The polyphony of the margins

a dialogical production of historical-educational knowledges in a district of Uberlândia

Abstract

This article is the result of a master's degree research carried out with public school students from a peripheral area in an important city located in the interior of Minas Gerais. The research aimed to mobilize History Teaching in the re-elaboration of students' sensibilities regarding the place where they live, strongly marked by derogatory images, endorsed by the media and by the absence of public policies aimed at this place and its population. The section presented here privileges the dialogue with the narratives produced by students in the first phase of the activities, which led to reflections regarding the challenges of teaching History in contemporary times, considering the ethical-political demands of the discipline in a context of profound inequalities generated by capitalist modernity. In the theoretical-methodological framework we dialogue with productions by Brazilian teachers and researchers, dedicated to understanding the production of historical-educational knowledge in the interface with the city, and with the Berlin philosopher Walter Benjamin. Benjamin was an important critic of modernity, defender of a history that considers what is left aside, or forgotten, adhering to deviating paths, instead of insisting on routes that are always the same.