The Pedagogical Paradox: A Curriculum that Declares and a Formative Practice that Excludes

The Case of Physical Education in the Training of Agricultural Engineers

Abstract

The training of agricultural engineers in Cuba declares comprehensive education as a guiding principle, but a critical look at pedagogical practice reveals a flagrant contradiction: the body of the future professional and the prevention of the occupational risks that threaten it are systematically excluded from interdisciplinary dialogue. This essay argues that there exists an authentic pedagogical paradox, the result of a conception of knowledge that has not yet integrated movement, occupational health, and corporeality as vertebral axes of training. Based on empirical evidence collected in the Agronomy program at the University of Pinar del Río and the critical analysis of traditional interdisciplinary categories, the need for an epistemic and didactic shift that places bodily knowledge at the center of the curriculum is advocated. Updated data on the prevalence of musculoskeletal disorders among agricultural workers are incorporated, and concrete methods for training in ergonomic prevention are proposed. The conclusions invite a rethinking of training models from a strong, embodied, and preventive interdisciplinarity.