The PNLD/2018 philosophy books and the Law 10,639/03: reflections on ethnic-racial diversity in philosophy teaching material in High School ^{1 2 3}

Abstract

The construction of this research starts from the decolonialist conception and discusses philosophy, its teaching and ethnic-racial diversity from the perspective of Law 10.639 / 03 The research is qualitative and the data were obtained through the documentary collection, which was the 8 books of PNLD / 2018 philosophy as an object of analysis and a mixed questionnaire applied to 31 high school philosophy teachers (EM). The research pointed out that in the analyzed books and in the philosophy classes at EM, there is no effective inclusion of Law 10.639 / 03 in its contents. In this sense, it is possible to affirm that philosophy still has a lot to do in relation to the theme of ethnic-racial diversity, having to problematize its own epistemological axis and open space for the philosophical doing to be a crucial factor in the transformation of racist theories and practices present within and outside the school walls, fostering the problematization of current social relations, in order to promote anti-racist. struggles.

Keywords
PNLD/201; Books of Philosophy; Law 10.639/03; Ethnic-racial diversity; Philosophy teaching; High school

Resumo

A construção dessa pesquisa parte da concepção decolonialista e discorre sobre a filosofia, seu ensino e a diversidade étnico-racial sob a perspectiva da Lei 10.639/03. A pesquisa é qualitativa e os resultados dados foram obtidos através da coleta documental, que teve como objeto de análise os oito livros de filosofia do PNLD/2018 e um questionário misto aplicado a 31 professores de filosofia do Ensino Médio (EM). A pesquisa apontou que nos livros analisados e nas aulas de filosofia no EM, não há a efetiva inclusão da Lei 10.639/03 em seus conteúdos. Sendo assim, é possível afirmar que a filosofia ainda tem muito a fazer em relação à temática da diversidade étnico-racial, devendo problematizar seu próprio eixo epistemológico e abrir espaço para que o fazer filosófico seja fator crucial na transformação das teorias e práticas racistas presentes dentro e fora dos muros escolares fomentando a problematização das relações sociais vigentes, de modo a promover as lutas antirracistas.

Palavras-chave
Livros de Filosofia do PNLD/2018; Lei 10.639/03; Diversidade étnico-racial; Ensino de Filosofia; Ensino Médio

1. Introduction

The concealment of diversity that Brazil has been reproducing has cultivated the feeling of not belonging to society among Indigenous and black people, and the impoverished.

(Petronilha Beatriz Gonçalves e Silva)

The demarcations of social spaces determined for whites and blacks make up the contingency of social inequality. The black population was attributed to the “bottom part” of the pyramid, relegating blacks to exclusion. According to Moreira (2016, p. 45), “if we consider the black and Afro-Brazilian population contingent and contrast it with the indices of vulnerability and social promotion, we will see that this population remains in a place of marginality and exclusion.”

Thus, it is necessary to rethink the issues related to equality, in the field of education and outside it, because, to deconstruct these spaces of prejudice and discrimination “[…] the logic of scientific reason that says that biologically there are no superior and inferior races is not enough, just as Christian morality that says that before God we are all equal is not enough so that the heads of our students can automatically stop being prejudiced” (Munanga, 2005, p. 11).

The interaction between colonized and colonizers, forced by the (mis)paths of Eurocentric colonization, produced a mosaic of corporeities, voices, perceptions, feelings and thoughts, ideals and fears, and a whole range of existential elements presented and lived in vast complexity, generating new ways of being and existing that, among several aspects, were/are (re)constituted.

As a result of inequality at various levels, racism is a social wound that needs to be healed through the problematization of the status quo and the establishment of education for diversity. Every time the school and society silence/mask racism, the violence produced by the non-acceptance of differences, which become inequalities, becomes much more eloquent.

(Re)discussing the narratives related to the issue of racism in Brazil is to create possibilities to open cracks in the various social spaces that constitute Brazilian society. Thus, thinking about the prejudice trajectory, from the African diaspora to the prejudice and discrimination expressions also present in the 21^st century, is a quest to undertake and foster the existence of an anti-racist society.

