PATHS FOR EDUCATION OF ETHNIC-RACIAL RELATIONS: INDIGENOUS HISTORY AND CULTURE IN HIGH SCHOOL

Abstract

Indigenous peoples, their history and struggles for rights still need to be better known, we know more about Hebrews, Greeks and Romans than about the original peoples of Brazil. The way in which indigenous people are represented throughout the history of Brazil, sometimes as naive, sometimes as savages, when not represented in a fanciful way, vary from stigma to romance, such perceptions are very far from reality, a scenario that is directly related to lack of knowledge about the topic in the classroom, which, in turn, has repercussions on the public debate and vice versa, thus forming a vicious cycle that reproduces distorted views. Thus, in relation to the indigenous theme, the school served more to reproduce distorted, stereotyped and homogenizing views of these peoples, than to promote knowledge. Considering this scenario, this article, resulting from the research project entitled “History and Ethnic-Racial Education: the indigenous issue in the classroom”, aims to investigate and reflect on how the indigenous issue has been addressed in basic education, investigating this theme from the perspective of ethnic-racial relations and education. For this, having as a reference the Laklãnõ-Xokleng people, their history and their struggle for rights, it analyzed both the bibliography on the subject and the answers to a questionnaire applied to integrated high school students of a federal educational institution, such sampling provided a initial diagnosis to assess paths to be followed and actions aimed at addressing indigenous issues in the classroom and other educational spaces at different levels.