Education Day: teachers explain anti-racist teaching paths

Violence erupted where she least expected it. On Women’s Day, almost two months ago, teacher Edmar Sônia Vieira Valéria, 50, at a school in the administrative region of Ceilândia (DF), received a “surprise” steel wool from a student. The action, considered racist and sexist in character, shook the teacher, but did not change her convictions that an anti-racist education is necessary and possible. “Our work must be done with love. We must take into account that the characteristics of today’s students are very different from those of 20 years ago”, said the teacher in an interview with Agência Brasil. Aggressiveness, according to her, is intended to be filmed and spread across networks. The cell phone, according to a witness, became a protagonist in the educational day-to-day. “Everything happens over the phone inside a school. That’s where they combine any act, any action. It’s what they use to attack each other, through which they threaten each other. Or when they want to film a teacher receiving a bundle of steel wool, as happened to me”. She advocates greater participation of families in school and a general review of the teaching-learning process for the implementation of an anti-racist school. “We need effective actions. In addition to laws, we need more active education models, a more attractive school. The path is serious education and not punishment”. For her, schools need to tell stories of black people so that students see themselves represented. The teacher explains that the student who offended her has apologized on different occasions since then and believes he learned from the mistake. “He was never an aggressive student. He always arrived with great joy. He sat next to my table. He repented and understood.” Awareness went through the path of repercussions and solidarity with the teacher, which followed the violence, and through constant conversations in the classroom. No taboo The path towards an anti-racist education, in the opinion of social scientist Vidal Mota Junior, obliges the subject to stop being treated as a taboo and be recognized as a problem to be discussed and faced in the classroom. “We see it as a long road of awareness. More than 56% of the population is black and less represented in leadership positions or within a classroom”, says the expert, who coordinates the non-governmental organization (NGO) Dacor, based in São Paulo, which promotes policies and campaigns raising awareness about racial issues in Brazil. For the researcher, this violence of racism must not be naturalized and all crimes generate serious interventions. “The school has to call students who commit violence to teach them again. And show the entire school community that racial prejudice will not have a place in that space”. Protagonisms and priorities In addition, according to the teachers, the school must present clear signs of racial democracy, with the inclusion and protagonism of stories of black heroes and not the classic white characters of European origin. In 2023, the year in which the Anti-Racist Law in schools completed 20 years, the legislation made the teaching of Afro-Brazilian history and culture mandatory. The challenge for educational systems, from all areas, is that, beyond the law, effectively promote empathy and structure so that students understand their own roots, and in an attractive way. This need is recognized by the Brazilian lawyer Karina Berardo, mother of two teenage black children. “At their school, the law never got off the ground. There are no black teachers or directors. To face that, they’re going to have to cut into their own flesh. Of course, you don’t have to be black to talk about racial democracy.” Another concern of Karina is what arrives on cell phones, as the researchers warned. She tries to keep track, for example, of her children’s message groups. “Not infrequently, I find the use of terms used to attack and diminish people. Boys have the habit of calling each other gay, retarded, black. That is to say: they use terms completely wrongly. I talked about this at school: we need to bring disabled people, gay people, black people to talk to the students. Schools need to really embrace the cause.”

Agência Brasil