O direito à educação : percepções/representações dos/as professores/as sobre a diversidade cultural e as pedagogias de inclusão

Abstract

The purpose of this study is to analyze the perceptions/representations of teachers working in the final years of Elementary School about their pedagogical practices in the face of the challenges of cultural diversity in a School that receives migrant/refugee adolescents aiming to understand whether it is possible to develop inclusion pedagogies so that everyone has the right to Education. The investigation is justified because data obtained from UNHCR (2020, 2021) show that the population of young refugees has increased in Brazilian schools in the last decade, a fact that demands studies on this very emerging topic. It is part of the larger project called “Psychosocial Perspectives on the Teaching Practice,” undertaken by the International Center for Studies in Social Representations and Subjectivity – Education/CIERS-ed/FCC, and part of the Sérgio Vieira de Mello Chair (UNISANTOS). From this perspective, it is based on the Bourdieusian and Moscovician theories, as well as on authors who are dedicated to investigating themes related to social policies connected to forced migration, educational policies and teacher training, inclusion pedagogies and the right to Education. It is a qualitative research project structured: 1st on the documentary analysis of specific legislation on refugees and educational policies for reception, integration, and inclusion; 2nd on field research, with the limelight on four stages: a) meetings with the management team and teachers of a public school in the State of São Paulo that receives refugee and/or migrant students with the purpose of understanding the context of the school and its agents; b) observation of two teachers’ classrooms (History and Portuguese), to learn how interactions and actions are carried out, as well as the projects under development aimed at integration and inclusion; c) narrative interviews, to understand the “spaces of possibilities” regarding the pedagogies of inclusion, reception, and integration of the respective teachers’ students; d) application of a questionnaire, with open, closed, and evocation questions to other teachers at the same School. Content analysis (BARDIN, 2007) focused on two dimensions: 1st Cultural diversity - announcing the “perceptions/representations of teachers about cultural diversity” as a category of analysis, and developing two units of meaning: a) effects of educational policies on the right to Education; and b) challenges of teaching in the face of cultural diversity; 2nd Inclusion pedagogies - indicating the “perceptions/social representations of teachers about pedagogies of inclusion” as a category of analysis, and addressing two units of meaning: a) training needs/perspectives; and b) organization of the pedagogical practice: Reception, integration, and inclusion strategies. The most significant results include: 1st the public educational policies disseminate the right to Education, proposing to guarantee the access and permanence of migrant/refugee students in public schools; however, exclusion effects are observed, as marks of the “power relations,” which are effected by historical, political, and social processes that take place in the School; 2nd there are innumerable challenges for the teaching work, especially when it is necessary to overcome barriers introduced by language and the different cultures brought by these students, in addition to deal with school violence issues; 3rd, on the other hand, there are single-purpose classrooms and dynamic activities that involve, integrate, and include the students, just as there are different projects and didactic strategies, such as “learning scripts,” which contribute to opening spaces of possibilities and/or moments of reception and social inclusion, configuring “relationships of meaning” for the research subjects; and 4th regarding the pedagogies of inclusion, the highlight is that teachers have training needs (lack of preparation, qualification, among others); however, at the same time, significant spaces open up for the organization of the pedagogical practices that include reception, integration, and inclusion strategies, which are reinvented every day in order to achieve the right to Education.