Thus, this article investigates the presence/absence of the study of Culture, History, and Art of Africa and Afro-descendants, as determined by Law 10,639/03⁴. The collected data that make up the research concern the eight philosophy books suggested by the MEC in the PNLD/2018, in which the presence/absence of the theme of ethnic-racial diversity was examined, in particular, concerning the relationship between Philosophy and its teaching with topics related to Law 10,639/03.

The objective of this article was to investigate and analyze the presence of contents related to “Afro-Brazilian History and Culture” in philosophy textbooks suggested in the PNLD/2018. The intention, therefore, was to identify in each work the presence or absence of theoretical elements contemplating African History and Culture, in addition to the slaveholding approach. The theoretical demarcations that modulate the reading and analysis of data, on which the interpretative fabrics were woven, are inspired by Deleuze and Guattari (2010), Levinás (1997), and the Afroperspectivist/decolonialist conception.

The textbook encourages the formation of spaces for interpretation, dialogue, and understanding of philosophy and philosophizing in Basic Education (BE). Present in the day-to-day teaching philosophy at HS, it is therefore essential that the textbook can also provide the construction of narratives that, in addition to raising awareness, should stop the advance of prejudice and violence that configure the scenarios of intolerance and discrimination experienced in the country.

Thus, concerning the PNLD/2018 philosophy books, whether or not to comply with the determinations provided in Law 10,639/03 has become an essential aspect for observation and analysis. The question that guided the research seeks to know if the guidelines/determinations of Law 10,639/03 are present in the PNLD/2018 philosophy books. As a study complement, some data referring to the teaching practices of philosophy teachers from the HS were presented⁵, verifying if the research subjects include in their class plans themes related to Law 10,639/03.

Ethnic-racial diversity is present in the field of philosophy teaching when we understand that the discipline and its teachability, in philosophical theories, perceive man, Subject, and Object of knowledge, conceived as being-in-construction. Hence, the search to understand the set social relations is established at the center of the philosophical discussion.

In this perspective, even though humanity is a prerogative of human existence, regardless of everything that differentiates people from each other, especially concerning skin color, there is a cleavage in the way societies, in general, understand the different individuals and groups that constitute them. In this perspective, it is assumed that the analyzed books do not contemplate Law 10,639/03 in constructing their contents.

Promoting anti-racist actions, having a society governed by the bias of Alterity, requires changing the current epistemological/axiological reference point. This conception of the society of Alterity, presented here, is based on the conception of Levinás (1997), where I and the Other are established in a necessary relational conjunction. “The face that looks at me affirms me,” says Levinás (1997, p. 63). Therefore, by recognizing the Other, I produce self-recognition in myself.

Thus, the relevance of the research lies in giving greater visibility to the importance of discussing racism that permeates the identity axes of Brazilian society. What is racism, and how does it occur in Brazil? Can philosophy classes resolve racism and racial inequality? Do textbooks and other didactic materials worked on by HS philosophy teachers bring to the classroom what is determined by Law 10,639/03?

The article addresses the issue of ethnic-racial diversity and its vicissitudes in Brazil to answer the questions presented. Then, some reflections on philosophy and philosophizing from the perspective of decolonialist reflection are presented to, finally, bring the research data and its analysis.

2. Ethnic-racial diversity and racism in Brazil – Reflections on Law 10,639/03

We still have a long way to go before we understand that we are different from each other, which brings us closer and makes us more equal.

(Nilma Lino Gomes)

According to Lopes (2002), being the “largest country in South America in territorial extension, Brazil, due to the expressiveness of its Afro-descendant population (sic), is part of the set of regions known as Afro-America” (p. 139). This characteristic, forged by slavery, is part of the formative roots of the Brazilian people, engendering the mechanisms of racial, ethnic discrimination against black people.

