As representações da violência de gênero e sexualidade em uma escola pública na cidade de Imperatriz, Maranhão

Abstract

This dissertation addresses the representation of student‟s violence in gender and sexuality modalities in the school environment, highlighting how the students present themselves regarding prejudice and discrimination dissemination and how the teachers act in the face of this representation. The study was developed in a municipal elementary education institution in the city of Imperatriz, in Maranhão (MA), Brazil, which serves children, adolescents, and adults in the Youth and Adult Education modality. The general objective of this research is to analyze the representations of gender and sexuality violence in a public school in the city of Imperatriz/MA. To this end, theoretical contributions supporting the research process are based on an interdisciplinary theoretical framework from Sociology, which made it possible to reflect on representation as a social category of the human being in accordance to the studies of Abramovay (2009), Durkheim (2008), Magnani (2004), Martins (2014), Neves (2010) and Zaluar (1992); in the area of History, we used the works of Louro (2014; 2022), Weeks (2022) and Escortt (2019) to understand the historical discussions about the concepts of gender and sexuality; in Pedagogy, focusing on the roles of the teacher and his/her teaching performance amidst the diversity of representations that make up the school environment, we used the work of Candau (2011; 2020), Libâneo (2013; 2020) and Pimenta (2010; 2012); and, in studies on gender and sexuality, we have addressed aspects of the discourse of power regarding social and cultural determinations present in society and school, through the studies of Bento (2011; 2017), Bulter (2022) and Foucault (1987; 2014; 2022), also to understand the significance of power relations manifested by students. The research is qualitative, and we used observation of the institution's daily life, focus groups with students, and semi-structured interviews with teachers as data collection instruments. Data have revealed that students' representations of gender and sexuality violence in the institution of research are influenced by the social environment and reproduced in a naturalized way so that many of them do not realize that they are committing an act of violence. Data also showed that prejudice and discrimination are masked as everyday jokes. As a result, the teacher's performance loses its social significance due to fear of working on the issue in the classroom, so they remain neutral in the face of the power discourse that is established in everyday representations of prejudice and discrimination of gender and sexuality in the school environment. However, regarding the representation of students in the school environment, the study points to the relevance of adequate continuing training for teachers, as they are active in the educational process to contribute to meaningful responses for the people involved and the society they are part of. Thus, it also signals an awareness of everyday school life and new meanings of the practices of prejudice and discrimination in the students' representations experienced in the school environment.