RACIAL IDENTITIES IN LANGUAGE CLASSES AND INTERSECTION WITH GENDER AND SEXUALITY: DISCOURSES PRODUCED BY STUDENTS

Abstract

This article refers to the identities of race, gender and sexuality in English language classes. The purpose of this article is to analyze and understand the meaning that students attribute to racial identities, which intersect with the identities of gender and sexuality, in the process of teaching-learning English as a foreign language. Thus, in this article we will try to answer the following research questions: What do students' discourses reveal about racial, gender and sexual identities in the English language classroom? And, how can English language collaborate in (the) construction of such identities?  We use the theoretical reference framework of Ferreira (2006, 2012, 2015), Bento (2002), Cavalleiro (2014), Gomes (2005), Hall (2011), Louro (2000 2013), Butler, (2000), Melo (2015), Moita Lopes (2002, 2003), Woodward (2013). As far as the methodology was concerned, this is a qualitative research of the ethnographic type developed in the year 2017. The data generation was with questionnaire, autobiographical narratives and focus group interviews, with 4 students and 4 students from a State School of Paraná, considering the color / race question of the interviewees. The result of the research reveals that racial identities are targets of racism and prejudice in the classroom, occurring more intensely when intercepted with gender and sexuality issues. In this way, the conclusions shows the benefit and necessity of using English language teaching as an instrument of empowerment to destabilize the existing power relations to heterosexual / homosexual black / white / heterosexual binarism of the male /female to create a more human world through language / English teaching.