Introduction

Sport is a sociocultural phenomenon, being also an educational space with several meanings, exchanges, encounters and confrontations ( ^{RODRIGUES JÚNIOR; SILVA, 2008} ), transforming the lives of participants ( ^{SANCHES; RUBIO, 2011} ). The practice and teaching of sport, which happen in different environments such as school, leisure and high performance ( ^{MARQUES; GUTIERREZ; ALMEIDA, 2008} ), derive from sociocultural components related to the context in which this process occurs, as well as the cultural background of the involved social agents ( ^{BARKER-RUCHTI; SCHUBRING, 2016} ; ^{BARKER-RUCHTI et al ., 2016} ; ^{COAKLEY, 2011} ).

Among many sport practices, futsal is the product of a social and historical transformation process, being a result from different ways of appropriation by the involved social agents. It is remarkable the process of transformations and influences from ball games with the feet adapted for courts in the 1930s, until it became the sport called futsal in the late 1980s, and the constitution of its contemporary and spectacularized form in the 21st century ( ^{BERDEJO DEL FRESNO, 2014} ; ^{MARQUES; MARCHI JUNIOR, 2019} ; ^{MARQUES et al ., 2021} ; ^{MOORE et al ., 2014} ; ^{SANTANA, 2008a} ; ^{SCAGLIA, 2011} ).

In Brazil, futsal is a very widespread sport, being the most practiced in schools ( ^{VOSER; GIUSTI, 2015} ), being among the four leisure activities that most involve teenagers’ participation ( ^{BRASIL, 2015} ). Many young Brazilian players that dream of a football professional career switch to futsal ( ^{MARQUES et al ., 2021} ). At school, futsal teaching happens both in Physical Education classes and extracurricular activities. ( ^{OLIVEIRA, 2016} ; ^{RICCI, 2018} ), being the later called in this study as extracurricular sports practices (ESP) ( ^{LETTNIN, 2005} ).

Understanding school as a space for social protection and socialization ( ^{SANTOS, 2019} ), the care related to pedagogical actions is important, as possible social inequalities in the offering of learning opportunities can be reflected in other dimensions of students’ lives ( ^{SILVA; AZEVEDO, 2018} ).

ESP are a possibility to provide opportunities for students to practice various sports at school, in a context with different meanings in comparison with Physical Education classes ( ^{MARQUES; GUTIERREZ; ALMEIDA, 2008} ). ESP offer a more specific and in-depth approach to sport, often preparing students to participate in school competitions. Such forms of sport practice usually occur in the after-hours of regular Physical Education at school, with pedagogical goals that can be closer or farer from those related to curricular classes ( ^{LETTNIN, 2005} ; ^{LUGUETTI et al. , 2015} ).

The ways in which ESP occur derive mainly from the dialectic between the dispositions and the meaning attributed to them by the social agents involved, and the pedagogical context of the school institution where it happens ( ^{OLIVEIRA, 2016} ). Such sociocultural configuration, called learning culture, structures the criteria and moral values on teaching ( ^{HODKINSON; BIESTA; JAMES, 2008} ), guiding questions related to competitiveness and opportunities for different students to participate in sport training and competitions sessions. Learning cultures influence, in different ways, the constitution of dispositions for sports practices ( ^{CUSHION; JONES, 2014} ), in order to enhance or difficult learning processes and incorporation of a sports culture in the students’ daily lives ( ^{BARKER; QUENNERSTEDT; ANNERSTEDT, 2015} ).

Within this context, any pedagogical activity involves not only technical-procedural teaching, but in a dialectical way, also ethical and sociocultural issues, including its results having a close relationship with the previous conditions and cultural background of the students ( ^{BLOOMER; HODKINSON; BILLETT, 2004} ; ^{HODKINSON, 2005} ).

