Mulheres no ensino de Física: percepções e práticas docentes sobre gênero na disciplina de Física no ensino médio

Abstract

The scholar institution, one of the main spaces of contact with these sciences, is also subject to expressing demotivating elements to women in the sense of perpetuating gender stereotypes. Considering male and female teachers as intellectuals, they can assume a critical posture, promoting a liberating and inclusive education in relation to gender issues. In this sense, the general objective was to understand, through the teachers’ position, how gender relations are approached in Physics classes and what their perceptions are about the relevance of working with this theme. For this purpose, a qualitative research was carried out through the application of a questionnaire and, in an exploratory way, semi-structured interviews with Physics teachers/teachers who work in state high schools in Paraná. The research theme was announced to the participants in a direct way. For the treatment of the information obtained and in the constitution of data interpretation, content analysis was employed, in which six simple categories were built for the questionnaires and three for the interviews. The results indicated that most of the participants declared they had approached contributions from women scientists in their classes and consider that the representation of scientists in images in textbooks, media, films, etc., influences the identification of the students with scientific careers. About the little presence of women in science, the patriarchal culture, the double working day, the lack of opportunities and the social expectations for the female sex were highlighted. As a proposal to try to equalize these interests, it was asked about the possibility of working on gender issues in a transversal way, to which most of the participants considered indifferent this possibility. These results show indications that the inequalities between men and women are recognized, however, there is no expressive position on how to revert such inequalities, manifesting, in a certain sense, a resistance to approach such subjects. In the interviews, the low presence of women in Physics in textbooks was highlighted, which reinforces the need to expand the production and dissemination of materials and the construction of spaces that collaboratively promote reflections on gender issues in Physics teaching.