The historical awareness of students in the final years of Elementary School about the indigenous peoples of Brazil

Abstract

In this article, we investigate, through an ethnographic approach to school practices, the learning and development of historical thinking regarding indigenous history and culture among 7th-grade students of a public elementary school in João Pessoa, Paraíba, Brazil, in the year 2024. Our didactic intervention was carried out using the inquiry methodology, and we utilized as research sources the narratives and/or illustrations produced by the students on the topics studied. Our investigation revealed that the students possess an accurate awareness of the plurality and diversity of indigenous peoples, their cultural richness, and the importance of preserving their fundamental rights, as well as the impact of the Anthropocene on humanity. However, we observed a lack of spatiotemporal orientation in a significant portion of the narratives produced by the students, which contributed to an essentialist and ahistorical view of the indigenous peoples portrayed, as if their cultural practices were immutable and disconnected from broader historical processes.