A visão dos alunos de uma escola de Erechim (RS) sobre o ensino de Sociologia

Abstract

This work aims to analyze the perceptions and visions of the students of the senior year of high school of the Sidney Guerra School in the city of Erechim, Brazil on the teaching of sociology, taking as a starting point their personal experiences and opinions about the discipline and the place in the high school curriculum. In order to achieve this, we seek to establish the context of creation and presence of Sociology in Brazilian education. Even though it has been present in recent years in higher education, the first appearance of Sociology in Brazil occurs through secondary education in 1925 at the Pedro II School. Having a troubled beginning when it comes to contents and manuals, sociological production began to increase on a large scale from the 1930s. With the Capanema Reform in 1942, sociology disappears completely from basic education programs, returning at national level only in 2008. In 2016, another interruption: the Reform of High School puts Sociology, among other disciplines, as an optional subject, to complement the new established workload. Though Sociology and other disciplines have not been excluded, it is necessary to reflect if, in an increasingly utilitarian and labor-oriented educational context, the human and social sciences will be able to gain space among students. In the interviews with the five students, it became clear that Sociology, although an important discipline according to them, is not part of the favorites, and would not be chosen to complement the hours of classes; and even among those students who would choose the human sciences as a field of study, it would not be Sociology. While this work had the intention to know briefly the vision of the students, without seeking to formulate axioms and statistical data, the students' answers to the questions raised important questions to be answered by teachers, future teachers of Sociology and by those who have as principle the formation of good teachers: how to make Sociology teaching more attractive to students, how to show the relevance of the discipline to the educational development of young people and adults? Sociology has a troubled history in Basic Education in Brazil, with intermittences and conflicts that present challenges for the legitimization and consolidation of the discipline, shaping the students’ and teachers' view on it, generating direct impacts on the teaching of Sociology, on the qualification of teachers and in the way the discipline is dealt with in the curriculum.