Povos indígenas na Paraíba: prescrições legais e representações nos materiais didáticos da história local para o ensino fundamental (1996-2015)

Abstract

As a result of Law No. 11.645/2008, teaching African and indigenous history and culture have become mandatory in elementary education in Brazil, and such situation has given proper space for debates all over the country, mostly about the teachers' academic formation and textbooks for learning in both elementary education and secondary school. The majority of those textbooks bring wrong ideas about the history and culture of indigenous populations in Brazil, contributing to reinforce stereotyped view and even discriminatory actions. We beleive that the local history teaching may be an important step to go beyond that superficial and reductionist perspective about the indigenous populations, once that makes possible the construction and consolidation of individual and collective identities, besides contributing to the recognition of differences and diversity. Based on such context, this dissertation aims to analyze the indigenous representations in History Textbooks, in Paraiba State, for learning in the first grades of elementary education, published between 1996 and 2015, supported by official government prescriptions for teaching and learning. Based on a categorical method we analyzed the local indigenous representations on textbooks before and after the Law No. 11.645/2008, giving special attention to the aspects that represent a change in mind or keep the same stereotyped view.