O desafio da prática pedagógica de combate ao racismo de professoras negras da/na educação de jovens e adultos

Abstract

This study investigates the anti-racist pedagogical practices of Black women teachers working in Youth and Adult Education (YAE) in the municipality of João Pessoa, Paraíba, Brazil. In the Brazilian context, Youth and Adult Education corresponds to Educação de Jovens e Adultos (EJA), a specific public education policy regulated by national legislation and shaped by the country’s socio-historical and political context. Within YAE, social disparities become particularly evident, considering that the population served by this educational modality is predominantly Black and female. The main theoretical foundations of the research are grounded in the concepts of race, racism, YAE, and intersectionality. These concepts make it possible to understand how Black women constitute a distinct social group, given that they are neither white nor male; they are the “other of the other” (Kilomba, 2012). Based on these assumptions, the following research question is posed: what are the didactic-pedagogical challenges faced by Black women teachers working in YAE in the municipality of João Pessoa in combating racism within the school environment? In light of this question, the general objective of the study is to analyze the pedagogical challenges faced by Black women teachers in YAE in João Pessoa, Paraíba, in the construction of an anti-racist education. The specific objectives are: (a) to understand how racial prejudice is reflected in the educational practices of Black women teachers; (b) to identify, through their discourses, the challenges they face in developing an anti-racist education; and (c) to recognize pedagogical possibilities for confronting social stigmas related to racism in the classroom context. To achieve these objectives, a qualitative research approach was adopted. Data were collected through field research, beginning with the application of a structured questionnaire to 50 YAE teachers in the municipality of João Pessoa, Paraíba, which allowed for the identification of their self-declared racial identities and the ways in which anti-racist educational practices are implemented. In a second stage, based on the questionnaire data, five semi-structured interviews were conducted with teachers who met the criteria of practicing an anti-racist education and who recognized themselves as Black women in society. Subsequently, the discourses were analyzed using Critical Discourse Analysis (CDA), as proposed by Fairclough (2016). The results demonstrate that these women engage in processes of resistance that reflect their personal and professional trajectories as Black women in Brazilian society in the face of structural racism. These processes are reflected in their didactic-pedagogical actions in favor of dismantling racism in YAE. Therefore, the study concludes that racial and gender prejudices are intertwined with the educational practices of these teachers since their identity constructions were shaped through family, school, and social interactions. These interactions moved through stages of silencing and denial before reaching stages of expression and self-affirmation. This reveals how racism is subtly organized and manifested through looks, gestures, and aesthetic standards of beauty in which whiteness prevails over Blackness.