The ideological processes that legitimized the differentiation of colonizing countries and their colonies organize constructing social identities. They are full of meanings, the central elements that generate ethnic-racial prejudice in this context. For Munanga (2005), “[…] prejudice is a product of human cultures […] it has become an ideological weapon to legitimize and justify the domination of some over others” (p. 11).

The depreciation of Africa (and its people) translates into the inferiority and invisibility of the black population expressed in the theory of several authors. According to Lopes (2002), white superiority, achieved under the economic strength of European colonizers and imposed through the violence of the slave trade – expressed in physical punishment – engendered the emptying of the captives' identity and is perpetuated in the speeches and actions of today's society, demanding a radical change in conceiving the issue of ethnic-racial diversity in Brazil and the world.

From a critical look at this scenario, the debate about the coloniality of power and Eurocentrism emerges as constitutive elements of the formation of the society in its various constructions and elaborations, especially in Latin American and African countries.

It is imperative to remove the veil and see the anti-racist struggle, the black, the afro-descendant, their faces, their religious expressions, their multiple faces, their varied ways of existing, questioning the unnaturalness of having skin color as a parameter for discrimination and racism. Finally, the visibility/invisibility of the racial issue, inherent to Brazil's social relations since colonial times, presents itself with a range of meanings, sometimes completely different, that is attributed/imposed/accepted, constructed, and (de/re)constructed to every day in the fabric of the formation of society.

Thus, given the need to (re)configure the conception of reason beyond the Europe/USA field, Africa, its culture, rationality, and descendants must be inscribed within an epistemology constituted in/by African rationality in its different perspectives.

In constructing new “inquiry” processes, it is possible to establish a (re)reading of the formation/configuration of western knowledge and, consequently, of Brazilian culture itself. It is worth noting that the bias of European thought orders the theoretical-methodological parameters that support Brazil's establishment of scientific knowledge. Hence, it becomes unique to unveil in the hegemonic discourses of philosophical thought whose epistemological matrix is guided by the Eurocentric bias, the excluding and discriminating character of this approach concerning the knowledge of other matrices.

In this regard, Nascimento (2016) draws attention to the following:

As universities typically move through curricula guided by Western canons of thought, approaching non-Western knowledge has still been a peripheral practice throughout the West and, also, in any research center organized in Western molds. This movement makes studies on African philosophies marginal – when present – in the hegemonic philosophy curricula around the world.

(p. 233)

Afro-descendants transformed into struggle translates, therefore, into a color distinction and political demarcation. Social movements are established in this environment of contradictions and conflicts – spaces for awareness, confrontation, and (re)signification of black people and society in general.

In political clashes, anti-racist agendas took shape with social movements. Through social transformations, mainly from the end of the 1980s and the 1990s, society saw new ways to promote the appreciation of ethnic-racial diversity and its vicissitudes.

One of the main demands of the anti-racist social movements is access to education. Therefore, Law 10,639/03 was a significant advance in meeting the agenda of these groups, registered at the level of affirmative action. Its approval took place in President Luiz Inácio Lula da Silva’s government to promote debate and expansion about the knowledge coming from Africa and its implications in the ways of being/existing in Brazilian society.

Given the political bias that involves the issue of black people and the anti-racist struggle in Brazil, understanding the processes/steps that contributed to the formulation of Law 10,639/03 is fundamental. It then promotes a change in the approach to the formation/organization of the country, which can break/disrupt the vision of homogenization perpetuated by the myth of racial democracy.

The debate on the contents that are worked on in the classroom, from a political perspective, should promote knowledge of African culture and history, providing opportunities for the apprehension of new formative elements. Law 10,639/03 brought the challenge of printing a new demarcation to the participation/contribution of African thought in articulating the epistemic aspects that constitute the knowledge established in school/academic spaces and outside of them.

The issue of racism, according to the 1998 Cultural Plurality PCN, has a complex and multifaceted social environment as an interface of changes for the construction of citizenship and the inclusion of non-equals (those who do not inscribe themselves in the models predetermined by the hegemonic majority groups) in the different spheres of social existence.

