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Acta Scientiarum. Education

versão impressa ISSN 2178-5198versão On-line ISSN 2178-5201

Acta Educ. vol.44  Maringá  2022  Epub 10-Ago-2022

https://doi.org/10.4025/actascieduc.v44i1.62313 

TEACHERS' FORMATION AND PUBLIC POLICY

Continuing education of Basic Education teachers and the teaching of ethnic-racial relations: analyses and counterparts to epistemological absences

Mariana Alves de Sousa1 
http://orcid.org/0000-0001-9114-6395

Monica Abrantes Galindo2 
http://orcid.org/0000-0002-3649-5098

Maria Valéria Barbosa1 
http://orcid.org/0000-0002-9142-2131

1 Universidade Estadual Paulista, Marília, São Paulo, Brasil.

2 Universidade Estadual Paulista, Rua Cristóvão Colombo, Jardim Nazareth, s/n., 15054-000, São José do Rio Preto, São Paulo, Brasil.


ABSTRACT.

This paper proposes an analysis and discussion on the extent to which the National Curriculum Guidelines for the Continuing Education of Basic Education Teachers contemplate the teaching of ethnic-racial relations. Considering the contributions of Sociology to the understanding of social phenomena, this study aims to highlight the theoretical and political contribution of the black intelligentsia to subsidize and problematize the training of teachers with regard to the approach of ethnic-racial themes. Based on studies critical to coloniality, we seek to identify absences and the possibilities to contemplate these theoretical frameworks in the curriculum formulation of teacher education from the analysis of these guidelines. We intend to highlight the importance of teacher education aligned with the emergence of new epistemes that have been constituted in the face of the need to understand social relations from the interaction between individuals and the diversity that constitute them. Based on the bibliographic research methodology, we used theoretical references that deal with the increase in the theoretical and methodological production of Black intellectuals in the academic context, in view of the expansion of their access to higher education, as a result of the actions of black social movements. Thus, we aim to demonstrate how this process can contribute to the construction of curricula for teacher training contemplating diversities (especially ethnic-racial) in their theoretical aspects, aiming at the construction of an effectively citizen education. Through the proposed reflections, we emphasize that access to quality education, the guarantee of the right to access to history and culture produced by an ethnic-racial group that contributed significantly to the socio-cultural and political construction of the country, are fundamental elements for the construction of an emancipatory education with a view to reducing socio-racial inequalities.

Keywords: Black movement; diversity; curriculum guidelines

RESUMO.

Este artigo propõe análise e discussão sobre em que medida as Diretrizes Curriculares Nacionais para a Formação Continuada de Professores(as) da Educação Básica contemplam o ensino das relações étnico-raciais. Levando em consideração as contribuições da Sociologia para compreensão dos fenômenos sociais, o presente trabalho tem como objetivo destacar o aporte teórico e político da intelectualidade negra para subsidiar e problematizar a formação de professores(as) no que se refere à abordagem de temáticas étnico-raciais. Com base nos estudos críticos à colonialidade, buscamos identificar as ausências e, sobretudo, as possibilidades para contemplar esses referenciais teóricos na formulação curricular da formação docente a partir da análise das referidas diretrizes. Pretendemos evidenciar a importância de a formação docente estar alinhada à emergência das novas epistemes que vêm se constituindo diante da necessidade de compreender as relações sociais a partir da interação entre os sujeitos e a diversidade que os constituem. A partir da metodologia de pesquisa bibliográfica, recorremos a referenciais teóricos que versam sobre o aumento da produção teórica e metodológica de intelectuais negros(as) no contexto acadêmico, ante a ampliação do acesso destes(as) ao ensino superior, como resultado das ações dos movimentos sociais negros. Com isso, visamos demonstrar como esse processo pode contribuir para que a construção dos currículos destinados à formação docente contemple as diversidades (especialmente étnico-racial) em seus aspectos teóricos, visando a construção de uma educação efetivamente cidadã. Mediante as reflexões propostas, ressaltamos que o acesso à educação de qualidade, a garantia do direito ao acesso à história e cultura produzida por um grupo étnico-racial que contribuiu significativamente para a construção sociocultural e política do país, são elementos fundamentais para a construção de uma educação emancipadora com vistas à redução das desigualdades sócio-raciais.

Palavras-chave: movimento negro; diversidade; diretrizes curriculares

RESUMEN.

Este artículo propone un análisis y discusión sobre el grado en que los Lineamientos Curriculares Nacionales para la Formación Continua de Maestros de Educación Básica contemplan la enseñanza de las relaciones étnico-raciales. Teniendo en cuenta los aportes de la Sociología para la comprensión de los fenómenos sociales, el presente trabajo pretende destacar el aporte teórico y político de la intelectualidad negra para subsidiar y problematizar la formación de los docentes en cuanto al abordaje de los temas étnico-raciales. A partir de los estudios críticos a la colonialidad, se busca identificar las ausencias y, sobre todo, las posibilidades de contemplar estos referentes teóricos en la formulación curricular de la formación docente a partir del análisis de las referidas directrices. Pretendemos resaltar la importancia de que la formación docente se alinee con la emergencia de nuevas epistemes que se han constituido por la necesidad de comprender las relaciones sociales a partir de la interacción entre los sujetos y la diversidad que los constituye. A partir de la metodología de investigación bibliográfica, recurrimos a referencias teóricas que abordan el aumento de la producción teórica y metodológica de los intelectuales negros en el contexto académico, ante la ampliación de su acceso a la educación superior, como resultado de las acciones de los movimientos sociales negros. Con eso, pretendemos demostrar cómo ese proceso puede contribuir para que la construcción de currículos destinados a la formación de profesores contemple las diversidades (especialmente la étnico-racial) en sus aspectos teóricos, apuntando a la construcción de una educación efectivamente ciudadana. A través de las reflexiones propuestas, destacamos que el acceso a una educación de calidad, la garantía del derecho de acceso a la historia y a la cultura producida por un grupo racial-étnico que contribuyó significativamente a la construcción sociocultural y política del país, son elementos fundamentales para la construcción de una educación emancipadora dirigida a la reducción de las desigualdades socio-raciales.

