Introduction

Within the scope of the Goiás State Department of Education (SEDUC) there is the Management of Intersectoral and Socio-Education Programs and Projects, which is part of the Superintendence of Special Modalities and Themes of the Undersecretariat of Educational Governance. This Management is responsible, since August 2019, for implementing public policies aimed at schooling in the socio-educational system, as well as intersectoral programs, projects and actions related to the insertion of themes such as: human rights, sustainability, diversity, social inclusion and citizenship of children, adolescents, youth, adults and seniors who are students of the State Public Education Network. The focus is the expansion of learning possibilities, cognitive training for life and work and the promotion of rights, of an integral education, considering equal opportunities, the recognition and appreciation of protagonism, differences and diversity of students (SEDUC, 2019).

Socio-education in Brazil is governed by Law No. 12.594, enacted on January 18, 2012, which establishes the National Socio-Educational Assistance System (SINASE) and regulates the implementation of socio-educational measures. At Seduc, socio-education arises to meet the aforementioned Law, as a modality, linked to Youth and Adult Education, although the records of service to the public of minor offenders are earlier (SINASE, 2012).

Thus, in 2012, a partnership began with the Citizenship Department of the State of Goiás to offer schooling in socio-education, and in 2014 the Pedagogical Policy Proposal for Assistance to Adolescents Deprived of Liberty was prepared and approved - in the form of Education of Youth and Adults - EJA (Opinion CEE-CLN nº 1137-2014), to guide the organization of pedagogical work, with an emphasis on curriculum development (SEDUC, 2019). It should be noted that programs and projects were previously developed by managements and centers, with the objective of disseminating and promoting social inclusion, equity, justice and the physical and mental well-being of children, adolescents and young people, as well as disseminating the culture of peace, youth and socio-environmental protagonism in School Units of the State Network (SEDUC, 2019).

It is known that everyone who works in inclusion processes that the insertion of transversal themes that deal with opinions, positions and controversial ideologies, often, is not effective in practice. To avoid polarization or to defend an ideology, managers often omit or do not give due importance to this issue, even though the legal system determines the work in this area.

In order to deepen how this has been discussed at Seduc-GO, we carried out an analysis of initiatives to insert transversal themes in the State Department of Education and their respective repercussions on the materiality of the teaching of geography in socio-education, from 2019, when observes the intensification of ideological polarizations in Brazil.

The article is divided into three parts. In the first part we discuss how the geography teacher's performance deals with the silencing of many rulers and the hegemonic class in the implementation of public policies in our country and state, since studying Geography is an opportunity to understand the place, territory, region and landscape of the world in which we live, addressing actions and struggles in society in favor of citizenship. Thus, we approach that the Transversal Contemporary Themes (TCTs) brought perspectives of changes without, however, reflecting on situations imposed on young workers in Youth and Adult Education (EJA). In the second part of the text, we approach the so-called “School Without Party”, formed by a group of parents and students who advocate for the neutrality of the school and for the damage of possible ideological influences in the classroom. There, we reaffirm the importance of the autonomous work of teachers and the school and the need to work on significant themes for the individuals and groups that participate in the school.

Then, we point out how these themes are evidenced by Seduc from 2019, even though it has been present in the educational scenario since the beginning of the 2000s. In order to verify the scope of the reach of these sociopolitical issues in the classroom, we chose to focus on three themes: violence against children and adolescents, violence against women and, finally, Bullying/cyberbullying. We engendered the analysis through the teaching-learning process based on the reference curricula, on the teaching network and on the insertion of these transversal themes with a view to the teaching of geography, in the socio-educational system.

The role of the teacher and contemporary issues

Today's society goes through complex dilemmas and we live in a multifaceted moment in the 21st century, in which both the school and the teaching of Geography present several contradictions in their multiple tasks and challenges. According to ^{Cavalcanti (2019}), these multiple tasks go beyond educational actions, advancing to the reading of the world and the interpretation of geographic space. Certainly, the Geography taught in basic education has been the subject of successive debates and reflections about the national education system and the challenge of teaching in an increasingly heterogeneous and unequal society.

Certainly, education is the result of numerous challenges arising from a school community that has always fought and fights for the country to have a more egalitarian education system with access for all. These challenges were amplified in the context experienced by the world population in times of the COVID-19 pandemic, in the years 2020 and 2021, which accentuated the difficulty for the school to teach the contents historically produced by humanity.

