Saberes docentes, saberes indígenas : um estudo de caso sobre o ensino de ciências entre o Povo Xukuru do Ororubá

Abstract

An ethnographic study was carried out in two schools belonging to the Xukuru people situated in Serra do Ororubá, in the Municipality of Pesqueira in the State of Pernambuco. Indigenous peoples, whose rights are guaranteed by law in Brazil, have in the past decades been demanding a different kind of education, which should be based on a “popular view of the recovery of cultural heritage”, with a view to strengthening their sense of identity. In this study, we investigate the lessons given by four teachers of Science and Biology given as part of Basic Education in three years: the years fourth and five of Primary School; and the 3rd year of Secondary School. This study focused on one specific topic, “Medicinal Plants”, and we proposed to observe how teachers with varying levels of training developed the lessons as part of the Science course at various stages in the school system, in the context of the Xukuru indigenous community. We thus sought to establish the teaching strategies that were used, the points of view that were given a privileged position, the nature of the relation between local culture and the teaching of a science subject, and the way in which science was taught. To this end, classes were filmed, the dialogue transcribed and analyzed in the light of the ideas of Tardif (2002a and 2002b) and Freire (2006a and 2006b) regarding the knowledge of the teachers and the development of an educational process that is critical and capable of transforming the environment immediately surrounding the individuals concerned. To organize the data, we made use of analysis of the discursive dynamic in the classroom, as proposed by Amaral & Mortimer (2006). On the basis of analysis of this data, we discovered that the context forms a part of the approach taken by all teachers, in terms of teaching strategies used and the treatment of the topic. In terms of dialogue between different forms of knowledge, all, in some way, kept up a dialogue with the local culture, to varying extents, there being a tendency to dwell on cultural traditions at the expense of scientific knowledge.