Literatura infantil na escola e outras pedagogias culturais: (con)formando identidades infantis de gênero

Abstract

This dissertation has as object of study the (con)formation of the infantile identities of gender analyzed through the cultural pedagogies, with emphasis in the infantile literature, in the school. In order to carry it out, I used the investigative assumptions of Cultural Studies in Education, from a poststructuralist perspective; the Gender Studies and Michel Foucault's contribution to the concept of power. My goal was to analyze and problematize how children's gender identities are (con)formed through cultural pedagogies, such as children's literature at school. I understand that the child is constituted subject from a historical-social and cultural construction, capable of interacting with the society in which he lives, possessing biological and physical dependencies that go through constant development until reaching a certain degree of independence. In this sense, there is a great consensus in the academic-scientific environment that the child can learn and develop, producing new cultures inside and outside the school spaces. At the same time, the child's interaction with the world around him, including the cultural artifacts to which he has access such as books, TV programs, websites, toys, among others, contributes to the formation of his identities. These identities are, according to Stuart Hall, never definitive, but in constant process of (re)construction. These artifacts can, among other effects, produce and fix stereotypes that determine ways of living and being for boys and girls. Concerned with the identity formation of the children, I looked for theoretical-methodological strategies to develop a qualitative research of ethnographic inspiration in a Municipal Center for Early Childhood Education, in the southern zone of Natal - Rio Grande do Norte / Brazil. During the months of September 2016 and June 2017, I made visits to the school, specifically observing a Level IV class in Early Childhood Education, with records in a field diary and photographs of the children's experiences at the time they were in school. reading room, school breaks and visits to the city park located in the same municipality. These observations focused on identifying and recording situations related to the construction of the children's gender identities, considering the cultural pedagogies in circulation at the school, such as children's literature. In addition to the data constructed during the observations, seven books reinforcing the stereotyped identity of being a boy or a girl, six of them circulating in the school itself, an internet site and two blocks of activities currently available in the school were also selected for analysis in Brazilian literary market. These sources also refer to stereotypes of children's gender identities. I made these choices because I felt that it was important to show that gender stereotypes, evidenced also in children's literature, make up a conceptual network to which children have access. The results of this research point, among other findings, to the fact that the artifacts and practices analyzed are not neutral; they promote ways of speaking, behaving, and seeing each other, strengthening the idea of gender identities, mostly homogenous to children, and the formed and almost definite idea about the identity of the other. Some unfoldings were also characterized from the very identity (con)formed by the artifacts researched, such as the teachings of the own children's literature on aesthetics and princeless. In addition to becoming a hero, a prince, a princess or a heroine, the children used accessories that identified them aesthetically from the concepts predetermined by literature. I realized through the analysis that some children were not related to the others because they did not agree with the identities they assumed. The observation of the social ties perceived during the observations and their influence on the attitudes and possible omissions of children in certain situations that involve gender issues lead to reflection on the role that cultural pedagogies can play in the formation of children's gender identities.