A História de Alda: Ensino, classe, raça e gênero

Abstract

This paper analyses the history of life and the pedagogical practice of a first grade teacher of a public school in São Paulo City having the concept of childcare as a reference. The concept of childcare is taken as an expression of the forms the relationship adult/child takes historically and culturally. As such it can be defined, at that level of teaching, as an intervention of the teacher on extra-cognitive aspects of the development of his/her pupils, an attitude that requires emotional involvement and commitment to the children. Based on an ethnographic study the presence of the care in the ideals and pedagogical practices of Alda - a teacher that did not fully comply with those guidelines - is discussed. It is in that sense an approximation that reveals the limits of essentialist approaches that establish a linear relation between "femininity" and the ideal of a teacher. On one hand, the plurality of meanings of femininity, and their articulation with class and race relations, is stressed. On the other hand, it is suggested that the guidelines related to care are part of a school culture produced and reproduced within the institution itself, rather than in specific forms of feminine socialization. Alda's story shows the need to discuss racism inside schools starting with the teachers themselves. It also shows that, if there is a certainty that practices of care are relevant to teaching, it is necessary to bring them to the center of the pedagogical debate so that they gain legitimacy as a professional practice.