Estar, ver e ser na cidade: as inscrições urbanas de João Pessoa como suporte no ensino de História (2019-2024)

Abstract

This research investigates the pedagogical potential of urban inscriptions in João Pessoa (2019-2024) as a support for History teaching. Based on the observation that city walls narrate social, political, and symbolic disputes, it questions how these daily interventions can be mobilized to challenge consolidated historical narratives and foster critical citizenship formation. Adopting the term “urban inscriptions” to encompass various forms of records (pichações, graffiti, stencils and posters), it is understood that seeing them implies deciphering a geography of power inscribed in the territory. The central objective is, therefore, to contribute to a History teaching approach that values the analysis of lived space, recognizing inscriptions as sources for debates on citizenship and political participation. To achieve this, the work combines an interdisciplinary literature review — engaging with History, Linguistics, and Political Geography, drawing on authors such as Milton Santos, Patrick Charaudeau, and Iris Young — with the development of a concrete pedagogical proposal. This materializes in three learning mediations (lesson plans) designed for High School, utilizing photographs of urban inscriptions collected by the author as a didactic resource. Photography acts as a key tool, not only recording the ephemeral nature of these manifestations but also enabling the dismantling of the image, promoting critical analysis of context and intentionality. These proposals aim to stimulate a careful reading of the urban landscape, often seen but little interpreted, and to create a dialogical space where student subjectivities connect with relevant socio-political themes, thereby fostering civic practice.