“FOLHA POR FOLHA”: A PESQUISA-AÇÃO PARTICIPATIVA E A FORMAÇÃO DE PROFESSORES COMO CAMINHO PARA A SENSIBILIZAÇÃO À DIVERSIDADE LINGUÍSTICO-CULTURAL

Abstract

This study, grounded in the processes of teacher education, is situated within the field of education for plurilingualism and interculturality. It offers a further contribution to the development of pathways that promote the recognition of linguistic diversity – a constitutively human trait – as a human right. The research is based on investigations in/of/with the everyday practices (Oliveira; Alves, 2008) of public municipal schools in Cascavel, PR, and aims to understand the representations and the (re)construction of knowledge related to linguistic and cultural awareness, as experienced by participating teachers in a continuing training course developed within the framework of participatory action-research (Ander-Egg, 1990; Fals Borda, 1993, 2015; Colette, 2021). To this end, the study considered the sensitive, collective, and political-affective dimensions proposed by Freirean pedagogy; the critical-affective exercise of the “sentipensante being”, as a synthesis of participatory action-research; and the Anthropology of corazonar (Arias, 2010). The research is grounded in the understanding that building an education for plurilingualism and developing critical interculturality – as proposed by Tubino (2005), Arias (2010), and Walsh (2013) – is strengthened through dialogical actions between universities and schools. Considering university extension as one of the roads for the university's ethical and political commitment to society, a teacher training course was developed for educators in the municipal public school network of Cascavel, PR. The purpose was to raise (our) awareness of linguistic and cultural diversity and to promote the welcoming of immigrant students, drawing on the pedagogy of plurilingualism (Altenhofen; Broch, 2011) and the development of a Critical Multilingual Awareness (García, 2017). Supported by the Sociology of Language, the Applied Sociolinguistics (Trudgill, 1984; Moreno Fernández, 2009), and in dialogue with Applied Linguistics and Social Psychology, this research produced its data through: a survey on the presence of immigrant students in Cascavel’s municipal public schools; a case study with the researcher’s field diary; responses obtained through online questionnaires; recordings of the eight sessions from the continuing training course; and two reflective session meetings. The qualitative-interpretive analysis followed the content analysis method (Bardin, 1977), organized into six categories that emerged from reading the responses and transcriptions. The results indicate that the participating teachers progressed, each in their own way, in constructing a critical linguistic awareness based on representations and knowledge (re)constructed around plurilingualism and interculturality. Additionally, a movement toward “awakening to linguistic and cultural diversity” was observed in schools, as evidenced by proposals made after the course, aligned with the idea of informed independence (Celani, 2010) and the pedagogy of autonomy (Freire, 1996). A still incipient but meaningful process of awakening to one’s own linguistic repertoires and to welcoming practices in different languages (Bizon; Camargo, 2018) was also identified. This study gives support to the positive effects of participatory action-research and highlights the importance of a participatory university that, in dialogue with schools, strengthens the construction of an education committed to plurilingualism and to the deconstruction of monolingual paradigms.