It is understood that the moment has been used by the hegemonic power to take advantage of the opportunities that the ruling class has in times of crisis. There are political actions against the interests of the population, devoid of effective public policies to reduce social inequalities.

Thus, one must take into account what has been witnessed in Brazil in the period covered by the analysis (2019/2022): a) the absence of collective and democratic discussion on numerous demands that need implementation and, to the detriment, implementation of public educational policies aimed at standardized education based on an ultra-conservative vision. b) the emptying of policies previously discussed in a more democratic and collective way, based, for example, on the National Education Plan. C) A school without direction and understanding of its role and way of acting. D) The silencing of relevant topics for discussion and debate in classrooms and the political polarization guided by groups that act in an extremist way.

Today, we witness many policies that were implemented in the struggles carried out by civil society over the years and actions that did not enter the school space, causing a setback in the emancipation of the subject of learning. Many of these implementations were disregarded, and some were annulled, due to the silencing of many rulers and hegemonic classes in our country. Actions aimed at the context of diversity and at serving small minority groups, historically discriminated against and excluded, were left behind in certain segments of society.

Thus, as ^{Tardif (2010}) points out, the need to be aware of the reflexive capacity and the production of pedagogical knowledge in basic education, which seems to be essential for the reconstitution of the place of the teaching profession. Therefore, it is necessary to establish the meaning of pedagogical praxis, so that the teacher can reaffirm his practice of thinking, creating, re-reading the world around him, the role of school and education.

Investing in teacher training, based on the reality experienced, in order to carry out a more critical and reflective pedagogical practice is essential. For ^{Tardif (2010}, p. 56), “it can be said that work modifies the worker's identity, because working is not just doing something, but doing something of oneself with oneself”. And these teacher transformation processes are dialectical processes that comprise the teacher and his personal reflections.

In this way, it is worth raising some concerns: How are the various themes to be integrated into the curriculum of the different curricular components circulating in the school space in order to meet the demands of subjects, their rights and duties? How to work on issues at school that can resolve discrimination and exclusion? How are the curricular components inherent to the BNCC curriculum (2017) inserted in the pedagogical actions? Have the themes that provoke polarized discussions been considered by the teachers in the expansion of the debate in the school environment?

There are great challenges for teachers and, in particular, for Geography teachers. According to ^{Freire (1991}, p. 7), “change is difficult, but it is possible and urgent”, which presupposes taking on complex challenges that require expanding partnerships, carrying out new interlocutions and dialogues in the educational field.

It is understood that the so-called transversal themes are not a new pedagogical proposal in the field of education. With the approval of the National Curricular Common Base (BNCC) in the Early Childhood Education and Elementary School stages, in December 2017, and in the High School stage, in December 2018, there was an expansion of the debate on such topics that were entitled Transversal Contemporary Themes (TCTs).

In the document, the TCTs propose the connection between the different curricular components in an integrated way, as well as their connection with situations experienced by students in their realities, contributing to expand the objects of knowledge described in the BNCC. These themes were expanded to fifteen, distributed in six thematic macro-areas, as shown in the following image, Figure 1.

There has been a significant increase in cross-cutting themes, as can be seen in figure 1.

Source: http://basenacionalcomum.mec.gov.br/images/implementacao/guia_pratico_temas_contemporaneos.pdf.

FIGURE 1: TCTs at BNCC 

According to ^{Pinto and Carneiro (2019}), Geography as a curricular component becomes part of the body of knowledge of Applied Human and Social Sciences, presenting a lot of contradiction about the conceptual categories of its object of study. The authors ask very provocative questions regarding the future of Geography Teaching, with the enactment of the new BNCC, among them: Where is this teaching going? And the knowledge of the geographic space, from its categories of analysis: place, territory, region and landscape? Which other discipline will have the autonomy to discuss them?

These and other concerns of educators have generated many reflections and undoubtedly lack many discussions to deconstruct inappropriate ideas that still permeate the teaching and learning process in today's school.

Thus, education is everyone's priority and right. Access to education must occur regardless of age, gender, race, ethnicity or social class, as recommended in the Federal Constitution - CF/1988, in its Art. 205:

Education, a right of all and a duty of the State and the family, will be promoted and encouraged with the collaboration of society, aiming at the full development of the person, their preparation for the exercise of citizenship and their qualification for work. (BRAZIL, 1988, p.1)

In this way, education is seen for the exercise of citizenship, and later, for training for work. It is important to highlight that often, in different circumstances, training for citizenship is relegated to the background. These situations imposed on young workers in Youth and Adult Education - EJA, for example, end up limiting their access to knowledge historically produced by humanity.