In this sense, thinking about Law 10,639/03 at school means reflecting on the issue of diversity, its breadth, and complexity, its inscription in demarcated social spaces, on the one hand by the ideology of racial democracy and, on the other hand, by the abuses of the discourse and racist practices so frequent in the country.

In the field of transformations in the Brazilian historical context, the political-social instability promoted after 2016 generated the (re)organization of social movements, and exposed the vulnerability of the black population, historically excluded from the actions of liberal governments. This finding reinforces that current social facts are not very favorable to the appreciation of the Other. Social tensions seem to reach the (un)bearable limits, with an increase in intransigence and the imposition of non-democratic narratives (traditionally determined by the ruling class) in the face of minority choices.

When analyzing the political and social conjunctures in Brazil, it is possible to affirm that, at the end of the 20^th century, the political environment favored the consolidation of the struggle and resistance of the black movement in the ratification of Law 10,639/03. However, it should be noted that many schools and their teachers currently do not work/include the Law mentioned above in their teaching practice (sometimes, not even History and Arts teachers) to contribute to the silenced segments are also part of existing narratives.

Brazil, a country with structural racism at its core, based on its approach to ethnic-racial diversity, still has a lot to do to consolidate respect and equity in its social relations. Philosophy has an essential role in the construction of more equitable social relations.

3. Philosophy, its teaching and Law 10,639/03 – weaving reflections on racism and philosophizing

Philosophy is the movement by which we free ourselves – with efforts, hesitations, dreams and, illusions – from what is acquired as true to seek other rules of the game.

(Foucault)

When inquiring about philosophy teaching in the HS and its relationship with ethnic-racial diversity, there is the perspective this issue configures a reflection on the discipline itself, encompassing the teachers and their perceptions regarding it. Therefore, if the discussion that involves the teachability of philosophy is already a challenging issue, moving beyond this point and questioning the contribution of philosophy to minimize (perhaps ending) racism in school is an even more complex task. It is worth mentioning that the theme, despite being frequently mentioned in educational spaces, still lacks studies about its practices in the school routine.

It is essential to re-signify Africa and its diversity because,

Of the diversity observable in Africa, the negative aspect has been emphasized. […] it is necessary to recognize the cultural differences found as a precious source of enrichment of the human heritage. A relevant role is played by schools in the sense of re-incorporating African cultural memory into human cultural memory so that children and young people from the Americas can (re)know the participation of African peoples in the history of humanity and are not led to believe that this history was built only by Europe, at most aided by the Americas.

(Ribeiro, 1996, p. 17)

Only with this re-signification will it be possible to change the construction of the Brazilian society’s imaginary that has as a reference the vision of black people and the African continent under the eyes of the colonizer/enslaver, who dehumanizes the individual and his space of existence. Thus, how does the school address the desire for a pressing change in being/existing in the part of society that is marginalized, oppressed, forgotten, made invisible by prejudice and its vicissitudes? How to deal with diversity without breaking with the perverse logic of racism?

To these questions (so old and so current), several answers were (and still are) given. The certainty of difference indicates that the path to be followed must provide everyone participation/insertion in society under the aegis of valuing diversity in all aspects. Education is the mainstay of a democratic society. Freire’s words (2000) still echo the call to change, producing cracks in the rigid social fabric that forms the (inter)relations that make up Brazilian society.

The challenges are many, and thus we cannot lose sight of that

Education makes sense because the world is not necessarily this or that, because human beings are as many projects as they can have projects for the world. […] Education makes sense because, to be, women and men need to be being. If women and men were simply there, there would be no point in talking about education […] This is one of the reasons why the progressive literacy teacher cannot be content with teaching reading and writing that contemptuously turns its back on reading the world.

