O lugar do digital nas práticas de letramento de uma comunidade do campo

Abstract

The present dissertation brings the result of a research developed in a rural education context. Through a qualitative research, we sought to analyze, in the light of new literacy studies, narratives of students from a third-year high school class at a public school in the countryside located in the interior of Minas Gerais. The research aimed to investigate literacy practices in digital environments in the school and community of Padre João Afonso and their educational potential for activities in the school context. Throughout the analysis, nineteen literacy autobiographies were generated that comprised the corpus of analysis. In addition to these data, to verify some issues that concern digital literacy, we also carried out what we call practical activities, which were developed on a website created to give feedback to students about the written narratives. The data were analyzed from the perspective of studies in the field of literacy, from a sociocultural perspective, and from studies related to the use of digital technologies in education. The research sought answers in the narratives themselves, allowing to understand the historical path of literacy practices, with regard to different spaces such as school, community and digital environments. The study showed that most students started to read and write more on digital platforms than before their use. However, in the context of the research, several problems arising from unequal access to digital technologies are pointed out. For this reason, in view of the particularities of research on digital literacy, in their debates, in addition to linguistic aspects, digital inclusion and the democratization of internet access were also included, especially in the context of social vulnerability. From the results of this research, it is pointed out that the use of digital technologies in rural education requires a process of planning, action and reflection, not only the application of generic theories produced from the contexts and views of researchers, in its broad scope mostly urban and focused on city education.