Sentidos de ser e fazer a universidade: trajetórias de grupos de militância negra para o pertencimento e a transformação dos letramentos na academia

Abstract

The aim of this dissertation was to understand the meanings of academic literacy practices constructed on the actions of two groups of students who are part of the black activism of the Federal University of Minas Gerais (UFMG): the Centro de Convivência Negra (CCN) and the Centro de Estudos sobre Raça e Interseccionaldade (CERI). The development of the research was based on the theoretical conceptions of the New Literacy Studies (STREET, 1984, [1995] 2018; HEATH, 1982; GEE, [1990] 2008; BARTON and HAMILTON, [1998] 2012), the academic literacies (LEA and STREET, 1998, 2014; LILIS and SCOTT, 2008; ZAVALA, 2010; LILLIS et al., 2015; SITO, 2016), the reexistence literacies (SOUZA, 2009, 2011), the post-colonial studies (HALL, 2011; SANTOS, 2002, 2008; SANTOS and MENESES, 2009) and ethnic-racial study relations (GOMES, 2012, 2017). The theoretical-methodological approach to data generation and analysis was based on the ethnographic perspective (GREEN, DIXON and ZAHARLICK, 2005; CASTANHEIRA et al., 2001). Based on the observation of activities performed by the groups, it was generated some material for analysis that included audio recordings; field notes; registration of images of the physical space occupied by the participants; messages and images exchanged online through social networks. The approach to academic literacies that was mobilized in this work may be found in Lea and Street (2014) and is understood from the construction of meanings, identities and power relations, highlighting what is considered relevant knowledge in specific academic contexts. In order to better operationalize the data analysis, two concepts were focused in this work: the notions of agency (ZAVALA, 2011) and identity (IVANIČ, 1994, 1998; HALL, 2011). The concept of agency used in this research favored to comprehend the students not as reproducers of theories, but as agent subjects who create strategies to act in their social context, often negotiating the modes of production and reproduction of knowledge. The notion of identity, understood as socio-cultural constructions expressed in social interactions, allowed the apprehension of meanings imprinted in social practices in which the participants of this study were engaged in. Both categories were relevant, as they favored understandings of the plural, situated and transformative characteristic of literacies as a social practice. The analyzes showed that the groups that participated in this research, considering the history and the preservation of racism in Brazilian relations, made up activities that were configured into spaces of academic belonging for black students, in addition to favoring links between the university and the surrounding community. In these activities, it was also possible to perceive social practices of language use in which were taken into account the social identities of the subjects involved; in addition to actions that sought to make present different cultures in order to provide prosperous belonging of black students to the university space. The analyzes also allowed approximations with the transforming approach of academic literacies, a concept found in works such as those by Lillis and Scott (2008) and Lillis et al. (2015). In accordance with this perspective, in the actions developed by the participants it was possible to apprehend questionings of dominant conventions in the production of knowledge, the pursuit for valuing perspectives brought by students, the negotiation of academic conventions among other aspects that brings into play tensioning and the search for recognition of knowledge that goes back to the metaphorical and epistemic South.