Abstract:
This study aims to investigate and analyze historical and social factors that impeded literacy among older residents of the Quilombola Community of Gavião, located in the city of Antônio Cardoso, Bahia. This research stems from the need to include the illiterate quilombolas of the Quilombola Community of Gavião in the school system, since those without schooling are unable to improve their social conditions. Recent research reveals that although quilombola communities have gained access to public policies, they still face numerous inequalities in access to education. The community still has a considerably high number of illiterate individuals. As central categories of analysis, we work with Quilombola School Education from the perspective of Givânia Silva (2021); and Education for Young Adults and Illiteracy, based on legal documents and leading authors in the field. The Quilombola Community of Gavião has not always had access to a school located within its territory. As a result, the adults and elderly members of the community have not always had the opportunity to study, and the school in the aforementioned community lacks the structural capacity to serve everyone. Consequently, this group is once again excluded from the right to education. The research adopts a qualitative methodology. To achieve its objectives, the following methodological procedures were employed: a bibliographic review of the central categories of the study, in order to gather information and deepen our understanding of the topic; a survey of the databases of the Brazilian Institute of Geography and Statistics (IBGE) was conducted to identify the number of illiterate individuals, particularly among the Quilombola population; and a semi-structured interview was used as the main instrument for data collection. Through the interviews, we aimed to listen to the narratives shared by the research participants in order to reconstruct social events that are significant to them and to the community, from their own perspectives. The group of participants consisted of individuals who are currently part of or potential members of the Youth and Adult Education (EJA) program at the elementary level (Fundamental I). The interviews were analyzed using thematic analysis. The research seeks to highlight the social disadvantages experienced by the illiterate residents of the community and to show how educational exclusion affects the historical, social, and political dimensions of the Quilombola Community of Gavião.
