TY - CONF

T1 - Care and Relational Practices for Alternative Future Imaginaries in Brazilian Public Education

AU - Albuquerque, Paula

AU - Pischetola, Magda

N1 - Society for Social Studies of Science (4S) 2021 : Good Relations: Practices and Methods in Unequal and Uncertain Worlds, 4S2021 ; Conference date: 06-10-2021 Through 09-10-2021

PY - 2021

Y1 - 2021

N2 - The majority of Brazilian public schools are a context where poverty and social injustice become visible, as most of the students come from disadvantaged realities. Their future is at risk, due to a general lack of social mobility and exclusion from civil rights and minimal living conditions. This situation has worsened with the global pandemic emergence; giving attention to this topic has become even more urgent.This paper moves from the example of brazilian public schools to investigate how a disowned and used future could find alternatives and transformation (Inayatullah, 2008) through restoration and inclusion of care in human relations. The discussion draws upon interviews and focus groups held with school teachers in Rio de Janeiro, in relation to a broader research on documentation practices. Following feminist theorist Karen Barad (2007) and post-colonial studies (Spivak, 2010), we exercised diffraction as a research methodology, not separating reality representation from reality construction, yet attentive to mapping past, present and future through “not taken-for-granted” asumptions, about “future-making”. Such a view of education recognizes the dynamic emergence of agential matter in classrooms, curriculum and policies, and makes us aware of the creative and inseparable “other” (Taylor, 2017).In our study, despite precarious resources and lack of public support, teachers proactively showed sensitivity and care. Students were challenged to be active participants on building better imaginaries. These practices inspired learning processes, and give voice and agency to the socially excluded, allowing for alternative thinking to the obviousness of colonial and oppressive relations and decisions.

AB - The majority of Brazilian public schools are a context where poverty and social injustice become visible, as most of the students come from disadvantaged realities. Their future is at risk, due to a general lack of social mobility and exclusion from civil rights and minimal living conditions. This situation has worsened with the global pandemic emergence; giving attention to this topic has become even more urgent.This paper moves from the example of brazilian public schools to investigate how a disowned and used future could find alternatives and transformation (Inayatullah, 2008) through restoration and inclusion of care in human relations. The discussion draws upon interviews and focus groups held with school teachers in Rio de Janeiro, in relation to a broader research on documentation practices. Following feminist theorist Karen Barad (2007) and post-colonial studies (Spivak, 2010), we exercised diffraction as a research methodology, not separating reality representation from reality construction, yet attentive to mapping past, present and future through “not taken-for-granted” asumptions, about “future-making”. Such a view of education recognizes the dynamic emergence of agential matter in classrooms, curriculum and policies, and makes us aware of the creative and inseparable “other” (Taylor, 2017).In our study, despite precarious resources and lack of public support, teachers proactively showed sensitivity and care. Students were challenged to be active participants on building better imaginaries. These practices inspired learning processes, and give voice and agency to the socially excluded, allowing for alternative thinking to the obviousness of colonial and oppressive relations and decisions.

M3 - Paper

T2 - 4S Annual meeting

Y2 - 6 October 2021 through 9 October 2021

ER -