Sequential Exploratory Design (DEXPLOS), procedure and instrument for the analysis of school historical narratives from a gender perspective

Abstract

This study offers a detailed description of the design and methodological procedure applied in the analysis of social representations on History in the narratives of elementary school students. The research is positioned in mixed research approaches, in particular, in derivative exploratory sequential designs (DEXPLOS), in which the research process combines the collection, uniform codification, categorization, and descriptive and interpretative analysis of qualitative data (phase 1) with quantitative data, obtained on the basis of the first, through the ad hoc construction of a categorical scale of measurement of the units of analysis (phase 2). The results obtained show the validity and operability of the methodological design and instrument proposed for the analysis and reflection on the dominant curricular approaches in the teaching and learning of school history at this educational stage. According to the results obtained in the first application of this methodology and instrument, the transmission of stereotyped historical discourses consolidates the reproduction of narratives and the predetermined selection of certain protagonists by students. This selection also determines the shaping of social and historical identities which, in the case of proposing women in subsidiary and dependent stages, encourages the exclusion of those who “do not make history”.