SCIENCE TEACHING AND THE DECONSTRUCTION OF BIOLOGIZING AND PSEUDOCIENTIFIC NOTIONS ABOUT AFFIRMATIVE ACTIONS: IN DEFENSE OF RACIAL QUOTAS

Abstract

The objective is to discuss the teaching of Natural Sciences and affirmative action policies based on the “controversies” that this theme raises. A school intervention is analyzed and a brief reflection is made on the indispensability of the discussions about race relations in science teaching. The different racial conceptions and socio-scientific controversies present in the oral testimonies of high school students during a biology class are discussed. The processes of racialization of human beings are presented and then the arguments about the Science, Technology, Society and Environment movement and the need to historicize the teaching of Sciences are launched. The motivation to address this theme is anchored in the understanding that students and teachers involved in science teaching processes have their own convictions about the biological and sociological approach of the race category, based on copious socioracials experiences. The methodology used benefited from the content analysis and used the Atlas Ti software as an auxiliary resource in coding the information collected. Finally, the school intervention is described and analyzed in the sense of broadening the dialogues, contextualizing and deepening the debate about important interlocutions that science teaching can and should build with the field of Education of Ethnic-Racial Relations.