Matemática no cotidiano de pessoas idosas (PIs): Memórias, saberes e práticas

Abstract

In the Brazilian social context, the number of elderly people which demand conceptual, procedural and attitudinal changes linked to education is increasing, aiming their insertion in several social spaces, solving problems of daily life through literacy practices (reading, writing, numbers and operations). This research is based on a qualitative-ethnographic analysis and discusses applied mathematics in the older persons‟ (OPs) daily life, identifying mathematical knowledge used by them, in which contexts and social situations. Narratives of elderly students from the Open University to Maturity (OUMA), where it was performed the participants‟ observation with testimonies records, individual interviews and focus groups transcribed and published with their permission. In these, it identify mathematical knowledge (geometry, statistic, magnitudes and measurement etc.) which they experienced in social contexts (bank, stores, market, domestic environment etc.) and applied in different situations (sales, withdrawals, payments, deposits, transfers etc.) and mathematics as a stimulus to memory. The Popular Education, Mathematics Education, Oral History and Educational Gerontology contributions guided this discussion, which, when related to the educational themes narrated by them, reveal a socially contextualized and collectively referenced teaching work. Evidentiary the Mathematics Education by knowing a process of participatory, active longevity and social protagonism, also contributing to the reflection of their teaching practice at school, especially in the People Young and Adults Education (YEA), where many elderly students converge.