Contribuições do feminismo negro para repensarmos a educação a partir de vivências com estudantes de uma escola municipal de Imperatriz Maranhão

Abstract

This dissertation, under the title “Contributions of Black Feminism to rethink Education based on experiences with Students from a Municipal School in Imperatriz-Maranhão”, is the materialization of a trajectory of self-knowledge and black female insurgency with regard to consider the educational commitment in the face of the subordinate reality that black women experience on a daily basis in Brazilian society. Having Black Feminism as its object of study, the work is justified by the complex intersectional relationship between gender, race and class, which leads us to understand racism, sexism, machismo and social classes as structures of Brazilian social relations and builders of inequalities, also inserting itself in the school environment, which can act both to maintain this scenario and for transformation, for social liberation by bringing counter-hegemonic struggles into its pedagogical practices. Thus, the objectives that guided the study are “analyzing how Black Feminism can contribute to the construction of education with an emphasis on racial issues”; “explain how black feminism presents itself in my life story”; “conceptualize racism, machismo, feminism, black feminism and intersectionality as a basis for understanding the trajectory of black women’s struggles”; “understanding how black feminism can contribute epistemologically to education”; and “develop activities based on Black Feminism in order to support the production of educational fanzine”. To this end, Vilma Piedade (2017), Nilma Lino Gomes (2010; 2017), bell hooks (2023), Lélia Gonzáles (1979; 2011), Carolina Pinho (2022) and other intellectuals were crucial to the research trajectory carried out both in moment of theoretical elucidations to support the interventions carried out in the school/field, thus enabling theoretical-methodological, even practical, firmness to interpret the experiences produced throughout the study. In the methodology we used (Auto)biographical Research in Education, Bibliographical Research and Field Research, based on a qualitative approach, focusing on four moments of direct contact with 41 9th year students from a municipal public school in Imperatriz, Maranhão, during the year 2023. In general, the trajectory of research and experiences during the master's degree enabled personal epistemological enrichment and contributions from social, academic, educational and professional perspectives, having as a guiding thread the epistemological repertoire of black feminism for school education, enabling us to uncover the social ills that subjugate black women, and at the same time, let us enhance educational practices that are guided by equity and social justice. Even if in a timid way, the students who participated in the research provided us with important bases to infer that education, without generalizations, has not been fulfilling its social function of humanizing our society, on the contrary, it has been serving the hegemonic structure, as points out Gomes (2017). In this way, the study shows us the need to continue acting in educational counter-hegemony, bringing visibility to denied experiences, empowering those who do not see themselves as representatives, the need, together with the knowledge produced by black feminism, to hope for a liberating education.