In this way, Brazilian public education has developed and is developing linked to the modus operandi of the economic elites. This reality is observed by ^{Silva (2016}), when he states that Brazilian educational thought, materialized in school practices, expresses the liberal tendency, both in conservative and renewed forms.

Thus, education, and particularly the teaching of Geography, presents itself as a complex field. There are disputes, contradictions that mark the trajectories of people in the process of exclusion and discrimination. A large part of society is excluded from the right to school learning and, thus, from citizenship.

In this context, the challenge of Geography teachers is to propose activities in which the students can associate the geographic knowledge acquired along their trajectory, articulating this knowledge with the knowledge elaborated on the geographic space. It is also urgent to discuss topics that are relevant in the social context and that contribute to building citizenship and improving the quality of life of the entire population.

Thus, educators have the continuous challenge of thinking strategies to work on controversial issues, which comes up against more traditional proposals that the school should be 'neutral', 'without ideology' and 'without party'.

Controversies over the so-called 'School Without Party'

It is understood that the Escola Sem Partido (ESP) is a subject that can be pointed out as the result of the intense political polarization that took place in the country over the decade. However, the theme began to emerge long before this division became so evident.

Escola Sem Partido is dedicated to cataloging possible evidence of this ideological propaganda, including teaching materials, videos of teachers in the classroom and testimonies of parents and students.

It is important to highlight that the movement brings a conflicting opinion to the approach of sex education and the teaching of the so-called gender ideology in schools, in addition to criticizing positions that may attack Christian morality, as an ideology that concretizes the human being as a Christian.

This school gained strength in recent years and became the Escola Sem Partido (PESP) Program. It is noteworthy here that the Escola Sem Partido movement presents itself as a collective of parents and students concerned with possible ideological influences suffered by young people in the classroom, becoming later. According to ^{Frigotto (2017}),

‘Escola sem Partido’ expresses the epilogue of a process that wants to establish a law that defines what is science and valid knowledge, and that teachers can only follow the primer of conclusions and interpretations of official science, a supposedly non-neutral science. For this, it even manipulates the liberal sense of politics, inducing the idea that the school in Brazil would be commanded by a political party and its professionals and the student’s manipulated idiots. (^{FRIGOTTO, 2017}, p. 29)

Thus, it is worrying to note that one of the main measures suggested by Escola Sem Partido is the mandatory posting of a poster in elementary and high school classrooms containing six guidelines described as “Teacher Duties”, among which, are those that provide for the functions of the teacher:

For us, these precepts hurt the ideal of an emancipatory teaching, of an education focused on the practice of freedom and structured to grant autonomy of thought to the student. The Escola Sem Partido that points to indoctrination by the school is supported by the idea of ​​withdrawing critical thinking, problematization and the possibility of democratizing the school. Such proposal supports the idea of ​​the neutral posture of the teachers. It is understood that this impartiality would become synonymous with indifference and the naturalization of social inequalities. Differently, it is believed that the school is a product of society and topics such as gender equality and the environment, for example, could not be left out of the debates, as it is a reality present in different areas of daily life.

All these issues represent important themes for national education. Certainly, the current social conjuncture requires further reflection and defines the importance of the students' lives, understanding the relevance of the role of all subjects in the construction of a more just and fraternal society.

In this sense, for Geography to actually play its role, there is a need for a teacher to mediate between the scientific content, the exercise of research and the treatment of relevant topics for society and for students. Therefore, it is stated here that teacher training is one of the pillars of fundamental importance for the teaching of Geography, especially in contemporary times, maraca by complex challenges. According to ^{Cavalcanti (2002}, p.78) “instrumentalizing the citizen to understand the space as it is produced today is the role of the school and of Geography in teaching”.

