Quando ensinar não basta: dificuldades das práticas pedagógicas de professoras alfabetizadoras em contexto periférico

Abstract

Learning difficulties constitute one of the most complex challenges in the early years of elementary school, especially during the literacy period, a time when school expectations related to reading and writing proficiency intensify. In many school contexts, literacy teachers face multiple pedagogical demands daily with children who do not keep up with the expected learning pace, a scenario that often leads to school failure, exclusion, and silencing. These challenges cannot be understood solely from the student's perspective, as they involve pedagogical, institutional, social, and cultural dimensions that permeate the teaching and learning process. In public schools located in peripheral areas, these difficulties tend to intensify, requiring pedagogical practices committed to inclusion, equity, and the right to learning. Within this context, this research aimed to understand the pedagogical difficulties faced by literacy teachers in a school in a marginalized area on the coast of São Paulo when working with children who have learning difficulties. The general objective was to analyze the pedagogical difficulties faced by literacy teachers in a public school in a marginalized area when supporting children who have difficulties in the literacy process. The specific objectives were: to identify the main pedagogical challenges faced by literacy teachers in their daily school life; to understand the meanings attributed by teachers to the learning difficulties presented by students; to map the pedagogical practices used to support these children; to reflect on the limits and possibilities of teaching practice in contexts of social vulnerability; and to analyze how institutional conditions and public policies interfere in the construction of inclusive pedagogical practices. As an analytical development, the study sought to understand how such difficulties manifest themselves in daily school life and what pedagogical responses teachers have been developing in the face of the heterogeneity of classes, different learning styles, and structural limitations present in public schools. This study is based on the frameworks of critical pedagogy and democratic education, especially the contributions of Paulo Freire, Bernard Charlot, and Carlos Rodrigues Brandão, authors who understand learning as a historical, relational, and socially situated process. It also engages with Maria Amélia Santoro Franco and Selma Garrido Pimenta in the field of pedagogical practice and teacher training, as well as with authors who discuss learning difficulties and disorders, such as Levy Vygotsky, James A. Kavale, Steven R. Forness, Corinne Smith, and Lisa Strick. This theoretical framework made it possible to interpret the challenges investigated beyond individualistic or medicalizing perspectives, understanding them as phenomena produced in the relationships between subjects, pedagogical practices, institutional conditions, and social inequalities that permeate daily school life. Methodologically, this is a qualitative, interpretive research, anchored in Critical Hermeneutics and Bardin's Thematic Content Analysis. Data production occurred through semi-structured interviews conducted with literacy teachers working in the early years of elementary school. In a later stage, in-depth Dialogic Interviews were carried out to broaden the analytical density of the teachers' narratives and deepen the understanding of the challenges and strategies present in the school routine. Critical Hermeneutics made it possible to interpret the meanings produced by the participants in dialogue with the concrete conditions of schooling, while Content Analysis allowed the identification of emerging categories related to the pedagogical difficulties faced by teachers in the literacy process. The results show that the main pedagogical difficulties faced by the participants are related to the heterogeneity of the classes, insufficient teaching time, the fragility of the school-family relationship, the absence of institutional support, the lack of material and pedagogical resources, the pressure for quantitative results, and the lack of specific public policies aimed at children with persistent learning difficulties. They also show that teaching work takes place amidst multiple demands, especially in contexts marked by social vulnerability and the intensification of school demands. At the same time, the research revealed powerful pedagogical practices developed by literacy teachers, among which stand out didactic flexibility, collaborative groupings, individualized review, the use of playful resources, sensitive listening, continuous monitoring, and the valuing of different learning paces. These strategies demonstrate that, even in the face of institutional and structural limitations, teachers construct creative, critical responses committed to the right to learn, producing humanizing pedagogical practices within the public school system. It is concluded that the pedagogical difficulties present in the literacy process cannot be understood exclusively from the student's perspective, as they emerge from the relationships between pedagogical practice, concrete schooling conditions, institutional demands, and social inequalities that permeate the daily lives of teachers. Therefore, the need to strengthen public schools, expand intersectoral public policies, and recognize literacy teachers as protagonists in the construction of inclusive, democratic, and humanizing pedagogical practices is advocated.