Povos indígenas: a participação na independência e formação do Estado Nacional Brasileiro (1808-1823)

Abstract

This dissertation discusses the textbook, a resource so essential to the teaching-learning process for both teachers and students. Not because it is an infallible tool—we understand the complexity of its use in the classroom—but rather due to the role it is expected to fulfill: as a research source, often the only one available to students in public basic education, and as a widely used didactic instrument in the teaching-learning process. However, despite facilitating the understanding of these processes, the textbook is still far from encompassing the knowledge of peoples, cultures, or human groups whose contributions to history continue to be silenced by didactic narratives. This work, entitled "Silenced Voices: The Textbook and the Writing on the Participation of Indigenous Peoples in the Process of Independence and the Formation of the Brazilian Nation-State (1808–1823)", aims to analyze how history textbooks portray Indigenous participation in Brazil’s Independence and Nation-State Formation, using as a reference the National Textbook and Teaching Materials Program (PNLD), from 2022 to 2025. The issues addressed in this dissertation arise from the concerns that have shaped my journey as a teacher—not only from recognizing the importance of the textbook as a tool for teaching history, particularly in public school classrooms, but also from my interest in evaluating how Indigenous peoples are represented in these materials. This research also reflects the importance of the Professional Master's Degree in History in my professional development and personal growth. In my case, the chosen research topic is closely linked to the Stricto Sensu graduate program in History Education. The main objective is to analyze how the history textbook (PNLD 2022–2025) presents the participation of Indigenous peoples in the process of independence and the formation of the Brazilian Nation-State (1808–1823). We discuss the historical narratives related to Indigenous groups in textbooks, drawing on existing research that engages with this theme. We also describe how textbooks portray Indigenous participation in these historical processes, aiming to develop didactic material that gives visibility to the Indigenous groups involved in the Independence and Nation-State formation, thus bridging historical research and basic education classrooms. To this end, we explore how historical constructions in textbooks portray Indigenous peoples, engaging in dialogue with research developed within the framework of the New Indigenous History. We then describe how the textbooks depict Indigenous participation in the process of Independence and Nation-State formation between 1808 and 1823, using the PNLD (2022–2025) as a reference, with the goal of creating didactic material that gives space and visibility to the Indigenous groups who took part in these processes, aligning historical research with classroom practice in basic education. In pursuit of this proposal, we present the theoretical foundations of the research, based on existing literature on textbooks, with emphasis on the representations of Indigenous peoples, the changes in didactic literature brought about by the creation of the PNLD (National Textbook Program) and by Law 11.645/08, as well as the growth of academic production spurred by the shift promoted by the New Indigenous History—a historiographical movement that has allowed a reevaluation of the role of Indigenous peoples in Brazilian history. Certainly, "Indigenous peoples have not disappeared." While didactic narratives often insist on portraying Indigenous peoples as primitive, submissive, acculturated, isolated, and without history (Almeida, 2010), the inability to recognize their agency—responsible for their harmful historiographical erasure—fails to account for the many paths Indigenous peoples have found to participate effectively in the making of Brazil (Dantas, 2022). Thus, through the constant updates promoted by historiography on Indigenous peoples and their roles in historical processes, the present reshapes the past.