Facing conservative advancement in the classroom: teaching experience in southern Brazil

• In Event: Navigating challenges in education: perspectives on language and controversial policies

Proposal

In recent years, we have observed a growth of conservative agendas in the world and in Brazil. In the United States, this movement has been strengthening and gaining ground since the 1960s and 1970s (Apple, 2003). It is not a naturally cohesive movement, but rather the result of an effort to build a broad-based alliance, the result of a work of articulation between different groups of the right spectrum, around a common project. These groups form a coalition, with sometimes divergent and conflicting interests, but which are able to create a convergent agenda that has as one of its focuses the education (Apple, 2003; Gandin & Hypolito, 2003; Gandin & Lima, 2024). In Brazil, the 2010s (Miguel, 2016; Pinheiro-Machado, 2019; Pinheiro-Machado & Scalco, 2020) has been pointed out as the decade in which conservative groups and their ideas have gained strength, to the point of successfully being able to alter common sense and consolidate themselves as a hegemonic force. Much of this progress has been consolidated through the use of social networks, using different strategies, such as fake news and memes (Hatzidiki & Dullo, 2021), capturing a large number of people and making these ideas popular. When we look specifically at the issues related to education, we perceive a certain preponderance of topics related to morality, in addition to a process of disqualification of teachers, when students and parents adopt a perspective of surveillance and persecution against teachers, who are seen as indoctrinators. As a strategy of defense by teachers, fear, self-censorship and non-approach of topics that can be considered controversial are mobilized (Teixeira & Henriques, 2022). Starting from this context, this work aims to understand how teachers have reflected on this context and acted to dialogue with students in their classrooms from a qualitative research, supported by Critical Educational Studies, which considers the complex process that involves studying education and its multiple relationships. Within this perspective, I use Relational Analysis as an epistemological lens that proposes a relational look at the phenomenon studied, that is, the analysis of this phenomenon not in isolation, but rather, considering the broader relations that are involved in it, situating it in the material, political and cultural context, taking into account the unequal and oppressive relations involved. From this perspective, there is an appreciation of the context, contradictions and ideological aspects and power and cultural relations involved (Apple, 2006).With the teacher and his performance as the center of analysis, the concept of teachers as intellectuals has been used (Giroux, 1997), recognizing that these professionals have a central role in this process and assuming responsibility for education. Also using Zeichner & Liston's perspective (2014) that a reflective teacher needs: to examine and solve classroom dilemmas; to be attentive and to question the values and assumptions he carries when teaching; to analyze the institutional and cultural context in which he teaches; to take part in the development of the curriculum and in school efforts to change it; to take responsibility for his professional development. The act of reflection can be seen in two moments. The reflection-on-action, which occurs before class, when we plan and reflect on the classes and, later, when we reflect on what happened in class. But there is also reflection-in-action, when teachers need to solve problems that arise during class, deal with unexpected reactions and perceptions in the classroom. A reflective teacher needs to engage in these two types of reflection. With this theoretical framework, eight semi-structured interviews were conducted with high school teachers from public schools in Rio Grande do Sul (the southernmost state in Brazil). First of all, teachers are indeed reflecting on the context of advancing conservative agendas. And, from this perception some strategies have been adopted, even if there is no concrete case of attack in their school. Teachers have prepared themselves beforehand, depending on the topic to be addressed,in case there is any type of more emphatic contestation, thinking about previous strategies to address these topics, and possible arguments to be used. They can also notice some change in the profile of students, and in the intensive use of social networks to get information, and how much they need to be aware of what is happening, feeling a need for constant updating. In addition to this reflection before the class, there are also strategies that are being used to avoid interdicting the debate with students who notably have a greater rejection of a topic. With this, teachers are able to open channels of dialogue with these students. Another element that was emphasized by teachers was the importance of building affective relationships in the classroom and how this has been an important channel for reflective teaching work. This work focuses on the analysis of daily teaching, examining both how conservative agendas affect teaching work, but also how teachers build reflective actions that combine critical sense and reflection and that can teach us how to resist the advancement of these conservative agendas in education. Teachers who do not shy away from discussing the issues brought into the classrooms. I reinforce the importance of research that looks at the classroom space, not only to understand the concrete effects of advancing conservative agendas, but also to document the work that teachers have done to face this reality. They have a lot to teach us how to think about the challenges of this conservative advance, and to contribute in other areas of society.

Author

• Gabriel Schenkmann Arnt, Universidade Federal do Rio Grande do Sul