Palabras clave: movimiento negro; diversidad; directrices curriculares

Introduction12 13

The National Curriculum Guidelines for the Continuing Education of Teachers is a document that provides us with important indications to understand the advances or setbacks in relation to the effectiveness of educational policies aimed at ensuring the regularity of the teaching of ethnic-racial relations. In this sense, it is relevant to analyze and discuss to what extent these guidelines have contemplated the presence of ethnic-racial themes for the training of teachers working in Basic Education. Considering that the school context is composed of different subjects, whose identities are diverse in ethnic-racial and gender aspects, among others, we understand that these dynamic demands that the contents that integrate the syllabuses of the teacher training disciplines are aligned with the reality of the current school context.

In this sense, we intend to point out that the recognition of the theoretical and political contributions of the black intellectuality can subsidize the way the teaching of ethnic-racial relations is proposed in the official documents that guide the training of teachers, in order to enable the affirmation of differences to reverse epistemic erasures and socio-racial inequalities of other dimensions. In addition, we intend to show how this process can make pedagogical practices more significant regarding the recovery of Afro-Brazilian memory, history and culture as fundamental contents for the understanding of the processes of Brazilian sociocultural and political constitution and for the consolidation of an effectively democratic education.

To address the aforementioned topics, the text was divided into two parts in addition to the introduction and the final considerations. In the first part, we draw an overview of the emergence of new epistemologies that contemplate ethnic-racial themes and have been demanded in the spaces of knowledge construction. In this topic, we seek to elaborate a brief historical context of the processes of struggle and resistance of the Black population throughout history, with emphasis on its relevance to the restitution of the historical, intellectual, and political protagonism of Black intellectuals. Thus, we aim to identify to what extent the educational policies that present the importance of teaching African and Afro-Brazilian culture and history, to substantiate the teaching of ethnic-racial relations, are contemplated in the National Curriculum Guidelines for the Continuing Education of Basic Education Teachers.

In the second part of the paper, we seek to analyze the aforementioned guidelines to identify how the teaching of ethnic-racial relations is considered in the document. Next, we highlight how the dissemination of black epistemes can enhance the effectiveness of educational policies aimed at valuing diversity and reducing socio-racial inequalities. In this sense, the ‘sociology of absences and emergencies’ (Santos, 2004) becomes relevant to contextualize the dynamics that causes the marginalization of these epistemes in the spaces of knowledge construction, but also to emphasize the importance of regularly including references that promote critical debate about diversity, especially ethnic-racial, in the documents that regulate the teacher training of Basic Education teachers. We consider that this process is essential to demarginalize the academic productions and political contributions elaborated by the Black population throughout history, in addition to contributing to the construction of an effectively citizen education, with a view to reducing inequalities, from the critical understanding of the social phenomena that structure them.

An overview of the emergence of Black intelligentsia

This topic of the paper aims to present a brief historical context of the processes of struggle and resistance of the Black Brazilian population, in order to highlight the interfaces between these mobilizations and the achievements of social rights by the referred public, especially regarding the presence in the spaces of knowledge construction. Among these rights, we highlight the mobilization for the implementation of educational policy actions and affirmative action policies that ensure that the Black population has access to production spaces and sharing of scientific knowledge.

From this study, we aim to highlight how the political processes conducted by the black population throughout history have expanded their access to higher education institutions and contributed to the construction of critical perspectives in the context of inequalities under which the Brazilian black population still finds itself. We also highlight how the construction of a critical view of the reality experienced tends to contribute to its practical transformation.

Through these processes, we identified the emergence of a demand for theoretical references that address the social phenomena that permeate the reality of blacks and browns in the country, both in academia and in the school universe; in other words, we seek to emphasize the emergence and importance of intellectual productions elaborated by black social thinkers, as well as the limits that structural and institutional racism establish so that such productions do not yet have due prestige in the spaces of knowledge construction. To this end, it is necessary to point out the importance of establishing approximations between the contents addressed in the syllabuses of teacher training, as well as in the classrooms composed of subjects who build diversity and claim understanding and belonging to the sociocultural reality that they integrate.

Historically, the Black Brazilian population was situated on the margins of society, having been deprived of full access to basic social rights and the occupation of spaces of social prestige. This phenomenon is due to the historical, social, and political context under which the African and Afro-Brazilian population were subjected during about three centuries of colonization and intense dynamics of physical, political, territorial and intersubjective domination and exploitation. The intersubjective aspect of domination remains until today when we stick to studies about colonialism and coloniality, which engenders brands that operate in modernity through relations of oppression.

To deepen this debate, we resort to the propositions of Quijano (2005), who presents, from his research, another look at the process of colonial domination. During the period of America's constitution, European colonialism established over the rest of the world patterns of power and behavior based on its own parameters. One of the instruments of domination used by the colonizers was race as a basic criterion for classifying the world's population. Until the period of the constitution of America, the identities of Indigenous, black and mestizos did not exist and came to exist from the imposition of coloniality as a standard of power. This process established hierarchies between Europeans/colonizers and peoples with other identities, to forge the superiority of white and European identity over the others.

