Curriculum Decolonization and black and afro-brazilian literature: An Experience Report with Pedagogy Students

Abstract

This work is situated within the context of teacher training focused on anti-racist education, understood from a decolonial perspective, adopted as a theoretical and methodological choice, using children's literature as a central pedagogical instrument. This article analyzes how Black and Afro-Brazilian literature, as categories debated in the educational field, can act as tools for curricular decolonization in teaching practice. The theoretical framework draws on authors such as Gomes (2017), Munanga (2005), and Lima (2005), whose work supports the argument for challenging Eurocentric hegemonies in the school environment. Regarding methodology, the study is is a descriptive and analytical account of a workshop conducted with a class in the supervised teaching practicum of Pedagogy undergraduate program at the University of International Integration of Afro-Brazilian Lusophony (UNILAB), a methodological choice that allowed for a critical analysis of this formative experience in the context of initial teacher training. The corpus of analysis comprises the literary narratives discussed by the undergraduate students during the intervention. The results revealed that the inclusion of children's literature featuring black characters is not, in itself, sufficient is not enough to decolonize; a critical teaching perspective is vital to reframe stereotypes in these literary narratives, which reinforces the need for critical training to implement Law No. 10.639/03.