Expressões identitárias no espaço escolar : um estudo com estudantes indígenas de escolas públicas urbanas de Ji-Paraná, Rondônia

Abstract

This paper discusses the current situation and everyday life experienced by indigenous children of ethnicities Arara and Gavião enrolled in urban schools in the city of Ji-Paraná, Rondônia State. The study was conducted with seven indigenous students (five were Arara, and two Gavião) studying elementary education in two public schools in the state system. This study comprises the identity expressions (the statement or omission of ethnic belonging) of Indigenous students in urban school context. This research was based on the methodological procedures of "ethnographic research type" according to studies by André (2012) and the contributions of the descriptive power of the interpretive approach similar situations experienced in accordance with recommendations (BOGDAN e BIKLEN, 1982). We used participant observation, field notebook and surveys as tools for data collection. The study was conducted in the city of Ji-Paraná between March and June 2013, and involved beyond the indigenous children, their families, teachers and administrators of the two schools participating in the research. The theoretical interests that contributed to the widening and deepening of the study were based on Candau (2006, 2009); Fleuri (2009), Neves (2009; 2012); Grupioni and Silva (1987); Mc Laren (1997); Tadeu da Silva (2002), Oliveira (1998); Cardoso de Oliveira (1976); Poutignat and Streiff-Fenart (1998), Hall (2002), Bauman (2005), Baines (2001) and Bhabha (1998). In relation to indigenous children, remarks and reports collected allow us to state that students research collaborators outline behaviors and expressions that can be read as possible omission and affirmation of ethnic belonging in the context of both the urban schools. These possible expressions by indigenous students also confirm the context of hostility school environment itself, but on the other hand, the speech and behavior also show expressions of indigenous identity in the city. Some evidence presented facts daily in relations between indigenous and non- indigenous students featuring situations of invisibility, violence and prejudice that Indians are submitted in the school environment. These events occur in the silence of the school and teachers. There is a relation expressed by latent conflicts and undeclared possibly mark the presence of indigenous students in the city schools, which brings about situations from a past filled with recent raids produced in that context of contacts, colonization and conflicts that were experienced in the Amazon. However, reflects in school, in relationships among students, attesting that Neves (2013) defines "a reissue of contact."For this reason, this study involves a series of educational, academic and political implications, beyond the need for effective public policies with ongoing training of teachers in accordance with the Federal Law number 11.645/2008 and building intercultural curriculum in public schools in the state and the municipality, in the Amazon region.