Although coloniality represents a pattern of power arising from colonial dynamics, its permanence has proven to be more ‘lasting and stable’ than colonialism. For Maldonado-Torres (2007), while colonialism corresponds to a form of power understood in a given historical period, based on the domination and exploitation of specific territories and ethnic-racial groups, coloniality emerges from this process in order to overcome the ‘formal relationship of power between two peoples or nations’ and exercise dominance over ‘the way work, knowledge, authority and intersubjective relations articulate each other’. In other words, coloniality overcomes colonialism when it is expressed from the absence of the history and culture of the African and Afro-Brazilian people in textbooks, curricula, official documents, the criteria for good intellectual production and highlights the predilection of the history of an ethnic-racial group to the detriment of others (Maldonado-Torres, 2007).

To establish a rapprochement between studies on coloniality and the production of black intellectuality, it is appropriate to resort to the discussions proposed by Lélia Gonzalez. One of the founders of the Unified Black Movement (MNU), who is also a militant of the Black feminist movement, Lélia mobilized political actions and developed critical theoretical productions about the effects of Eurocentrism and neocolonialism in the construction of the social imaginary and in the reality of the Brazilian black population. By observing the operating political dynamics of the private world developed under the aegis of modern capitalism, Gonzalez (2018b) noticed the emergence of new demands for political debate in social movements - especially in the feminist movement. Issues such as sexuality, violence and reproductive rights were some of the agendas demanded by feminists in the 1970s. However, the absence of the racial agenda was intriguing for Lélia.

Let us take an example of a definition of feminism: ‘it consists of the resistance of women to accept roles, social, economic, political, ideological and psychological characteristics that are based on the existence of a hierarchy between men and women, from which women are discriminated against’14. It would be enough to replace the terms men and women with whites and blacks (or Indians), respectively, to have an excellent definition of racism. Precisely because both sexism and racism are based on biological differences to establish themselves as ideologies of domination (Gonzalez, 2018b, p. 309, our translation).

In this regard, the apparent forgetfulness of ethnic-racial agendas by the feminist movement expressed the ‘racism by omission’ arising from the Eurocentric bias built from the marks of colonialism and subsidized by the effects of coloniality. Thus, it becomes noticeable that the invisibility of ethnic-racial issues is not only manifested in political spaces and official documents, but also in spaces of knowledge construction.

Another perspective that contributes to this scenario is the myth of racial democracy produced by Gilberto Freyre in the 1930s. The belief that Brazil should be conceived as a model of nation for the world due to the absence of conflict between races constituted the idea that racism does not exist, as we live in a mixed country (Gonzalez, 2018a)15. In this sense, racial democracy began to operate as part of a political project that remains in the social imagination today, in order to compromise the identification and understanding of the bases on which discrimination operates. This process makes it impossible to establish affirmative action policies that can effectively remedy racial inequality.

Despite the marks of colonial politics, the Black population has always presented counterparts in the form of political and cultural resistance. In the 1970s, these resistance processes became more articulated after the mobilization of the MNU, during the undergoing transition phase of Brazilian politics from a dictatorial political regime to the consolidation of the 1988 Federal Constitution and a subsequent process of democratization in the country. This resistance, despite its forcefulness, could not immediately and profoundly reverse the objective conditions of the Black population. The possibilities of reversing these conditions can occur in the occupation of different spaces of power, influence, and construction of knowledge in society. One of these spaces is higher education.

Regarding the presence of the black population in the spaces of knowledge construction, Fernandes (2016) evidenced the relationship between the emergence of the black intellectuality in Brazilian universities, political militancy and the production of knowledge itself, mainly focused on the study of ethnic-racial relations.

We can speak of black intelligentsia in the field of Brazilian education when we glimpse and visualize the set of anti-racist social thinking through the production of systematized knowledge that translates not only reflections, but forms of action capable of reversing the situation of Afro-descendants within Brazilian society marked by a perverse logic of a stratified and structurally racialized social system (Fernandes, 2016, p. 106, our translation).

The study and critical understanding of the social phenomena that permeate the reality of the Black population are fundamental for the analysis of the challenges that constitute social reality. Consequently, this becomes a necessary process for the development of affirmative and educational policies that can effectively promote racial equity to some extent. However, despite the relevance of the presence of Black intellectuals in universities and in the theoretical frameworks that guide scientific studies, structural inequality is a determining factor for the access of said public in the spaces of knowledge construction and political deliberations.

Among the basic social rights neglected to the Black population, we can mention the access to quality education and higher education. This limitation stems from the racial barriers that prevented Black people from conceiving academic careers as a professional possibility until the 1970s. The Black movement of the time played a fundamental role in confronting these barriers by establishing as a primary agenda the overcoming of racism in favor of the right to education and access to knowledge (Fernandes, 2016).

The political actions of the Black movement began to demonstrate their effects from the 1980s16. During this period, a generation of intellectuals who are members of Black social movements completed postgraduate studies and began to integrate universities as researchers. It is possible to consider that despite the incipient presence of Black intellectuals in academies, this moment marked the resistance of the black population to institutional racism, which, in turn, began to occupy the ‘circles of Brazilian intellectuals’ (Fernandes, 2016).

In his studies on the social and political space of the black intellectuality in the Brazilian academy, Gomes (2009) pointed to the emergence of ethnic-racial issues in this space of knowledge construction, especially regarding the search for a more accurate understanding of the causes and effects of socio-racial inequalities. This process not only characterizes a milestone in the presence of Black intellectuals in the sciences, but also highlights the protagonism of social identity movements and their subjects within the scope of academic production: Black people, Indigenous people, women, the LGBTQIA+ population17, among others.

