Educação intercultural para as relações de gênero nas aulas de leitura em língua inglesa

Abstract

The purpose of the present dissertation, based on intercultural and critical perspectives for language teaching, is to present an analysis of the experimentation of a set of activities for the development of reading competence, designed to discuss gender relations in English Language classes at a public school in the state of Bahia, Brazil. To this end, an ethnographic research was conducted, considering which kind of materials and resources could be elaborated for the valorization of women and the promotion of gender equality; how intercultural mediation took place on the part of the researching professor and the

participating students; what was the impact of the activities and discussions in the gender- related speeches produced by the students and in which way did these materials and resources

contribute to leading students to build intercultural dialogues and to act against the current oppressions. Therefore, starting from a conception of language as a system of individual, social and cultural production of meanings (MENDES, 2020), reading as a social practice (FREIRE, 2001a), teaching as a political act (FREIRE, 1970) and gender as a socio-cultural construction (SCOTT, 1995), the field research began with the mapping, through a mixed questionnaire, of gender concepts and roles, as well as the implications of these concepts in discursive constructions. After that first moment, 14 reading activities were applied, whose texts dealt with topics related to the contemporary feminist discussion sphere of various aspects such as patriarchy, gender stereotypes, violence against women, toxic masculinity, intersectionality, gender representations in the media, etc. These activities were applied throughout the academic year of 2018, in two high school classes, in which classroom’s interactions were recorded for later analysis, together with written productions in the printed activities. At the end of the research, the initial mapping questionnaire was reapplied, to identify whether and how the discussions in the classroom influenced the gender conceptions brought by the students. After treatment, analysis, and triangulation of data, I identified that there was a major resignification of the discourses related to gender produced by the students, as well as indications of their insertion in a process of critical linguistic awareness, characterized by the ability to read texts critically, identify power relations that mark the control of shifts in interactions, in addition to understand the role of language itself in the social construction of difference. In addition, the construction of intercultural dialogues between the participants was also observed, reflecting openness and sensitivity concerning the identity and cultural differences.