Insertion of transversal themes in the teaching and learning process of the State Education Network of Goiás

Our objective here is to describe how the transversal themes linked to controversial issues, according to official documents, are being inserted in the schools of the State Education Network of Goiás. As already mentioned, the introduction of themes considered by many to be controversial, became more evident in the work of Seduc-GO since 2005. In this context, the programs and projects were organized in four axes between 2005 and 2015:

1 - Ethics and Citizenship in Education: Fiscal Education, Integrated Public Security Network-RIS, Project to Prevent and Combat Bullying and Cyberbullying, Citizenship and Peace Movement in Education, Junior Achievement and Human Rights Education Course; 2 - Diversity and Gender in Education: Sexual Education and The Color of Culture; 3 - Health and Environment in Education: Goiana Journey to Prevent Drug Use, Educational Program on Drug Resistance - PROERD, Ser Livre Program, School without Drugs, School Health Program, Drug Abuse Prevention Course, Campaigns for Vaccination, Eye on Vision II Project, Boa Visão Project, Goiás Against Dengue, Compensar Project, Cerrado Spring Project; 4 - Participation in Councils, Committees, Working Groups and Forums. All the actions, projects and programs of the Management of Transversal Programs were carried out by the educational units in an interdisciplinary, transdisciplinary and multidisciplinary manner, according to the socio-environmental, political, economic and cultural context of each region. (SEDUC, 2019. p. 03)

Thus, in the years 2015 to 2018, the records in reports show that the following training topics were addressed: Human Rights; Bullying and Cyberbullying; Diversity and Gender in Education: Sex Education and the Color of Culture (SEDUC, 2019). But it cannot be said that it was a network action, as it was not possible to include all schools in the training and actions. As of 2019, these themes became part of the Program for the Management of Intersectoral Programs and Projects and Socio-education, in the axis - Human Rights, Diversity and Citizenship, and for the purpose of effectiveness there was the integration of Pedagogical Guidelines for the entire network.

Among the themes, the Project to Combat Violence against Children and Adolescents was prepared, focusing on the month of May, in which a seminar was held for 100 professionals with guidelines on how the network should work on the theme. In 2020, the project gained a more robust orientation through a guiding document to meet the “National Campaign: Combating Sexual Violence Against Children and Adolescents”. Pedagogical Guidance No. 05/2020 (2020, p. 02) aimed to “Address the issue and strengthen, mobilize, raise awareness and sensitize the school community to participate in the fight and confrontation of violence and sexual exploitation of children, within the scope of the State Education Network”. Furthermore, that document notes that:

[...] we propose to work in this fortnight and may extend throughout the year 2020, as the topic in question requires, from everyone, attention to the vulnerabilities of children and adolescents in relation to sexual abuse and exploitation [...]. The guiding document aims to address the issue, strengthen, mobilize, raise awareness and sensitize the performance of the school community to participate in the fight and confrontation of violence and sexual exploitation of children and adolescents, within the scope of the State Education Network. It has an explanatory methodology and strategic guidelines for the knowledge and participation of teachers. (Pedagogical Guidance 05/2020, 2020, p. 14)

As a methodology, in times of a pandemic caused by Covid-19, Seduc, in addition to offering a Weblist with a digital repository of content related to the theme, guided the work with digital technologies, with the aim of promoting the creativity of students and teachers, encouraging the joint production of productions/media: textual, audiovisual and image production, for which the document provided specific guidance. The fact is that, according to the data, more than 1500 pedagogical productions (posters, videos and texts) were produced, works carried out by students from the State Education Network (SEDUC, 2020).

By analyzing the productions, it was possible to identify the presence of pedagogical work carried out by teachers who work with the various curricular components, with emphasis on: Portuguese Language, Arts, Geography, History and Science in Elementary School; In high school, in addition to these, Biology, Sociology and Philosophy.

The highlight regarding the presence of the pedagogical work developed, by component, was identified in the authorial presentation of the pedagogical productions themselves. In a sample analysis of 10% of the works presented, we identified that more than 90% of the textual productions were mediated by a Portuguese language teacher. Regarding the production of posters and videos, the highest incidence of works was linked to the areas of Science, Biology and Arts.

In 2021, the theme was worked on again in the network, and from the Pedagogical Guidance nº 05/2021, the autonomy and initiative of the schools and teachers who integrated the demand was recognized. Seduc-GO made some propositions, the main one being “that schools value and use the media produced by our students in 2020” (SEDUC, 2021, annex 11. p. 9).

To this end, the Secretariat sent a selection of 120 media from 2020, evaluated and considered relevant to be used in pedagogical work in the year 2021. In addition, it encouraged the holding of a conversation circle, with students, teachers and specialists on the subject. To encourage participation and discussion, the institution sent Google Forms in advance in which teachers could send provocative questions/questions to be discussed in the conversation circle.

The form served, in our analysis, to observe the incidence of involvement of professionals by curricular component, as can be seen in the graph below.

Source: Silva, 2022 - Seduc, 2020.

GRAPHIC 1: Curriculum components taught by teachers who had access to and showed interest in the theme “Violence Against Child and Adolescent 2020. 

