The use of technology at the First Argentine Congress of Physical Education (1943)

ANTONELLA BERTOLOTTO; EDUARDO GALAK

Congreso; 43nd International Standing Conference for the History of Education (ISCHE); 2022

The goal of this research is to look into the use of technology at the First Argentine Congress of Physical Education, which was held from December 13 to 20, 1943, at the Automóvil Club Argentino in the Federal Capital of Buenos Aires by the Association of Physical Education Teachers.The intention of the congress was to raise certainties and solutions with respect specifically to the disciplinary field, but also to other specialties and labor fields related to physical culture. This event has historical significance because it was the first of its kind in Argentina, due to the plurality of voices found -national and international- and because it is also a pioneering event in incorporating new technologies, such as film and radio projections. In this sense, it can be read as a space where common narratives, dominant sense logics, a certain transnationalization of objects, and labor needs in the topics addressed can be identified.These topics were exposed as a mechanism to establish common principles, guidelines, biotypes, and working conditions for the configuration of a national and continental disciplinary matrix. Which allows us to think that the Congress not only sought to manage a federalization of the field, but also tried to consolidate an internationalization of the ways of educating the bodies in Latin America.In this context, the use of technologies, such as film projections, photographs, radio, and the written press, allowed the mass production and circulation of discourses and meanings through the field of physical culture. A total of fifteen film projections were made, mostly provided by the Inter-American Broadcasting Association, the General Directorate of Physical Education, and Casa Bayern. In turn, the South American Gymnastics Institute, specifically for women and children, gave a talk accompanied by three film screenings. It is possible to identify that cinematographic exhibitions are related to thematic sections carried out as a way to educate not only ways of doing but also ways of seeing: an education of the look, homogenizing and normalizing issues surrounding the body and forms, and educating him through movement (Galak, 2020).For their part, the photographs had a space exclusively for their exhibition, where specialized books and gymnastic and sports photographs taken by official and private institutions, teachers, specialists, and commercial establishments were exhibited. In this way, through their performative character (Arfuch, 2009), they built and transmitted meanings and official representations around the education of the body. While the radio and newspapers were part of the issues addressed in Congress. Specifically, they used the radio broadcast of the national state and various newspapers such as Crítica, el Mundo, El Pampero, La Prensa, Predica, and Cabildo to circulate information technology issues, but also to produce favorable public opinion. Understanding them as social, political, and pedagogical actors (Kircher, 2005; Qués, 2013), they were considered an appropriate space for the dissemination of the problems and benefits of the discipline and an effective means for its organization.