Entre silenciamentos e invisibilidades: relações de gênero no cotidiano das aulas de matemática

Abstract

The objective of this thesis was to verify how gender relations occur from 5th to 8th graders in Math classes in a public school in Curitiba, Paraná. This investigation was qualitative and conducted within an ethnographic framework. Three research techniques of data collecting were used: observation, documental analysis and interviews. The age group was chosen because there are few studies available within this age group. Four classes, one from each grade, were studied during the field research. The observations took place during a period of six months and interviews were carried out with forty students (twenty girls and twenty boys) and four teachers (two men and two women). Class diaries (2009) and final grades bulletins (2008) were analyzed. The results led us to believe that there is a different positioning of boys and girls in the classroom concerning the relations among peers and teachers as well as in relation to the content of Mathematics. Girls were silenced and silenced themselves during classes and in front of their teachers. The relations of gender were also silenced and unnoticeable by the researchers. The data also shows that there is a need for professionals to pay attention to how their pupils relate among themselves inside the classroom so they may guarantee that all students have equal conditions to express themselves considering a large number of students claim that they were silent during class because they were ashamed and feared they would be bullied by their peers. It was perceived that power circulated in those classes, sometimes ones had it, other times other students had it and these students developed their own strategies to exercise power and achieve their objectives. During this investigation, it was noticed that this is an open field for the conduction of various different kinds of studies.