Historical consciousness and social representation: a study on the perceptions of young students about Brazil*1

Abstract

In this article, we analyze the perceptions of young students about Brazil, starting from the dialogue between the historical consciousness and social representations theories. Through the production of written narratives, we aim to identify the worldviews which our participants use to guide themselves over time and to envision their future. Therewith, we intend to value the mental constructions of the subjects in the school context contributing to the strengthening of research in the field of Teaching of History. This study was carried out in a public state school located in the Butanta neighborhood, in the city of Sao Paulo/SP, Brazil, in 2017. It was part of it 127 students, between the ages of 14 and 18, males and females, distributed in five groups of the 1st grade of High School. The data was obtained through a questionnaire and analyzed accordingly with the assumptions of Grounded theory with the help of IRAMUTEQ. This enabled the construction of a dendrogram composed of three classes which implied in the identification of representations about the present time (class 1), articulations with the past (class 2), and projections for the future (class 3). Under the results, we evidenced ideas related to the perception of a country in crisis, with a prejudiced past and with a future, contradictorily, promising. Once worked in class, these ideas can contribute to the formation of the historical consciousness of the students.