Abordagem sobre mulheres cientistas em materiais didáticos do ensino fundamental I

Abstract

The participation of women in science has been growing in a broad and qualitative way, but they remain a minority in this space, especially when one observes leadership positions, in addition to the small dissemination of the substantial achievements of these great scientists throughout history, consisting of a fundamental point the renovation so that such information is included in teaching materials for elementary education and, naturally, this valuable female participation is recognized and valued. The main objective of this work was to analyze the presence of female scientists in teaching materials, aiming to contribute to the promotion of gender equality in Basic Education. The methodology used had a qualitative and descriptive approach based on the research on the presence of these personalities in the teaching materials of the 5th year of Elementary School, used in the public and private network of Natal, specifically, in two public and two private schools. In order to understand this context, some main authors who discuss gender discrimination (Cabral, 2006), the possible reasons for the low mention of women scientists in teaching materials and the purposeful hidden curriculum (Santana and Martins, 2010), the democracy of gender (Pateman, 1989; Porcaro and Santos, 2020), feminism (Beauvoir, Barba, 2014), female participation in science (Ignotofsky, 2017), in addition to the NOBEL PRIZE Awards and the BNCC itself, 2018. As a result, there are a little mention of women scientists in these pedagogical contributions, when several possibilities of approach in the different relevant thematic units are forgotten, together or not with the mentioned men scientists. There are female contributions in all areas, including those where no theoretical framework was found within the analyzed materials, such as renewable energies, genome and health, even current affairs such as COVID-19. It is worth mentioning that, as a result of the actions of the UN and UNESCO with the promotion of the International Day of Women and Girls in Science, created in 2015, four female scientists were remembered in one of the didactic materials, although it was not motivated by their accomplishments within of the theme proposed by the topic addressed, it is already a principle that provides knowledge to students and encourages girls that they can ascend to the areas of natural sciences.