Por uma educação decolonial e antirracista: a poesia afrodescendente em sala de aula

Abstract

ABSTRACT The approval of law 10.639/03 represents a new paradigm for education, which is to recognize and value Afro-Brazilian identity and culture in school, and is a legal milestone in the fight against racism, especially in the structure of the curriculum, in textbooks, in practices and attitudes. The law was the result of the struggle of black social movements, which reconfigures and re-educates the mentality of society and education itself from an anti-racist perspective (Gomes, 2012). The general aim of this study is to investigate how Afro-Brazilian poetry is used in teaching practices and the aspirations of professionals for building Afro-Brazilian identity and combating racism in the classroom at a public school in the municipality of Piripiri, state of Piauí. In this sense, I draw on contributions from the following authors: Elio Ferreira de Souza (2007), Zilá Bernd (2010), Munanga (2009), Stuart Hall (2006), Nilma Lino Gomes (2012), Moura (1994), Edimilson de Almeida Pereira (2007), Franco (2016), among others. Methodologically, I use the historiography on Afro-descendant literature and poetry, the narratives (interviews) of teachers and the analysis of poetry produced by 8th and 9th grade students in the History and Portuguese Language curricular components, as well as by established poets in the field. I consider these methods to be key points for analyzing the information accessed. I work with the perspective of Afro-descendant or black poetry in contemporary times, once inserted into educational practices, as a valuable political tool in the fight against prejudice, discrimination and racism, a fundamental pedagogical resource in favor of the anti-racist and decolonial struggle. I show that there are practical efforts and aspirations to work with Afro-Brazilian poetry in the school environment, a privileged locus for this type of work, in which literature presents itself as a fundamental resource allied to the search for and valorization of identity and culture of African origin through poetic art; because both poetry and the school function as a space of resistance or reverberation of domination or can function as reproduction or transformation of society (Freire, 1987; Franco, 2015). I realized that despite the legislation (national, state) that recommends teaching African and Afro-Brazilian culture in school, and the teachers, in their speeches and observations, revealing the need to work on ethnic-racial issues in the classroom, they show difficulties or certain resistance, especially with regard to religiosity and spirituality of African and Afro-Brazilian origin. On the other hand, they yearn for more freedom of choice and training in the use of Afro-descendant poetry in the classroom. Keywords: Anti-racist education; Afro-descendant poetry; Law 10.639/2003; Piauí Curriculum; Interdisciplinarity.