O novo ensino médio e as masculinidades: representações e práticas sociais em escolas da rede estadual de educação do Espírito Santo

Abstract

It is a research interested in investigating representations and social practices about masculinities in the New High School in the State Education Network in Espírito Santo. The process of implementing the New High School in Brazil began with the enactment of Law n. º 13.415/2017, whose proposal, in general, is centered on two pillars: progressive extension of school hours and flexibility of school curriculum through the introduction of formative itineraries chosen by students. In the same period and in the following years, different social and political processes indicated the relevance of masculinities in Brazil, as well as the exacerbation of the context of visibility of Education and the school in relation to gender and sexualities, especially after the presidential campaign in 2018. Given this scenario, the research aimed to identify and analyze social representations and practices about masculinities built and shared in state high schools in the state of Espírito Santo. For this, a qualitative, descriptive analytical research was carried out. Three studies were carried out, using different data collection and analysis procedures, to achieve different specific objectives and study dimensions of social representations. The first two consist of documentary studies. In the first, social representations about masculinities were identified and analyzed in official documents that guide the educational practices of High School in Brazil and in Espírito Santo. The selected material was submitted to Thematic Content Analysis combined with Lexical Analysis carried out with the support of IRAMUTEQ. The following study aimed to investigate social representations of masculinities shared in media of access to the school community, analyzing articles published in Nova Escola magazine and Folha de São Paulo newspaper from January 2017 to July 2019. Data analysis was performed with the support of the IRAMUTEQ software. In the third study, 11 individual online interviews were carried out, with a semi-structured script, with education workers from state high schools. Thematic Content Analysis was performed. The results indicated that social representations about masculinities are anchored in different meanings, often linked to elements of other representation objects such as paternity, family, youth, work, gender and sexualities. Such elements constitute systems of representations about masculinities that guide systems of practices. In a context marked by the new, masculinities were represented as a changing phenomenon or one that is composed of elements that need to be transformed. It was found, however, that this is also a context of permanence and re-updating, mediated by the contemporary socio-political and economic panorama, making it relevant to undertake analyzes of gender policies and regimes that produce representations and practices about masculinities in this context. It was also possible to verify the existence of different configurations of masculinities and gender policies in dispute for hegemony, being able to join coalition projects of apparently not reconcilable interests, as part of strategies of subordination of other groups.