Teaching knowledges from teachers of indigenous youth and adults education

Abstract

This article is a research cut conducted at a master’s level, by the Post-Graduate Program in Education of the Federal University of Paraíba. The objective was to learn how teachers from the Potiguara ethnic group, from Traição Bay, in the northern coast of Paraíba, construct their teaching knowledge to work in the youth and adult indigenous education (EJA) modality and to identify how these knowledge are mobilized in their pedagogical practice. Once it is a qualitative research, we resort to the ethnography of school practice (ANDRÉ, 2005) and the documentary analysis. As procedures for data collection, the following techniques were used: the semi-structured interview and the participant observation. The data collected were based on the technique of Content Analysis, advocated by Bardin (2011). Thus, it was possible to verify, from the teachers’ reports, several formative spaces that contribute to the construction of the teaching knowledge: the contact with indigenous leaderships, the elders who keep history alive, visits to sacred sites and the dialogues promoted by the school with the teachers. These spaces foster reflection on the knowledges built in the daily life of the school and keep alive the culture, identity and indigenous tradition of the Potiguaras people. In spite of this, it is still necessary to adopt policies of initial and continuing training for Potiguaras teachers, in the sense of being able to offer a better quality school education for indigenous youth and adults.