Práticas de letramento na formação docente para o antirracismo nos Núcleos de Estudos das Relações Étnico-raciais da Rede Municipal de Educação de Belo Horizonte

Abstract

In this study, I examine literacy practices at the Center for the Study of Ethnic-Racial Relations – NERER, a space whose purpose is to carry out the continued training of professionals who work in the Belo Horizonte Municipal Education Network – RME-BH – for work with ethnic-racial diversity in schools. NERER resulted from a public policy that institutionalized Afro-Brazilian study groups in RME-BH, aiming to implement Laws 10,639/2003 (Brazil, 2003) and 11,645/2008 (Brazil, 2008) in school curricula. This legislation brought challenges for teachers, especially regarding the necessary reformulation of educational practices, urging education systems to build curricula for diversity (Gomes, 2012; 2020). In this context, I examine relationships between literacy practices, ethnic-racial themes and decolonizing knowledge. Aiming to examine this aspect, the research was conducted from an ethnographic perspective (Green; Bloome, 1997; Green; Dixon; Zaharlic, 2005) and guided by interactional ethnography (Castanheira; Crawford; Dixon; Green, 2001), aiming to access cultural knowledge that supported and signified the cultural practices carried out by the group. The logic of investigation was constructed through retrospective analysis, guided by the central question and the questions originated in the iterative-recursive-reflective processes carried out in the different phases of analysis. In developing this logic of investigation, I explored complementary notions from Literacies as Social Practice research approach (Heath, 1982; Street, 1984, Gee, [1990], 2008; Barton; Hamilton, [1998],2004), premisses from Critical Race Theory (Delgado, 1995; Ladson-Billings; Tate, 1995; Ladson-Billings, 1998) and Decolonial Studies (Mignolo, 2005; Castro-Gómez; Grosfoguel, 2007; Maldonato-Torres, 2007), combined with the concept of teacher self-training (Pimenta, 1999) and self-actualization of practice (hooks, 2013). The analytical processes highlighted principles that underpinned the educational political project of RME-BH, namely, the school as a space for knowledge production and continued training as a professional right. These principles underpinned the training model established in NERER, such as peer-to-peer training and horizontal management. The actions instituted are aimed at carrying out work with ethnic-racial diversity, with one of the main strategies being the production of didactic sequences that constitute teaching activities from a critical intercultural perspective (Walsh, 2009). These activities involved the use of texts to provide learning opportunities on ethnic-racial themes, highlighting what counts as text, such as reading and writing practices in the context of the anti-racist struggle. The analysis made visible that literacy demands varied from event to event and fulfilled different group purposes. What stands out in relation to literacy practices in NERER is their decolonizing character, as these practices seek to break with the coloniality of language, promoting actions to combat manifest forms of racism in language and the mobilization of reading and writing practices carried out in the school sphere to promote the rescue of African and Afro-Brazilian history and cultures.