Within these dynamic, Black intellectuals are situated in a field of tensions in which new epistemologies are constituted that aim to demarginalize their subjectivities, in order to replace omissions and silences with claims and occupations of spaces historically denied to this public. Thus, a new moment arises in the context of academic production, in which researchers articulate their experiences and the challenges that constitute them to the theoretical-methodological assumptions and show how these themes and the subjects that mobilize them become increasingly necessary in the field of education (Gomes, 2008, 2009).

In this sense, we consider that the process of drafting Law No. 10,639 (2003) is a practical example of how political actions and the knowledge produced by Black intellectuals are fundamental to the exercise of citizenship. Petronilha Gonçalves e Silva, a Black woman and intellectual active in the field of ethnic-racial relations in education, played an essential role in the implementation of the law, despite the challenges that still compromise its repercussion. Silva was the rapporteur of the opinion directed to the National Council of Education (CNE) to regulate the amendment made to the Education Guidelines and Bases Law (LDB) to establish the mandatory teaching of African and Afro-Brazilian history and culture in all public and private educational institutions.

The opinion seeks to offer a response, among others, in the area of education, to the demand of the Afro-descendant population, in the sense of affirmative action policies, that is, reparation policies, and recognition and appreciation of their history, culture, identity. It deals with curricular policy, founded on historical, social, and anthropological dimensions arising from the Brazilian reality, and seeks to combat racism and discrimination that particularly affect Blacks. In this perspective, it proposes the dissemination and production of knowledge, the formation of attitudes, postures and values that educate citizens proud of their ethnic-racial belonging [...] to interact in the construction of a democratic nation, in which everyone, equally, has their rights guaranteed and their identity valued (Resolution n. 1, 2004, p. 2, our translation)18.

The opinion guides the National Curriculum Guidelines for the Education of Ethnic-Racial Relations for the Teaching of Afro-Brazilian History and Culture and denotes its alignment with the Federal Constitution about ensuring the right to equal living conditions and citizenship, as well as equality in access to the right to memories that constitute Brazilian history, politics and culture.

By establishing the mandatory teaching of African and Afro-Brazilian history and culture in all public or private educational institutions, Law No. 10,639 (2003) denotes how education is one of the fundamental ways for social minorities to have access to critical knowledge, which contemplates the notion of belonging to the social, cultural, and historical reality they experience. Thus, not only in the academic field, but also in the school universe, it is necessary to seek understanding how ethnic-racial relations are constituted and to what extent the themes that address these issues have been prioritized in the documents that regulate Basic Education.

Based on Silva's (2008) propositions, we understand the teaching of ethnic-racial relations as a political and intellectual commitment of the Black population committed to promoting the formation of citizens who can recognize the priority aspect of equality in access to the rights to express, live and be that respect the different ethnic-racial belonging. This purpose is related to the objective of establishing teachings and learning that guarantee the effective participation of the Black population in spaces where their history, culture, and socio-racial conditions can be affirmed, understood, and positively transformed.

In other words, in a country that is mixed and guided by the belief in racial democracy, education for ethnic-racial relations is fundamental for there to be the possibility of forming subjects committed to discussions of common interests, capable of recognizing differences and valuing diversities, as well as negotiating priorities aimed at reducing inequalities (Silva, 2008). Thus, we consider that teacher training is a process in which Black intelligentsia and education must be articulated with the purpose of subsidizing the actions foreseen for the application of Law No. 10,639 (2003) and the significant teaching of ethnic-racial relations.

Educating for ethnic-racial relations: limits and possibilities in the continuing education of Basic Education teachers

In this topic, we seek to conduct an analysis of how the National Curriculum Guidelines for the Continuing Education of Basic Education Teachers are aligned or not with the learning and teaching of ethnic-racial relations. In this sense, we seek to identify some aspects of multiculturalism in Brazilian educational policies in relation to dealing with the themes that cover cultural diversity. From the perspective of the ‘sociology of absences and emergencies’ proposed by Santos (2004) and the ‘educator‘ character that Gomes (2017) attributes to the black movement, we aim to highlight some possibilities for ethnic-racial themes, especially with regard to the teaching of African and Afro-Brazilian culture and history and appreciation of black intellectuality, to be contemplated in teacher training based on these guidelines.

First, it is necessary to contextualize some aspects of Law No. 10.639 (2003) regarding the changes made to it. As previously mentioned, by emphasizing the political importance of the interface between ethnic-racial issues and education, Law No. 10,639 (2003) amended the LDB (Law of Directives and Bases of National Education) which, in addition to establishing mandatory teaching of the culture and history of the African and Afro-Brazilian population, provided other necessary measures to seek to ensure the effectiveness of this process. Among these measures are item §3 and article 79-A of the LDB's general provisions for Basic Education, which, in turn, were vetoed in 2003.

Before the veto, item 3 established that subjects History of Brazil and Artistic Education, in high school, should dedicate at least ten percent of their annual or semi-annual program content to the treatment of the thematic content provided for by law. The exclusion of this part of the law was conducted by justifying that, constitutionally, education must value respect for the particularities of each educational context, so that the curricula of elementary and high school present a diversified reference according to the socio-cultural and economic reality of the ‘clientele’.

