Mapeamento de dificuldades relatadas por docentes da zona urbana de São Félix do Xingu no atendimento intercultural a alunos Mebêngôkre

Abstract

The purpose of this dissertation was to survey the difficulties reported by teachers working in public elementary schools in the urban area of the city of São Félix do Xingu (Pará, Brazil) in learning processes involving Mebêngôkre (Jê) students. To this end, the research strategies adopted combined quantitative and qualitative procedures. To objectively assess the presence of Mebêngôkre students in municipal schools located in the urban area of São Félix do Xingu between 2019 and 2023, a quantitative survey was conducted of the number of Mebêngôkre students enrolled in the nine schools in the urban area. These data were collected on-site, based on the annual reports of each school unit, and presented in tabular form. The primary data collection instrument for the qualitative research was an eleven-question questionnaire administered through interviews to fifteen teachers of various disciplines, which were affiliated with the three schools with the largest enrollment of Mebêngôkre students. The questions were intended to gather information about the professional trajectory of each teacher and their experience with Mebêngôkre students, in addition to focusing on the difficulties in intercultural teaching reported by these professionals. The questionnaire also included questions regarding how teachers evaluated the availability of reliable information on the language and culture of the Mebêngôkre and whether they recognized any type of public policy aimed at supporting their work with Mebêngôkre students. The process of analyzing the provided responses revealed that the interviewed teachers, unanimously, pointed out challenges in building effective interaction with Mebêngôkre students. In direct connection with this situation, they also identify as a serious problem the lack of public policies aimed at providing them with training and support for intercultural teaching processes. They also declared themselves to be lacking reliable information on the Mebêngôkre language and culture. Furthermore, the interviewed teachers highlighted that they considered the adequate provision of pertinent bibliography to be very relevant for the construction of a meaningful teaching-learning process with the Mebêngôkre students. This dissertation included a section gathering information about the Mebêngôkre people and their culture in order to cover the gap highlighted in the interviews, albeit in a very initial and limited way. This section contains also examples of statements and words from the Mebêngôkre language, related to everyday school situations, and is intended to be shared with teachers from public schools of São Félix do Xingu (Pará, Brazil).