The data show that the interest of teachers of curricular components in the area of Human Sciences in answering the questionnaire sent by Seduc was lower than that of teachers in the areas of Languages and Natural Sciences. It was expected that the curricular components of the humanities area would reach a higher percentage than the arts, but this was not what was found, nor did Geography stand out, understanding that this theme is quite correlated to the focus of Geography teaching. But on the other hand, it implies saying that this verification also meets the principle of transversality, inter and transdisciplinarity of the theme.

Another theme that has been gaining ground and space in Seduc's work, due to the relevance and high incidence of outstanding cases in society, refers to violence against women. In 2019, Seduc created the Standing Committee on Women and Diversity Issues and started to promote the training (figure 02) of teachers to work with the “Maria da Penha nas Escolas” Project. This was an offshoot of the “Pacto Goiano for the End of Violence against Women” program, launched by the Government of Goiás, through SEDS, in 2019. The program had a course that has already trained 417 professionals, as well as held two online lectures, which had more than 600 participations, and 2,300 views on the Channel of the Center for Studies, Research and Training of Education Professionals at Seduc (SEDUC, 2021).

In the meantime, Seduc promoted the campaign “21 days of Activism for the End of Violence Against Women”, in partnership with the State Council for Women (CONEM). The purpose of the action was to collect sanitary pads, soaps, cream and toothbrush, to donate to women, mothers, girls and students in schools with greater social and economic vulnerability. The action also provided for the integration of the theme into the teaching and learning process through guidance for pedagogical work with lectures, conversation circles, lives, among others. The results were satisfactory in the collection and donation of hundreds of kits, as well as the development of various pedagogical actions in schools.

However, it is pertinent to mitigate those actions like these need to be intensified. The survey carried out by Seduc, through the Committee for Women's Issues and Diversity, indicated that 15.5% of professionals do not know how the community deals with violence against women, another 37.7% are not aware and 1, 5% do not understand. In addition, 53.7% of the participants answered that they do not know the laws that protect their rights (SEDUC, 2021).

When we turn to the specific analysis for pedagogical work, we can see that the themes are being inserted in the teaching and learning process, even in a period of ideological intensification and political polarization. In the context of Socioeducation, for example, from March 2020 to June 2021, classes take place remotely from “Rádio Escola”, a methodology that aimed to promote access to school education, since students in situations and deprivation of liberty (inmates) did not have access to the computer network (SEDUC, 2020).

As the planning and activities and their respective explanatory audios worked with the students, with authorization from Seduc, it was possible to verify that there was the insertion of themes such as violence against children and adolescents; violence against women in socio-educational schools; bullying and cyberbullying. The analysis showed that all 06 school units addressed the themes, according to Seduc's guidelines. The work was more evident in the Portuguese Language and Arts components. The geography area only addressed the theme “violence against women” in a school. This fact highlights the need to rethink the insertion of these themes in the context of School Geography, considering their enormous potential to contribute to human development and the students' view of the world.

Final considerations

In this study, it was found that the themes historically approached as transversal themes, contextualized and integrated into the curriculum, are present in the pedagogical work, in an inter and transdisciplinary way, based on pedagogical guidelines and the efforts of Seduc-GO to articulate with the schools.

However, there is still a need for greater effectiveness of concrete actions. Without proper guidance and monitoring of the school environment, these issues will hardly be addressed on a network scale. Even when guided, the pedagogical work and the materialization of the proposals in the school are harmed, as the teachers feel insecure to address certain themes, as there is a lack of continuous training for that task.

In this sense, it is understood that networks need to invest in continuing education, strengthening of guidelines and pedagogical monitoring to implement these themes. In addition, measuring the results of the work is important. It is necessary to take care of the purpose that the school environment is a place for cognitive training based on human development, considering dignity, equity, and diversity. The school needs to deal with important issues for life in society, without any kind of prejudice.

Thus, the process of teacher training, as well as the pedagogical guidelines, must dedicate efforts to the greater insertion of the approach of these themes in the scope of Human Sciences, seeking a dialogue with the teaching of Geography, above all, since it is this discipline, in the school context, can be worked with other fields, in an inter and transdisciplinary way. Thus, Geography can effectively contribute to citizen, critical and life training.

Even in a time of ideological polarization, it is up to the education professionals of the State Network Secretariat-GO to continue working towards promoting an egalitarian education in favor of the quality of education for all students, providing training for autonomy and criticality.