The pedagogical action that connects individual and collective development, when organized in a welcoming and safe environment, could provide social actions for youth socio-political empowerment, a dimension often ignored by sports programs ( ^{COAKLEY, 2011} ). Thus, the teacher/coach, in addition to the tactical-technical teaching of sport, assumes fundamental importance in structure the meanings of practice and ways of sport culture incorporation by students ( ^{COAKLEY, 2017} ; ^{CUSHION; JONES, 2014} ), thus influencing the directions and constitution of learning horizons ( ^{BLOOMER; HODKINSON; BILLET, 2004} ). The meaning of pedagogical action, within this context, derives from the goal and significance attributed to the practice by those involved social agents ( ^{BOURDIEU, 2004} ).

Applied to the teaching of sport, especially at school, Marques, Gutierrez and Almeida (2008) propose a typology of meanings for the practice that considers two forms in particular:

When re-signified, the competition results become as secondary in relation to changes in the activity structure, favouring a more equal participation of all the involved social agents, according to their potential and aspirations ( ^{MARQUES; ALMEIDA; GUTIERREZ, 2007} ).

To the same extent, the insertion of official sport at school can create a scenario of different offering of opportunities for practice among students, as well as a greater valuation of those with better sports performance, in detriment of those who may be considered less able to compete ( ^{MARQUES; ALMEIDA; GUTIERREZ, 2007} ). The official meaning could hamper, at school, the full participation of some students, as well as hinder the creation of taste and dispositions for sport practice ( ^{BALBINO et al., 2013} ; ^{SADI, 2013} ).

The occurrence of the official meaning can be illustrated when a teacher/coach privileges those students considered to be more capable of producing an optimal competitive result, offering them more minutes into the game than others considered to be less capable ( ^{SADI, 2013} ).

In a study of a futsal competition between ESP school teams in a country city of São Paulo state, Brazil, it was found that students received unequal opportunities for participation from their teachers/coaches during the games. Such a scenario not only produced an irregular distribution of opportunities for practice, but mainly created very different conditions for learning and sports development. In the same study, it was evidenced that many players stayed almost all the time competition on the bench, without actively playing, or participated for a very short time ( ^{RICCI; MARQUES, 2018} ).

The child or even the adolescent training has the purpose of prepare them to play and actively participate in the sports experiences available. Without living the concrete experience of training and compete, the students will not access to sufficient and adequate learning conditions for improving performance, and building a disposition for sport practice ( ^{SANTANA, 2018} ).

The teaching of sport in an official meaning, as in the example described by ^{Ricci and Marques (2018)} , suggests a practice in which the bench could be associated with the place of the unsuccessful players, the less able and defeated in the competition for a position into the team ( ^{SANTANA, 2018} ). Regarding a re-signified perspective of sports practice, with greater rotation among the participants, the bench could be considered a place of transition, where players wait for entering into the game, and the one who is playing understands that at some point will get out for a teammate play, in other words, a space for sharing the opportunity to actively participate in the game. Teaching these moral values in a re-signified meaning could be considered by the teacher/coach as even more important than winning the game or being a champion ( ^{RICCI; MARQUES, 2018} ).

Facing the issue related to the meaning of pedagogical practice by teachers/coaches in futsal activities at ESP, and their possible educational consequences, the main questions of this study were: a) What is the meaning of practice assigned by teachers/coaches when teaching futsal in the extracurricular school environment?; b) How are such practices organized in these educational contexts?

Considering such questions, the aim of this study was to investigate and analyse the reasons and meanings of teaching futsal in the extracurricular school environment, adopted by teachers/coaches from a country city in the State of São Paulo, Brazil.

Method

This study fits into a qualitative research approach, with the Grounded Theory (GT) method being adopted ( ^{CHARMAZ, 2009} ). The GT was developed by the sociologists Barney Glaser and Anselm Strauss as an alternative to the hypothetical-deductive tradition of qualitative research. Thus, based on divergences regarding some of the methodological procedures, the GT assumes three different methodological perspectives: the classic, the Straussian and the constructivist ( ^{SANTOS et al ., 2018} ).

The option adopted in this study was the constructivist perspective, based on the construction of a theory from data. The studied phenomena are collective constructions that strongly respond to the interpretive tradition ( ^{CHARMAZ, 2009} ).