Article 79-A, before being vetoed, determined that teacher training courses had the presence of entities from Black social movements, universities, and other research institutions on the subject in question. The article was vetoed by the fact that in LDB there is no mention of courses for teacher training, so it would be contrary to public interest standards19.

In view of the analysis of the vetoes conducted in Law No. 10.639 (2003), it is possible to perceive the tendency of the hegemonic political power to demobilize the political achievements committed by black and black militants and intellectuals throughout history. With this, we can more precisely identify the limits that the training of teachers presents to contemplate the treatment of ethnic-racial relations, the appreciation of the memory of Afro-Brazilian struggles and resistances and, especially, to promote the recognition of the productions of the black intellectuality that contribute significantly to the understanding and overcoming of racial inequalities that are present, including in the field of access to knowledge.

In this sense, we opted for the analysis of the Curriculum Guidelines for Continuing Teacher Education, to glimpse, in continuing education, possibilities so that the context of marginalization of knowledge in which the Black intelligentsia is located is resignified through the dissemination of their contributions. We also decided to analyze the guidelines mentioned because we consider it important to turn our attention to the documents that guide the training of professionals who are already in practice in basic education, in view of the curricular changes that will cover their actions as a result of the determinations of the new National Common Curricular Base (BNCC). We will not specifically focus on these changes in this discussion, but we emphasize that the reformulation of the curricular contents that will be addressed in Basic Education have an influence on the themes prioritized in the teaching and learning processes.

CNE/CP Resolution No. 1 (2020) guides the National Curriculum Guidelines for the Continuing Education of Basic Education Teachers. The foundations of these guidelines are the BNCC and the Common Basis for Initial Teacher Training (BNC-Training). In contrast to the justifications of the vetoes made in Law No. 10.639 (2003), the guidelines for continuing education of teachers consider the LDB's duties to ensure that the Union, states, and municipalities promote the initial and continuing education and training of teaching professionals, in addition to defining that higher education institutes maintain continuing education programs for education professionals of distinct levels. Such measures formulate LDB items that were included by Law No. 12,056 (2009), approximately six years after the establishment of Law No. 10,639 (2003). In this sense, we consider that the measures provided by the National Curriculum Guidelines for the Continuing Education of Basic Education Teachers may grant some possibilities to repair the obstacles established by the vetoes to Law No. 10.639 (2003).

Among these possibilities is Goal 16 of the National Education Plan (PNE), which establishes the following objective:

Train, at the postgraduate level, 50% (fifty percent) of basic education teachers, before the last year of validity of this PNE, and guarantee to all basic education professionals continuing education in their area of activity, considering the needs, demands and contextualization of education systems (Planning for the Next Decade, 2014, p. 51, our translation)20.

As pointed out by Gomes (2009), the presence of social minorities in universities has demanded new epistemologies that deal with the complex reality in which we are located, especially because it is a reality constituted of aspects of structural inequalities that require critical understanding. In this sense, we can consider that focusing on these demands corroborates the fulfillment of the PNE Goal 16 with the support of the guidelines for continuing education for teachers who, in turn, will act in different school contexts, characterized by the diversity of the subjects and the plurality of knowledge. This dynamic has produced good results, especially in the most peripheral areas of the modern world, where there are tensions between hegemonic and non-hegemonic knowledge. Within the scope of Brazilian universities, Black intelligentsia and other knowledge dissident to Eurocentric rationality are situated in this context of tensions that, in addition to possible political-ideological conflicts, can increase the visibility of neglected knowledge in curricula (Gomes, 2009).

At this point of the discussion, we seek to analyze in what sense the recognition and appreciation of cultural diversity are considered in the document. In the objectives section of the curriculum guidelines in question, the third article mentions that teachers must have a solid knowledge of teaching methodologies, learning processes and local and global cultural production with a view to the full development of students. In the chapter dedicated to the policy of continuing education of teachers, the cultural aspect is again mentioned, to aim at the development of the management capacity of the members of the educational institutions, to consolidate an institutionalized culture of ‘school success and effectiveness’ for the school community (CNE/CP Resolution No. 1, 2020)21.

Throughout the document there is no specification of what determines school success and effectiveness. By guiding the importance of ‘recognizing and valuing the contributions of the members of the students' families and their communities of origin’ to achieve ‘school success’, we understand that the guidelines emphasize the need to strengthen the links between the school, families, and their members from the creation of the notion of belonging between the distinct groups. Nonetheless, there are no more specific directions on which contributions from families and communities would be important to be consolidated.

Regarding the appreciation of local and global cultural production through learning processes, we consider that in the Brazilian context, it is essential to rescue the history and culture of the native, African, and Afro-Brazilian peoples who considerably contributed to the socio-cultural and political construction of the country. The objective of enabling ‘school success’ by valuing the family contributions and the communities of origin of the students represents a possibility to promote significant cultural exchanges, considering the diversity of experiences that each family institution brings together. Therefore, the cultural and ethnic-racial aspects of a given group cannot be prioritized to the detriment of others.

Lélia Gonzalez (1988) elaborated the political-cultural category of amefricanity to define and contextualize the historical-cultural formation of Brazil, which ‘for geographical and unconscious reasons’, is not what, in general, is stated: a country whose formation of the unconscious has the basis of European and white rationality. The black presence in the cultural construction of the American continent required the elaboration of a category that promoted an interdisciplinary approach. For the author, African and indigenous cultural expressions characterize what represents, in its categorization, an America, or African America.

