Sons do Silêncio: a relação entre religião católica e educação escolar - um estudo de caso

Abstract

In this article, we present part of our doctoral research in which we analyze the relationship between the Catholic religion and school education, based on the anthropological perspective of DaMatta (2010), the social representations of Moscovici (2010) and Jovchelovitch (2000), and the educational perspective of Saviani (2008). Considering laws 10649/2003 and 11645/2008 on the approach to content related to Afro-Brazilian descendants and the reality of the Monsenhor Amantino State School, Sabinópolis, MG, Brazil (1953-2012), which originated from the ultramontane religious movement, we problematize: how could this elementary and high school institution assume the principles that refer to democratic thought, being, in the investigated context, an institution born to confront the advance of secular thought? We investigated how teachers at this public school represent the relationship between the Catholic Church and the pedagogical practices developed at the institution.

We conducted qualitative research, a case study, using the following methodological strategies: interviews with teachers of Art, History, and Religious Education, observations of daily school life, and research of official documents. We analyzed documents such as the Political-Pedagogical Project, lesson plans, and state, parish, and municipal public documents. The data revealed that the ideas and practices of the researched school institution are encompassed by social representations that (re)produce hierarchical, timeless, and ahistorical thinking—"invisible" marks of conservative religious discourse. Teachers and the pedagogical team (re)produce a mode of operation in which the cultural and social segregation of students of Black origin is maintained. The knowledge of the reified scientific universe circulates in the educational context through books, laws, and legislative instruments, without, however, constituting a new consensual universe capable of deconstructing the customs, rites, and power relations based on religious social representations. We conclude that the educational practice of the investigated school (re)produces representations originating from the Catholic religious universe.