prominent house of entertainment. The sources utilized are the periodicals Folha do Acre and O Acre.
The Prospects of the Autistic Youth Regarding Leisure
This survey aims to identify the prospects of the autistic youth regarding leisure. For this purpose, it was carried out a qualitative and exploratory integrative review on the database: SciELO, CAPES, PePsic and BVS. The descriptors used were: (Autism OR Autism Spectrum Disorder OR ASD) and (Leisure). On the CAPES database was also used: Austism + Leisure. After the selection and organization based on pre-defined inclusion and exclusion criteria, the corpus was constituted by 2 articles, all of them found on the BVS database. The studies approached the benefits of leisure for multidisciplinary interventions, introducing a perspective of leisure as a social control that disregards de re-elaboration of ableist and psychophobic values, aiming a social renovation towards the acceptance of the neurodiversity paradigm
Mapping Leisure Spaces and Equipment in a Southern Island Community
This article examines leisure in rural areas, specifically by mapping the spaces and equipment available in the community of Ilha dos Marinheiros, a district in the municipality of Rio Grande, in the southernmost region of Rio Grande do Sul. To achieve this, a descriptive study was conducted, with an empirical corpus composed of a field diary containing notes from multiple visits to the location between June and October 2022. The study employed observation as a technique, with a non-participant approach. The data were analyzed using the deductive thematic analysis (TA) method. The findings reveal a scenario in which public authorities invest minimally in providing leisure facilities for this rural community, leaving most leisure activities and the maintenance of existing equipment to the residents themselves.
This thesis proposes to discuss intersectionality as praxis, with social action as a mode of knowledge, based on qualitative, exploratory, ethnographic, and "escrevivencial" research. The work comprises two complementary methodological movements: the first, with urban ethnographic inspiration that includes data generated throughout 2023 and 2024, based on the circulation in leisure contexts of four Black Hip-Hop dancers from the city of Belo Horizonte, MG; a second movement emerged from the "escrevivência" of these women, which reverberates in the articulation between thought, writing, and dance, which we announce in the research as "corposcrevência." The theoretical foundation was woven in an interdisciplinary manner, drawing from Patricia Hill Collins on the relationship between Black feminist thought, intersectionality, and Hip-Hop; Christianne Luce Gomes conceptualizing leisure as a human necessity in the dimension of culture; Nilma Lino Gomes with aesthetic-corporeal knowledge, the Black Educational Movement, and the emancipated body; Paulo Freire bringing the conscious body and the relationship between humanization and dehumanization; and finally, bell hooks with the question of self-recovery of Black women and the place of affects in knowledge production relations. The analyses revealed that Black women are intersected by issues of race, gender, class, and sexuality, which produce qualitatively differentiated experiences in the field of leisure. In counterpoint, they produce resistance through multiple literacies, organizations that are their own, and through their body-territories, which reverberate in a territory of affects that sustain them for the fabulation of other possible futures in intersectional leisures.
Bruna D’Carlo Rodrigues de Oliveira Ribeiro
The "10 de Agosto Cup" of the Military Police
The "10 de Agosto Cup", a Swiss football championship held in the categories of Officers and Enlisted Personnel, was established as one of the institutional events commemorating the 170th anniversary of the Paraná Military Police (PMPR). The objective of this study was to report the experience of one of the authors, who is a Captain in the PMPR, participating in this event in the Officers' category in 2024. This work is characterized as an exploratory and qualitative study, based on an experience report. Although the "10 de Agosto Cup" primarily focuses on the physical-sportive aspect of leisure, the social content plays a significant role in the development of this event. Through this experience, values can be lived and learned. Finally, the study addresses leisure barriers, emphasizing that these should be studied and considered to further democratize this experience for the benefit of military police officers and their families.
The text has an essayistic character and aims to present the epistemological basis for leisure-plot, as variations on leisure from the favela Ecosystem. In theoretical terms, the orientation is ecosystemic-complex. The prism is the Schizoanalysis of Guattari and Deleuze (2004), based on the conceptual proposition Schizographies, applied to leisure in the favela, taking as inspiration the variations on pleasure by Rubem Alves (2011). Methodologically we used the Cartography of Knowledge and Rhizomatic Matrices (Baptista; Eme, 2023). The cartographic trails present a mutant and schizographic constitution, while the Matrices present themselves as a synthetic framework that helps to systematize the writing. As considerations, we present the way in which the Schizographies of favela leisure signal the need to recognize and expand the variations on leisure, from its inside out plot, as proposed by Baptista (2021).
This essay seeks to reflect on the meaning given to leisure for people with disabilities. To this end, it addresses the approximation between leisure studies and the London movement of Disability Studies. After discussing a brief history of this activist and academic movement and the mark of its studies, recognized as the construction of a counterpoint to the biological interpretation of disability, it intersects its trajectory with the field of critical development of leisure and the expectations that configure its access. The study, while pointing out the situation of anomie and passivity of people with disabilities in the face of decisions that concern them, defends the need for a collective scenario that faces the aesthetic and social barriers created, providing opportunities for the active participation of voice and recognized and respected interests.
This article is a synthesis of doctoral research carried out in a full-time public school, with the aim of understanding the relationships established in its daily life through the eyes of the subjects living in the experiences. For 15 months I was present, using cartography as a research method in which monitoring the activities with the teachers and students who made up collective A (6th and 9th year) was fundamental. In this context, I present in this article the results of the conversations held with 9th year students. It was possible to identify that the relationships built in the experience of studying at this school permeate the learning of responsibility, autonomy and freedom, three words that appeared in all the students' statements and constitute fundamental elements that permeate all the school's pedagogical processes.
Characterization of Leisure and Recreation Activities for Students with Special Educational Needs in the Northern Region of Portugal
The aim of this study was to characterize and understand the types of leisure and recreational activities offered to pupils with special educational needs (SEN) in schools in the northern region of Portugal. The methodology used was qualitative and consisted of semi-structured interviews with six primary and special education teachers. The aim was to identify the types of leisure and recreational activities offered to students with SEN in the school context and to understand and evaluate the skills, training, experiences and practices of the participating teachers in relation to the institution in which they taught and the way in which these practices were perceived and offered to these students. The main findings of the analysis led to the conclusion that recreational activities in the school context for students with SEN are curricular in nature and that all schools meet this requirement; as regards teachers' training, it was found that it is generally based on mainstream education and deepened according to needs and demands. It was also concluded that there are possible advantages and disadvantages in offering these practices, with a greater emphasis on socialization in playful and free moments in the school environment and a lack of in-depth knowledge among teachers about the benefits of these practices in special education.