Olhares docentes e a produção de sentidos sobre os sujeitos escolares nos quintos anos do ensino fundamental, em Francisco Beltrão

Abstract

Linked to the research line Society, Knowledge, and Education, this dissertation examines how 5th-grade homeroom teachers in municipal schools in Francisco Beltrão, Paraná, ascribed meaning to student subjects during the 2025 school year. The investigation is grounded in an understanding of postmodernity as a historical condition marked by instabilities, identity displacements, and social and cultural transformations intensified by globalization and information technologies. The research is situated within a post-structuralist framework, drawing primarily on the contributions of Michel Foucault to understand contemporary processes of subject formation as effects of discursive practices that encompass both external influences—such as institutions, norms, and technologies—and internal dimensions of self-formation and subjective positioning. The study assumes that subjects are not fixed,autonomous, or natural entities, but rather historical and discursive productions constituted through social relations and apparatuses of knowledge and power. Building on this foundation, the study articulates Stuart Hall's discussions on the ragmentation and decentering in the constitution of subjects, as well as those of Pierre Lévy, who expands the discussion by including the effects of digital technologies on modes of existence. The objective was to analyze how 5th-grade teachers signified the students they taught, considering the effects of these significations on pedagogical practice. A qualitative approach was adopted, using a case study design and a focus group as the data production technique. The analysis was informed by Ernesto Laclau’s Discourse Theory, which enabled the problematization of the meanings constructed within the teachers' discourses. The results indicated that the interpretations produced about student subjects were shaped by demands that not only positioned them but also constituted them, while simultaneously generating effects on the pedagogical practices enacted by the teachers. It was observed that the meanings attributed to students were unstable and contested, reflecting tensions between the attempt to reproduce disciplinary norms and the desire to cultivate more active and creative subjects. This research contributes to expanding the discussion on how teachers' discourses participate in the production of school subjectivities and destabilize dynamics within the educational field, in the face of the demands of a society in constant transformation that challenges established normative practices. Ultimately, the study invites reflection on ways of teaching that align with an ethic of self-care, attentive listening, andinvention