Tecendo encontros entre o Ensino de Artes e as noções indígenas de Bem Viver: cooperação e natureza com crianças nos anos iniciais do Ensino Fundamental

Abstract

This master's thesis, developed within the Professional Master's Program in Art at the Federal University of Uberlândia (UFU), investigates how the principles of Indigenous notions of Buen Vivir – Tekó Porã (Guarani), Sumak Kawsay (Quechua) and Suma Qamaña (Aymara) – can be integrated into Art teaching in Elementary School. The research stems from the author's personal trajectory as an Art teacher in a peripheral public school and is grounded in Indigenous authors (Ailton Krenak, Sandra Benites, Célia Xakriabá, Daniel Munduruku, Cristine Takuá, Kaká Werá Jecupé, among others) and non-Indigenous authors (Ana Mae Barbosa, Maria Aparecida Viggiani Bicudo, Léa Tiriba, Renato Noguera, among others). The methodology adopts a qualitative approach with a phenomenological basis (Husserl), articulated with Indigenous epistemologies. The empirical field comprises two 3rd-grade classes (59 children) at Dr. Gladsen Guerra de Rezende Municipal School (Uberlândia, MG). Data collection instruments include conversation circles, drawings, collages, field diaries, and practical activities: string figures (cooperation), knitting with mesh yarn, coconut straw weaving, and workshops with natural elements. The text starts presenting the author 's personal trajectory and his place of speech, articulating peripheral identity with the choice of theme. It then introduce the Indigenous notions of Buen Vivir – Tekó Porã, Sumak Kawsay and Suma Qamaña – distinguishing them from Western well-being and discussing their ethical-relational implications. It follows by describing the methodological path, articulating phenomenology and Indigenous epistemologies, and then it traces a parallel between the history of Art Education in Brazil and the Indigenous Movement, highlighting processes of silencing and resistance. After that, we analyzed children's notions of Buen Vivir through their speeches, drawings, and collages, revealing three axes: nature as a space of balance, reciprocity and community, and tensions between Buen Vivir and Western well-being in a peripheral context. We finished this work by describing the activities developed, organized into three axes: cooperation (string figures), nature (workshop with natural elements), and manual technique (weaving and coconut straw weaving), and then presenting the final considerations. The results indicate that Buen Vivir is not transmitted as content but emerges as an embodied experience in practices of cooperation, sensitive attention, and dialogue with materiality. The research concludes that integrating Indigenous notions of Buen Vivir into Art teaching requires recognizing the school as a space of gaps, breaches and possibilities, even under adverse conditions, and that Buen Vivir asserts itself as an always unfinished ethical-political horizon.