Objetivação do sistema de gênero no contexto escolar e os processos identitários de crianças : um estudo em representações sociais

Abstract

This research was developed in the Postgraduate Program in Education at the Federal University of Mato Grosso (PPGE/UFMT-Cuiabá), together with the Child Psychology Research Group (GPPIN). This is an investigation exercise based on a psychosocial perspective, aiming to analyze how the gender system, included in the scope of social exchanges within the school context, guides the construction of children's identity representations. The theoretical contribution of the investigation is based on the approximations between the Theory of Social Representations (Moscovici, 1978; 1990; 2012; 2013; Jodelet, 2001), according to the ontogenetic approach (Duveen, 1995; 1998), and the Historical-Cultural Theory ( Vygotski, 2000; From them, it establishes a dialogue with feminist epistemologies and gender studies, focusing on the intersection between the gender system and Social Psychology (FloresPalacios, 2014). The investigation was carried out in a public school in the city of Cuiabá-MT, in a third year class composed of twenty-six children and the leading teacher. The methodology adopted is inspired by ethnographic research (André, 1995) and is characterized as a qualitative approach. Data production was generated from two stages. The first consisted of participant observation (André, 1995), with notes in a field diary and photographic records. In the second stage, a socio-affective workshop (Andrade, 2019) was held with eight children, four boys and four girls. The workshop consisted of three phases: 1) production of photographic records by the children; 2) focus group; and 3) drawing by children. The data indicate that the gender system is objectified in practices among children, such as in the announcement of the sexual division of the colors and shapes of cultural artifacts, in the negotiation of the figure of the World Cup by a girl, in the developments following the girl's crying and of the boy, in the use of the term “woman's finger” as an insult, in the specific occupation of spaces, such as the court designated for boys and the courtyard for girls. In the relationship between the teacher and the children, the objectifications of the gender system were observed in the division of places in the classroom, with the front seats reserved for girls and the back for boys, in the welcoming of the boy and the blaming of the girl who they get hurt on the court, in the image of organized and calm girls and disorganized and agitated boys and also in the guidance on how girls should sit for photographic recording. In this way, the gender system, when objectified in the school context, structures the children's thinking environment, reflecting on the interpretation they elaborate on reality. The information reveals that girls and boys internalize, in the process of identity construction, social representations anchored in the gender system, as well as the norms of conduct that the regulatory social metasystem attributes to each sex. These appropriations seem to reflect in the formulation of concepts about being a girl and being a boy, in the attribution of spaces to each sex, delineating territories for boys and territories for girls and in the behaviors of both when faced with situations in which a child does not act in accordance with the prescriptive standard for your sex. However, the results demonstrate that children not only internalize gender norms, but also actively contest, resist and negotiate, dynamically constituting their identities in relation to the influences of the gender system. In this way, the gender metasystem regulates social interactions established in the school context, through social prescriptions based on sex. In view of this, the study presented arguments that indicate the need for schools to make a commitment to guaranteeing the rights of children as legal citizens, as well as promoting gender equality so that they can contribute to a more egalitarian society.