Data were produced from semi-structured interviews with seven futsal teachers/coaches that work in private schools in a country city in the state of São Paulo, Brazil. Initial contacts and invitations to participate in the study were made directly with the teachers/coaches, who indicated the dates and the appropriate places for the interviews.

The concepts of initial sampling and theoretical sampling were used for the selection and recruitment of participants. Theoretical sampling guided the conceptual paths until enough information was obtained to explain the codes, thus resulting in theoretical saturation. In other words, theoretical sufficiency to answer the questions of the study ( ^{CHARMAZ, 2009} ).

The initial sample consisted on three teachers/coaches who met the initial criteria. After the first three interviews, the need of better qualifying the sample was felt by researches and the following criteria were defined for the theoretical sample: a) graduates in Physical Education; b) ESP futsal teachers/coaches of students from the sixth to the ninth grade of Elementary School; c) participation in at least one school futsal competition between 2015 and 2017 (in order to guarantee a group of participants who share the same recent competition context); d) declare themselves available to participate in the study.

To ensure a more rigorous homogeneity in relation to the context of pedagogical profile among the participants of this study, researchers decided to interview teachers/coaches only working in private schools, who participated in municipal interschool competitions. Table 1 presents the characterization of the participants, identified in this study as T1, T2, T3, T4, T5, T6 and T7 to guaranty their anonymity.

The interviews took place in a personal, individual way and were audio recorded. When necessary, a second round of interviews was carried out so that important or missing points in the first intervention could be in-depth adressed.

The data analysis followed the guidelines from constructivist GT ( ^{CHARMAZ, 2009} ):

This study was approved by the Research Ethics Committee from the University of the Last Author of this article, and each participant received and signed an informed consent form. To ensure the accuracy and fidelity of the data produced, each teacher/coach received copies of the transcripts of their interviews, in order to review, correct and include information they deemed necessary.

Results and discussion

The concept of substantive theory, theoretical interpretation of a problem delimited to a distinct area ( ^{CHARMAZ, 2009} ), is a point of convergence between the three perspectives of GT ( ^{KENNY; FOURIE, 2015} ). The results presented here through the interface between Sport Pedagogy and Sociology of Sport build a substantive theory based on the data. This process is presented in this section in three major thematic axes (TA), also counting on excerpts from the participants’ speeches and discussion with the literature: 1) Goals of teaching sport in the school environment: moral education as a relevant contribution; 2) Dispositions of teachers/coaches for the overvaluation of the sport competitive result; 3) Participation as a privilege for the few students with better skills for competition.

Final thoughts

The aim of this study was to investigate and analyse the reasons and meanings of teaching futsal in the extracurricular school environment, adopted by teachers/coaches in a country city in state of São Paulo, Brazil.

The answers to the study’s central questions indicated a worrying scenario in which the official meaning of sport is predominantly applied by the teachers/coaches that participated in the study, during their pedagogical activities in the ESP.

What calls our attention is that these teachers/coaches are aware, in some extent, about more appropriate actions for the context of the ESP, expressed in their discourses related to moral education and the constitution of habits related to sport practices, mainly expressed by the thematic axis 1 of this study. However, when performing the daily work of teaching futsal, they present pedagogical practices more associated with the official sense of sports, mainly related to the achievement of an optimal competitive result, and to the actions of exclusion and unequal offer of learning opportunities to students.

The official meaning of sports practice indicates a series of mandatory requirements that the practitioner needs to adapt to in order to participate. Its main characteristic is to identify the practice of sports as a place for few people, namely those considered to be more skilled or talented. Such a perspective contributes little to the constitution of dispositions for the practice of sports for life to all children.

