Práticas cotidianas em uma sala de inglês : um estudo etnográfico

Abstract

Not only now have teachers and researchers pointed out the disadvantages and deficiencies that haunt the teaching of English in a general education school as opposed with the advantages and efficiencies of the renowned language schools. All in all if the public school itself forgets the idealized setting of the language school and thinks of teaching in another place, other ways of thinking can open new possibilities. The principal objective of this ethnographic study is grounded in two concepts – funds of knowledge (GONZÁLEZ; MOLL; AMANTI, 2009) and Freirean principle of listening (FREIRE,1996,1997) that emphasize the acceptance of students’ culture. Both, therefore, are powerful concepts that dispel the theory of deficits that only points out structural and human deficiencies. For this, the study attempts to know in a contextual way the routine practice of the classroom of an English teacher that also assumes the role of researcher, in order to assess if the work developed with the students is in tune with culturally sensitive and inclusive pedagogy. The actors of this research are second year students of a secondary public school in Cuiaba coming from nine different communities and a researcher-teacher. Using participant observation and semi-structured interviews, this study attempts to understand what the actors – teachers and students – do in the space of the classroom and how they attribute meaning to these events. There are three questions that orient the research: What do the actors do in the classroom? How do the actors attribute meaning to the events that happen in the classroom? Do the cultural practices of the class encourage listening of the students? On one hand, the results of the study showed that the students’ resources could be more explored in order to empower the student with his own learning. On the other hand, orality and the use of English were emphasized in the classroom and, moreover, the acceptance of students’ topics by the teacher are aspects that make part of the practice of the class and can be interpreted as indication of the receptiveness of listening to the students.