Slavery and freedom according to students from Ponta Grossa (PR): What changed after the law 10.639/03

Abstract

Abstract: 13 years after the Law of African and afro Brazilian culture and history teaching: slavery and freedom in the eyes of Ponta Grossa (PR) students. The Federal Law number 10.639/2003 has made mandatory the teaching of afro Brazilian culture and history teaching in the Basic Education. This paper presents part of the results from a research that evaluated its deployment, through the students' elements of learning and opinions. The data was collected from 254 high school students of the city of Ponta Grossa at Paraná State, by a questionnaire with objective and subjective questions. From them, we selected five questions related to subjects of slavery, resistance practices and the process of Abolition of Slavery to be analysed. The objective was to identify if these students could recognize kinds of violence other than physical, also characteristics of the enslavement process, ability to distinguish ancient and modern slavery, and knowledge of kinds of black resistance and their importance in the process of Abolition of Slavery. Furthermore, it was intended to identify if the ability of the students in setting themselves free from traditional representations inside those themes, according to the approaches defined by the Law. The elaboration of the questionnaire and the data analysis were sustained on the Social Representations Theory of Serge Moscovici and under the conceptual perspective of historical consciousness and historical culture. The results indicate an assimilation of new meanings and contents, but it wasn't verified, in the sample, an effective break of the traditional understandings of afro-Brazilian history which the Law intended to transform.