A (não) presença da história e da cultura africana e afro-brasileira em livros didáticos: estudo da coleção Geração Alpha - Língua Portuguesa

Abstract

This paper analyzes the presence/absence of items and studies related to African and Afro-Brazilian culture in elementary school Portuguese language textbooks. This is a bibliographical and documentary study, with studies being carried out on works that deal with the subject, as well as a survey of guiding documents, such as textbooks. For the analysis, we used an approach whose main purpose was to bring up reflections and debates about the inclusion of this content and how it is approached in the books analyzed. For this research, we selected the 4th edition, from 2022, of the Geração Alpha - Língua Portuguesa collection for the 6th, 7th, 8th and 9th years, final grades of elementary school, authored by Everaldo Nogueira, Gretta Marchetti and Mirella L. Cleto. This collection was approved by the National Textbook Program (PNLD), which aims to evaluate and make available didactic, pedagogical and literary works, among other materials to support educational practice. Among other criteria, the PNLD is responsible for identifying whether the collection complies with Law 10.639 of January 9, 2003, which makes it compulsory to teach African and Afro-Brazilian history and culture in classrooms, as well as valuing the struggle of black people over the centuries. The results obtained from this study show that, even twenty-one years after the law was passed, there is still a need for the textbooks used in the classroom to make progress in the study of this issue, as well as to abandon the stereotypes and prejudices that remain in these books. The research also reveals that, with regard to the theme addressed in this work, the textbooks present the content briefly, in order to apparently only "comply" with what is required by law and meet the National Common Curriculum Base (BNCC). In view of this, even though it is compulsory to include this discussion in textbooks, this content appears, at best, in a superficial way, causing a gap in students' learning.