It is not our intention to devalue the official meaning of sport, which is very suitable, for example, in the context of high performance. The idea is not to spread an essentially negative stereotyped discourse. The criticism made in this study is addressed to the inconsistency between the official meaning and the school environment, especially related to educational perspectives expressed by teachers/coaches, mainly in the first thematic axis. We concern about the possible consequences to children and adolescents involved with ESP facing the reproduction of this meaning of sport practice. How many students would like to participate and are excluded? How many diversified possibilities of promoting the sport are left behind? How many students did not even receive the opportunity to participate in training and competitions? How to develop a disposition for sports among students within this context?

Working for the inclusion of as many students as possible in the activities of the ESP does not mean that everyone wants to be included in the same way, or to participate in the same manner. However, it is necessary to expand the possibilities of those who wish to participate fully in this context. This serious problem needs to be faced by all the agents involved with the teaching of sport in the context of the ESP.

An alternative to this scenario is the use of the re-signified meaning of sport, mainly because it allows other goals that go beyond the centrality of the optimal competitive result. By adapting the practice of sports to the practitioner, giving new meaning to the activities, adaptations are necessary, including rules in games, training and competitions. Such measures value other aspects than the victories in interschool competitions. This alternative approach can increase the possibilities for more people to engage in sport in a more equitable and successful way.

It was observed that the teachers/coaches interviewed, at first, even indicate in their speech, possibly biased by a perspective seen as politically correct and linked to the salvationist myth of the sport, that the teaching of futsal in the ESP would be guided by the promotion of disposition for the sport practice while contributing to the teaching of positive moral values, such as solidarity, a sense of collectivism, respect for others. The teaching of futsal would then have a priority intention to educate a good citizen, empowered with values learned through sport practices. However, with the deepening of the questions and answers, the teachers/coaches demonstrate that in their pedagogical practice they are based on the official meaning of the sport. A willingness to win and be champion can be noticed as points of great importance in their pedagogical interventions, even if such goals are divergent from those of most schools in which they work.

This central goal on winning competitions is very evident when teachers/coaches describe the ways in which students are selected and invited to participate in such events. They organize their teams, demand good performance from their students and perceive their success based on sport results related to victories in school competitions. The priority of choice and selection of players is clearly aimed at those who would possibly favour the achievement of victories. This causes a differentiated and unequal participation for the players. The unequal offer of practice opportunities does not favour the development of all, so some become privileged, and many are excluded from the practice, evidencing a reproduction process that increases the performance difference between those who have more learning opportunities as a result of better aptitude, and those who receive fewer opportunities for learning and developing their skills.

In order to achieve more equal participation and opportunities for students, it would be necessary to deconstruct the priority focus in the optimal competitive result in this context. This would be the result of a process of educating teachers/coaches sensitive to the differences in practice environments and to the re-signification of their meaning. At the same time, it also involves the awareness of parents and school managers of what really represents, or could represent, the context of ESP, which at the same time differs from curricular Physical Education classes, and also the sports clubs. Finding this balance is an arduous task for ESP teachers/coaches. And it requires good theoretical education and sensitivity to understand the context in which the sport practice takes place, as well as the needs and expectations from students.

This study, favoured by the use of GT, which allowed a reciprocal construction between the researchers and the teachers/coaches based on data from the participants’ discourses, promoted a meeting between sociology and sport pedagogy, allowing a diagnosis of the social context and the possibility of suggestions for practical interventions.

A review of the school competition system is recommended so that rules that allow greater participation of students could be adapted. Thus, the possibilities and commitment of the children to learn and develop through sports competition are expanded. There is also the need for moments that promote reflection on the educational potential of ESP, whether in Physical Education graduation, in continuing education courses, or in technical congresses prior to competitions.

It is necessary to consider the importance of integration between practical aptitudes, as possible adaptations and changes in competition rules would only have positive effects if associated with a change in the perspective of the meaning of competition for the agents involved.

This study was carried out in a specific context and in relation to the practice of futsal. This is a virtue, as it listened to the teachers/coaches, responsible for the pedagogical organization of the ESP. On the other hand, this characteristic is a limitation, as its results cannot be generalized to other environments. Thus, it is suggested as possibilities for future studies, carrying out investigations also in the context of public schools, or involving other sports practices present in the ESP environment.