Cultura visual e educação: a representação imagética dos indígenas no livro didático de história, por uma leitura decolonial.

Abstract

This dissertation critically analyzes the visual representations of indigenous peoples in elementary school history textbooks, based on the contributions of visual culture and decolonial theory. The research is based on the understanding that images, far from being neutral or merely illustrative, operate as powerful visual discourses that construct meanings, reinforce silences, and reproduce or tension colonial imaginaries. The study is anchored in the enactment of Law No. 11,645/2008, which determines the mandatory teaching of Afro Brazilian and indigenous history and culture, seeking to understand how this legislation has materialized in the visual content of school materials. The corpus of the analysis is composed of the História.doc collection, selected by the PNLD for the 2024–2027 cycle, whose iconography was examined in light of categories such as presence, agency, stereotypes, and erasures. Based on decolonial criticism (Quijano, Mignolo, Walsh, Maldonado-Torres), we discuss how the coloniality of knowledge and perspective still structures school representations. As a practical development of the research, an interactive pedagogical notebook was developed, with lesson plans and proposals for critical reading of images, aimed at promoting more plural, reflective teaching practices that are committed to epistemic justice and the valorization of indigenous epistemologies.