Representações sociais de direitos humanos: um estudo sobre a relação entre a formação da consciência ética e as práticas educativas na escola universitária

Abstract

This dissertation describes and analyses the social representations of human rights and the ideas about the existing relationships between the development of an ethical consciousness and educational practices. These social representations and ideas were captured in the discursive production of groups of students and teachers from two undergraduate programs in Education pertaining to a private and a public higher learning institution, both located in the city of Belo Horizonte, Brazil, in 2006. The purpose of the investigation was to know how people involved in the educational process developed in schools at the university level perceive their contribution (or not) to the promotion of the consciousness of human rights, and how the educational practices occurring at higher learning institutions reflect these ideas in the ethical formation of students. For this end, we searched for knowing what students and teachers think about human rights, and about the relationship between ethical consciousness and educational practices, aiming at verifying whether there are differences between the building of this ethical consciousness in public and private institutions. The research was based on theoretical considerations about the relationships between ethics, human rights and the education for citizenship, and about the importance of educational practices as instances for integral human development. The approach to individual and group construction of ideas and conceptions about these relationships was based on the theory of social representations proposed by Serge Moscovici and Willem Doise and the theories of moral development proposed by Piaget and Kohlberg. The social representations of the relationships between conceptions of human rights, ethical consciousness and educational practices were apprehended in conversational encounters with teachers and students in reflexive groups. These groups were considered as units of discoursive production, thus enabling data collecting and the analysis of social interactions in the group. Qualitative analysis and the interpretation of results were based on content analysis, lexical analysis using the program Alceste and the analysis of group processes of co-construction of ideas regarding the focus of the research. The results showed aspects of social representations shared in both institutions, and some variations. In the private institution, the prevalent conception of human rights considered the human being as a whole, whose right to dignity is inherent to his/her own condition; human beings are also considered as citizens, whose needs must be fulfilled through the enforcement of the laws and of the Constitution, perceived as sources of knowledge and pledge of rights. Another aspect of a shared social representation was the conception that ethical formation includes human development of values, attitudes and abilities integrating the notions of ethics and moral, and the notion of rights through educational practices and interpersonal relations inside and outside the classroom. A higher learning institution was considered a space for the development of consciousness regarding collective responsibilities and compromises, a socio-educational environment for the enforcement of human values in conviviality.. In the public institution, the conception of human rights embodied a socio- political dimension, society being understood as a body of rules and laws that regulate human relations in the social group. Natural and positive rights were distinguished. The sources for knowledge on human rights were the Universal Declaration of Human Rights, the Constitution, the Brazilian Children and Adolescents Act and the Elderly Act. Another aspect of the representation concerned the formation of ethical consciousness, in which educational practices are activities directed towards the development of morality and of human values. Public universities were perceived as an opportunity for the education in human rights: 1- as an opportunity for competition, thus reproducing social values that harm the practice of respecting human rights; 2 as an opportunity for the development of relationships based on the respect for others and of actions that promote human rights; 3- as an opportunity of access to knowledge. Therefore, the university was considered as a space for human development, as an opportunity for the reproduction, maintenance or transformation of values. Implications of these results are presented in the conclusions, as suggestions for teachers education and for social and educational research and intervention using group methodology.