Abstract

COUTO, Leandra Lúcia Moraes  and  ALENCAR, Heloisa Moulin de. Theft in schools: Teacher judgments about the teaching practice in Elementary School. Educ. Puc. [online]. 2019, vol.24, n.1, pp.35-53. ISSN 2318-0870.  https://doi.org/10.24220/2318-0870v24n1a4229.

School violence can cause a great impact on student’s education and on the teacher’s life quality. There are various violence situations in Brazilian schools and one of them is theft. In order to contribute to the theme, this article aimed to investigate teacher judgments about the teaching practices in theft situations in schools. A total of 23 professionals from elementary schools were interviewed: 11 first-grade teachers and 12 fifth-grade teachers, both groups from public schools in Vitória, Espirito Santo State (Brazil). Individual interviews were conducted in accordance with the clinic method of Piaget. Data were analyzed according to the theory of Piaget and the systematization theory proposed by Delval. The interview script was composed of questions about a fictitious story involving theft in a classroom. Most teachers stated that they would take actions that could be considered as impositions, which, therefore, do not favor the moral development of students. As for the evaluation of attitudes, most were considered fair and correct. Even with lower frequency, this study highlights attitudes that are classified as unfair and incorrect. The data indicate the need to discuss several aspects regarding the study of moral education, such as the teacher’s authority in schools, the relationship between judgment and moral action, humiliation, constraint and unfairness, which are observable in the teacher’s actions, and damage to the moral development of students.

Keywords : Moral education; Elementary school; Teaching practice; Development psychology; Violence in schools.

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