O ensino de história e da cultura afro-brasileira e as relações étnico-raciais: um estudo na educação de jovens e adultos (CESEC, Uberlândia, MG, Brasil)

Abstract

This research aimed to develop a teaching proposal, whose theme was the History of Africa and afro-brazilian culture in the perspective of ethnic-racial relations, that could contribute to anti-racism citizenship development of young people and adults students from CESEC (Centro Estadual de Educação Continuada [State Centre for Continuing Education]) – Uberlândia/MG and other institutions that operate in this teaching model. In order to achieve this goal, we proceeded to the study and document analysis on history teaching and the Educação de Jovens e Adultos (EJA) [Education of Young People and Adults] in Brazil and, in particular, in Minas Gerais state. Were included in this list, for analyzing, the anti-racism laws, especially the Law 10.639/2003, amended by Law 11.645/2008, which stablishes the mandatory theme “History of Africa and afro-brazilian and indigenous culture” in the official educational system. We have carried out a qualitative approach research using web-based questionnaires, by means of Google forms, with the high school students from the education institution CESEC/Uberlândia-MG. The questionnaires approached aspects such as gender, marital status, work, self-declaration of race/skin color and the knowledge students already had about Africa e afro-brazilian culture. This methodological perspective helped us to answer the questions about what is CESEC and who are the individuals that take part of it and, also, provided some clues on how we can overcome the structural limitations of the school, turning possible the development of a proposal for the teaching of History inspired in the decolonial studies, that approached issues related to Africa’s History and afro-brazilian culture, valuing students and their previous knowledge and, thus, contributing to restructure, in a positive way, the relations among people from different ethnic-racial belongings. The teaching proposal we produced, titled “For an anti-racist Education: a study about Africa’s History, afro-brazilian culture and ethnic-racial relations”, was developed as a digital course available on a virtual learning environment so that the student can access it from any device connected to the internet and interact with the knowledge provided.