From the point of view of the importance of rescuing the contributions of the Black people to the educational context, it is essential to address the plurality that constitutes Brazilian culture in the curricula. Although this aspect of the guidelines makes it possible to address this reflection for teacher training, the document does not emphasize its historical-cultural dimension, as it establishes that the local and global characteristics of culture must be focused on the development of students with a view to knowledge, practice, and professional engagement. In this sense, the hegemonic view of curricula is related to Eurocentric perspectives and, therefore, what constitutes the cultural aspect of curricula also passes through the lenses biased by Eurocentric thinking (Ferreira & Silva, 2018).

Still in the chapter on the policy of continuing education, the guidelines emphasize the constitutional objectives related to professional performance, such as the commitment to value national sovereignty, citizenship and dignity, social values of work, free initiative, and the defense of political pluralism to contribute to the eradication of inequalities and prejudices of all origins. The guidelines are also referenced by the Universal Declaration of Human Rights with a focus on building a culture of peace through understanding, tolerance, and friendship between different ethnic-racial and religious groups.

Regarding the general competencies of teachers in relation to dealing with cultural and historical issues, the guidelines establish:

[...] understand and use historically constructed knowledge to be able to teach reality with engagement in the student's reality and in their own learning, collaborating to build a free, fair, democratic and inclusive society; [...] value and encourage the various artistic and cultural manifestations, both local and global, and participation in diversified practices of artistic-cultural production so that the student can expand their cultural repertoire; [...] know, appreciate and take care of their physical and emotional health, understanding themselves in human diversity; [...] explain empathy, dialogue, conflict resolution and cooperation, respecting and promoting respect for the other and human rights, welcoming and valuing the diversity of individuals and social groups, their knowledge, identities, cultures and potentialities without prejudice of any kind, to promote a collaborative environment in learning places (CNE/CP Resolution No. 1, 2020, p. 6, our translation).

In general, the cultural approaches present in the guidelines for the continuing education of teachers are presented in a generalized way. In this sense, the productions of the black intelligentsia, as well as Afro-Brazilian history and culture, are still little valued by the country's educational system, which compromises the construction of an emancipatory education to the subjects, whose identities and phenotypes are depreciated from the point of view of the social imaginary, as well as memories are devalued from the political-ideological point of view (Souza, 2005).

According to the propositions of Oliveira and Candau (2010), the ‘transversal themes’ define the contents that address cultural diversity in the curricular guidelines. There is a tendency for these themes to prioritize historical knowledge from the Eurocentric bias to the detriment of other sociocultural realities. This process contributed to the establishment of a certain model of national identity, based on Eurocentric parameters and supported by the ideology of racial democracy. Thus, there is a denial of the existence of racial conflicts increased by the conception that ‘we are all equal’, with the purpose of dispensing with the need to teach ethnic-racial relations with an emphasis on affirming differences and reducing inequalities. In this sense, what stands out is an attempt to marginalize such discussions to maintain hegemonic discourses and policies.

It is possible to consider that this process stems from the dynamics of colonialist domination that is still maintained through coloniality. During colonialism, Europe was constituted as a universal model of rationality so that, even today, this logic is perpetuated. Thus, Quijano (2005) pointed out that, with the constitution of America, Eurocentrism strengthened the bases of colonialist domination from the classification of the world population around the idea of race, which produced ‘historically new’ identities, such as Black and Indigenous. From the author's perspective, the race category emerged in this context as a ‘mental construction’ to establish the deception of the ‘superiority’ of the colonizer's identity and, consequently, the exercise of domination over the existence, ways of life, cultures, and knowledge of dissenting subjects to the European standard. While, in colonialism, the humanity of the native and African peoples was denied to legitimize their exploitation, in modern society, the rationality, culture and history of this people is denied to produce the devaluation of their epistemes in favor of the overvaluation of Eurocentric rationality.

As a result, although the appreciation of cultural diversity and the affirmation of differences are provided for in the official documents that regulate education in Brazil, in practice, the treatment of these themes presents a fragile aspect. Establishing Eurocentrism as the only form of legitimate rationality promotes the concealment of diversity and produces the stereotype of the ‘cordial Brazilian’, which homogenizes differences in an attempt to deny the tensions caused by inequalities. This perspective distances certain ethnic-racial groups from public spaces and attributes the lack of belonging created by this logic to the incapacity and absence of competences to the injured themselves (Silva, 2008).

In this sense, we can observe a dimension of multiculturalism present in the elaboration of documents that regulate education in Brazil, especially in relation to teacher training. Hall (2003) resorted to postcolonial studies to analyze questions about multiculturalism and multiculturalism. The ‘multicultural’ has a qualitative meaning related to the social complexity and governance problems present in any society in which diverse cultural communities coexist and build a common life, at the same time that there is a search for an ‘original identity’. Thus, multiculturalism is related to pluralism that, among the differences, brings with it something in common, yet heterogeneous. Multiculturalism, in turn, has a noun character and refers to the political strategies used to manage conflicts of differences and diversities generated in multicultural societies. The suffix ‘ism’ of the term multiculturalism converts it into a political doctrine to reduce it to a fixed and formal singularity (Hall, 2003).

When faced with the obstacles to the good performance of Law No. 10.639 (2003) and for the teaching of ethnic-racial relations to be contemplated in the teacher training of Basic Education teachers, we also come across some expressions of multiculturalism. There are several multiculturalisms, but those that characterize Brazilian educational policies in the face of the tensions of the new epistemologies emerging in contemporary society are liberal and pluralist multiculturalism.

