A cultura da banana como tema gerador para o ensino de Química: diálogo entre saberes populares, científicos e escolares

Abstract

Understanding the need for a Chemistry Teaching that gives space and voice for students to actively participate and can see the different ways of understanding the world, being, finally, literate scientifically, this work sought, in the dialogues between the different ways of understanding the world, possibilities for teaching and learning. In general terms, it aimed to analyze the knowledge and popular practices of banana culture, based on a research based on Ethnochemistry, possible contributions to the teaching and learning of Chemistry. The research is based on educational contributions from theorists such as Ubiratan D'Ambrósio and his theorization of Ethnomathematics, Zulmira L. Francisco and his notes on Ethnochemistry, Attico Chassot with his foundations for the insertion of popular knowledge in Chemistry Teaching and Paulo Freire, bringing the importance of including generating themes, dialogue and problematization. The research, therefore, was a qualitative study having as a participating subject a market stallholder who is also a farmer, and with some ethnographic research tools - observation, field diary and semi-structured interview - the data were collected. The analysis consisted of transcribing the testimonies, dialoguing with scientific knowledge and later with school knowledge, discussing possibilities of sub-themes and contents from the generating theme “The banana culture”. We found that the participant has extensive knowledge about the processes related to banana culture. Based on the discussion and understanding of this knowledge, a didactic sequence was developed to address the subtheme “food losses and waste (fruit conservation and ripening)”, which was organized into three pedagogical moments. In the first moment, questions are suggested for the problematization of previous knowledge about the processes of conservation and maturation. The second moment consists of deepening knowledge and suggesting some content that can be addressed, as well as practical activities related to the theme. In the last one, aimed at the socialization of knowledge, some activities are suggested. One of these is the making of paper from the pseudostem of the banana tree, which was possible to be applied with two students with the support of a geography teacher who, after an opinion poll, we verified that this activity can collaborate to expand the knowledge, in addition to the possibility of interdisciplinary learning. The proposed didactic sequence was not applied in the classroom, however we believe that it can significantly contribute to the teaching and learning of Chemistry. Finally, all the discussion generated in this work enabled the elaboration of an educational product.