This paper uses qualitative methods to analyze Physical Education teachers’ beliefs on the social role to b played by the discipline. It identifies personal, professional and institutional barriers to achieving that social role and considers teachers’ proposals to overcome those barriers. Three focus groups were created and 12 in-depth interviews were conducted. The methods of analysis employed were anchored in the perspectives of fragmentation and articulation as expressed in “grounded theory”. The paper concludes that some teachers see a dichotomic relationship between a Physical Education that reproduces a traditional approach (linked to sports and physical condition) and some specific social stereotypes, while other teachers see that relationship as complementary. Yet another perspective suggests that Physical Education can help develop students’ ability to understand and change social inequalities.