Descolonizando o saber: história e cultura afro-brasileira e africana no Ensino Médio

Abstract

The present research analyzed the teaching of African History and Afro-Brazilian Culture, through the pedagogical practice of high school teachers. To carry it out they investigated the History teachers of the Vilebaldo Aguiar High School, located in the municipality of Coreaú, in the State of Ceará. The length of time established was between the 1980s and the current educational context. The main issue was the comprehension of the challenges of implementing Law nº 10.639/2003 inside the classrooms. The methodology adopted was qualitative, divided into two moments: primarily, a theoretical discussion of studies centered on that subject was carried out; secondly, the teaching practice of African as well as Afro-Brazilian history and culture were analyzed. Data compilation was made through the application of a survey with four teachers, summed with information extracted from school documentation. The structure of this research is composed of three chapters, the first one presents a critique of the coloniality of knowledge, historically imposed by the West, proving to be it is possible to decolonize this knowledge through post-colonial epistemology. After that, was proposed a debate on the affirmative policies, granted in 1980, as well as the anti-racist laws and the struggles involving the New High School. Finally, a conversation between researchers and history teachers was performed while a way of pointing out necessary paths for the teaching of African history. A Pedagogical Project was also designed, playing an important role in research feedback to the community, named with the same title of the dissertation, known as "Decolonizing Knowledge: Afro-Brazilian and African history and culture in the High school", proposing to share readings and knowledge to teachers of high school History. The expectation based on this research was that it will be possible to advance the debates in favor of improving the practices of the History professionals inside and outside History classrooms.