For Hall (2003), liberal multiculturalism is one that seeks to integrate distinct cultural groups quickly into the mainstream (or hegemonic society) based on universal citizenship, to tolerate certain cultural expressions only in the private sphere. As a practical example, we can mention the religious intolerance that distances the knowledge of the culture of the religions of African matrices from the curricula. Pluralist multiculturalism seeks to mitigate group differences in their cultural aspects and promotes political actions based on granting rights to distinct cultural groups. Thus, the political actions that demobilize the demands of social minorities for more effective measures regarding the valorization of ethnic-racial diversity, denote a political emptying.

After analyzing the National Curriculum Guidelines for the Continuing Education of Basic Education Teachers, the perspective of the ‘sociology of absences and emergencies’ (Santos, 2004) is timely to better understand the dynamics of educational policies in the face of ethnic-racial relations in Brazil. Despite the significant participation of social movements in the organization of civil society, not all had the same social visibility. In the field of Social Sciences and Education, there is a greater theoretical interest in labor movements, trade unions, teachers, the homeless, among others. In contrast, the political and intellectual contributions of social movements such as the Black movement have occupied the field of absences in the contexts of knowledge construction and political deliberations. However, identifying such absences and questioning them may be an alternative to promote changes in these contexts (Gomes, 2017).

The ‘sociology of absences and emergencies’ (Santos, 2004) embodies studies that aim to problematize the gaps and glimpse possibilities to overcome them from new propositions. In this sense, the ‘sociology of absences’ consists in evidencing that what is absent, in reality, is produced to appear as an absence. Thus, the ‘sociology of absences’ transforms absences into presences. To understand the process of ‘production of non-existence’ it is necessary to recognize that the denial of existence does not occur only in one way. The denial of access to knowledge, memory, and history of a given group, directly or indirectly, produces its non-existence in an area of social life that unfolds over others (Gomes, 2017).

In contrast, the ‘sociology of emergencies’ seeks to break with the prospects of future absences from the possibilities that are manifested in the present. In the propositions of Santos (2004), the concept that guides the sociology of absences and emergencies is the ‘not yet’, presented by Bloch (1995)22, and can be interpreted as follows:

[...] the ‘not yet’ is, on the one hand, capacity (power) and, on the other, possibility (potentiality). Possibility is the movement of the world. Thus, the sociology of emergencies is the investigation of alternatives that fit the horizon of concrete possibilities. It broadens the present, adding to the broad real the possibilities and future expectations that it entails (Gomes, 2017, p. 41, emphasis added, our translation).

When we come across the National Curriculum Guidelines that regulate continuing education for Basic Education teachers, we identify absences regarding the teaching of ethnic-racial relations considered as an instrument for the appreciation of Afro-Brazilian history and culture. Thus, we are faced with the ‘not yet’ constituted by powers and potentialities: we still do not see the intellectual and political accumulation of Afro-Brazilian generations being duly recognized, even though their contributions to the construction of an effectively fairer society have been expressive. However, we recognize that these absences have mobilized new epistemologies claimed and elaborated by subjects committed to the investigation and elaboration of alternatives.

Thus, we reiterate the potential of the PNE Goal 16 that integrates the guidelines in question and its objective of qualifying teacher training, in order to ensure that basic education teachers access graduate studies as an emergency possibility. It is necessary to deeply investigate the working conditions of teachers to carry out continuing education, the conditions of access and permanence in graduate studies, to establish an intersectional analysis to identify the target audience and their needs in relation to the social markers of difference such as race, class, gender, sexuality, understanding that these markers also permeate their social realities and are structured not only as identity aspects, but also as axes of power that produce inequalities. In fact, we consider that subsidizing the teaching of ethnic-racial relations in continuing teacher education represents a powerful strategy to overcome socio-racial inequalities both in the field of education and in the fields related to access to rights that consolidate the exercise of citizenship.

Final considerations

This study sought to analyze the National Curriculum Guidelines for the Training of Basic Education Teachers to identify to what extent the document contemplates the teaching of ethnic-racial relations in teacher training. For this study, we established as a reference the political and theoretical contributions of the Black intelligentsia as a subsidy for the teaching of ethnic-racial themes to occur in a significant way, emphasizing the appreciation of African and Afro-Brazilian history and culture as a possibility for continuous overcoming of socio-racial inequalities.

In this sense, we structured the text into two topics, in addition to the introduction and final considerations. In the first part of the paper, we set to reclaim some contributions of the MNU from the 1970s as a way of countering the trend that coloniality must marginalize memories that marked processes of struggle and resistance of the black population in Brazil. Among these processes, we highlight the emergence of black intellectuality in academia between the 1980s and 1990s, because of the commitment to guarantee access to education, knowledge and the recovery of memory that contribute to the understanding and transformation of reality. The presence of Black intellectuals in Brazilian public universities represents a milestone in the history of resistance of this ethnic-racial group, since this movement contributed to the emergence of new epistemologies, where the Afro-Brazilian population and the reality experienced by it would not be mere objects of study. On the contrary, this was one of the contexts in which Black intellectuals assumed the protagonism of their narratives, ceasing to be objects of study to become subjects of knowledge construction. Therefore, we understand that the political and theoretical accumulation of the Black intelligentsia provides important indications for educational policies, aimed at teaching ethnic-racial relations, to become effective instruments for the reduction of inequalities and ethnic-racial discrimination through education, especially continuing teacher education.

Considering the contributions of social movements and black intelligentsia, in the second part of the text, we sought to analyze the extent to which the National Curriculum Guidelines for the Continuing Education of Basic Education Teachers contemplates teaching for ethnic-racial relations, understanding the context in question as a favorable means for the dissemination of the accumulations produced by black intelligentsia throughout history. To this end, we pay special attention to the way in which themes related to cultural diversity are presented in the document and to the specificity of ethnic-racial issues. Such specificity is not covered by the guidelines and the cultural aspect presented in the document has a generalizing bias, aimed at maintaining a hegemonic national identity, based on Eurocentric parameters, favorable to a supposed harmony and stability that the non-recognition of differences and the omission of inequalities produce.

As a counterpart, the perspective of the ‘sociology of absences and emergencies’ (Santos, 2004) indicates possibilities even in the face of omissions of theoretical, thematic, and teaching and learning practices that contribute to the restitution of the social and historical protagonism of the Afro-Brazilian population. At the heart of the discussions in which we identified structural absences, we mobilize ourselves to understand and highlight indications so that it is possible to transform the contexts in which inequalities manifest themselves. This process emerges from a present marked by absences, with a view to a utopian future, but, above all, preceded by discussions and actions that aim to contribute to the construction of a society that is effectively fairer, through an education that contemplates diversities and grants space for the creation of belonging among different ethnic-racial groups, especially those that are not prestigious. In this sense, we identified in the analysis of the National Curriculum Guidelines for the Continuing Education of Basic Education Teachers elements that deserve to be better punctuated so that the goals and objectives of this document do not have an end in themselves, but, especially, cover the needs and diversities of the educators and students who are guided by it.

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12This paper was developed with support granted for process n. 2021/04365-0, São Paulo Research Foundation (FAPESP).

13The opinions, hypotheses and conclusions or recommendations expressed in this material are the responsibility of the authors and do not necessarily reflect the view of FAPESP.

14Lélia Gonzalez refers to Judith Astelarra who discusses this issue in her text entitled El feminismo como perspectiva y como práctica política [Feminism as a perspective and as a political practice], reproduced by the Peruvian Women's Center Flora Tristán in 1982.

15The article The role of black women in Brazilian society: a political-economic approach was published in 1979 by Spring Symposium the Political Economy of the Black World, Center for AfroAmerican Studies. Los Angeles: UCLA.

16From September 21 to 23, 1989, the 1st Meeting of Black Professors, Researchers and Graduate Students of the Universities of São Paulo was held at Unesp de Marília. The central debate was The production of knowledge and the specificities, organized by the public and private universities of the state of São Paulo, became national by the participation of young and renowned researchers from all over Brazil. This was the embryo of the Congress of Black Researchers, which was organized later, becoming one of the most important spaces to produce knowledge by the black intellectuality.

17Abbreviation for the social movement of lesbians, gays, bisexuals, transgender, transvestites, queer, intersex, asexual and other gender identities, and sexual orientations.

18Excerpt mentioned in the approved opinion for the institution of the National Curriculum Guidelines for the Education of Ethnic-Racial Relations and for the Teaching of Afro-Brazilian and African History and Culture, reported by Petronilha Beatriz Gonçalves e Silva and directed to the National Council of Education (CNE).

19Message No. 7 of January 9, 2003. Retrieved from http://www.planalto.gov.br/ccivil_03/leis/Mensagem_Veto/2003/Mv07-03.htm

20Document prepared by the team: Márcia Angela da Silva Aguiar (UFPE), Luiz Fernandes Dourado (UFG), Janete Maria Lins de Azevedo (UFPE), João Ferreira Oliveira (UFG), Catarina de Almeida Santos (UnB), Karine Moraes (UFG) and Nelson Cardoso Amaral (UFG). Collaboration: Flávia Maria de Barros Nogueira (SASE/MEC), Rosiléa M. R. Wille (SASE/MEC) and Walisson M. de P. Araújo (SASE/MEC).

21Resolution elaborated during the period in which sociologist and teacher Maria Helena Guimarães Castro assumed the presidency of the National Council of Education (CNE).

22 Boaventura de Sousa Santos (2004) refers to the work of Ernst Bloch, entitled The Principle of Hope (1995), published in Cambridge by mit Press.

30Note: Mariana Alves de Sousa, author responsible for the development of the theme, formatting, revision and submission of the text; Monica Abrantes Galindo, author responsible for the conception and direction of the theme, writing, critical revision of the text and approval of the final version to be submitted; Maria Valéria Barbosa, author responsible for the writing, critical revision of the text and approval of the final version to be submitted.

Received: January 30, 2022; Accepted: April 07, 2022

Mariana Alves de Sousa: PhD student in Education by the Graduate Program of Unesp (Marília campus), FAPESP Fellow, Master in Sociology by the Professional Master's Program of Sociology in National Network (ProfSocio UNESP) and graduated in Social Sciences by the Federal University of Uberlândia (UFU). Email: ma.sousa@unesp.br ORCID: https://orcid.org/0000-0001-9114-6395

Monica Abrantes Galindo: Assistant Professor at Unesp (São José do Rio Preto campus) and collaborator of the Strictu Sensu Graduate Program in Biosciences at the same institution. Degree in Physics, Master’s in Science Teaching and PhD in Education from the University of São Paulo (USP). Email: monica.galindo@unesp.br ORCID: https://orcid.org/0000-0002-3649-5098

Maria Valéria Barbosa: She holds a degree and doctorate in Social Sciences from Unesp and a master's degree from the Federal Rural University of Rio de Janeiro. She is currently a PhD assistant professor at UNESP in Marília, working in the undergraduate degree in Social Sciences and Pedagogy and in the Graduate Program in Social Sciences and in the Professional Master's Program in Sociology in National Network (ProfSocio UNESP). Email: valeria.barbosa@unesp.br ORCID: https://orcid.org/0000-0002-9142-2131

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