(Freire, 2000, p. 40-41)

Inspired by Freire’s thinking (2000), it is essential to emphasize that, despite many adversities, the struggle in favor of diversity requires that the transformation processes carried out by the public and private spheres take their constant, albeit shaky, steps towards the creation of a more egalitarian social environment.

On the horizon of the trajectory of philosophy at school, there is (or should be) an uninterrupted loving search for knowledge, to reach the level of citizenship formation and the expansion of democracy and access to fundamental human rights. Philosophizing, more than an intellectual activity, is a construction of meanings and senses. Knowing from the philosophy point of view translates as the continuous inquiry about issues related to man and the world.

In the weaving of the plots of thought, the theoretical demarcations brought by the classics of philosophy make it possible to expand the questioning and search for knowledge – this fickle object: that directs, but also becomes volatilized in the very process of knowing – transformed/transformer of/by realities and circumstances. Conceiving philosophy as a continuous movement of inquiring about existence in all its prerogatives, the discussion/debate about the relationship I versus the Other is one of the fundamental axes of philosophizing.

An approach considering the diversity and contribution of different peoples in the construction of knowledge brings with it a critical (re)view of the ideas of classical thinkers. Throughout traditional philosophical thought, it is possible to identify the presence of a discriminatory view concerning certain social groups. In Aristotle, for example, domestic animals and slaves are on the same level, given the submission of both to the command of the free man (Oliveira & Nascimento, 2016).

When questioning the permanence of an asymmetrical view of human relations, Foè (2013) challenges the Aristotelian view according to which “one who is destined to belong to another is by nature a slave and who only has reason in sharing to the extent that the perceives it in other men, but that he does not possess it for himself” (p. 184).

Still, according to the author:

Aristotle certainly recognizes that, contrary to human slavery, animals do not even perceive reason. However, he maintains that there are few differences between slaves and domestic animals in actual use since they all perform the same physical tasks commanded by the free man. Without nuances, such a definition inclines him to exclude the slave from ordinary humanity.

(Foè, 2013, p. 184)

This naturalized conception of inequality among men is reflected in Enlightenment thinking about Africa and, consequently, about black people. The Hegelian conception that Africans and their descendants are inferior is expressed in the inscription of the Enlightenment legacy that subjugates knowledge built outside the European “meanders,” marginalizing all knowledge beyond Europe.

Likewise, Andrade (2017) states that Enlightenment reason, when producing a unilateral discourse of rationality, engenders

[…] one of the cruelest faces of ethnocentrism: racism. [Thus] Those who are in the minority of reason have a defined color and serve to show that the lights of the various Enlightenment discourses paradoxically leave in the shadows everything that is not an expression of European culture, especially, of course, the “black” continent.

(p. 302)

These questions echo decolonial thinking that proposes a (re)reading of philosophy so that it can assume its contradictions and seek other points of reference, leaving aside the propagation of epistemic racism. The impediment to the maintenance of epistemic racism⁶ resulting from the modern/enlightenment civilizational model must be established through a change in the parameters that dimension the comprehension/knowledge construct. Thinking about reality and the aspects that constitute it must be a continuous exercise that asks about the vision of man and the world that underlies the knowledge of science and academia.

The change from the theoretical-scientific level founded on the Eurocentric model to a multiculturalist cosmovision brings the intention of questioning both philosophy and its epistemological axes.

The current political-social processes are constituted in the clashes generated by globalization and the new internationalism produced in the interfaces between mostly accepted groups and marginalized minorities. There must be estrangement from this model that maintains the status quo – that disregards the different (the colonized).

In the ballast of Marx’s thought, Sartre’s thought (1968), in contrast to the stigmatizing look marked out by Enlightenment reason, traces an intersubjective vision that points to the consciousness of blackness as a generating element of identity proper to black people. With the view that there is a symbiosis in the relationship that produces the construction of man/world, “Sartrean” thinking promotes a more critical understanding of the “white” view about the black. Thus, it is possible to affirm that the gaze directed to the black finds/engenders a historically dimensioned subject based on this assumption.

Faced with the white’s obliterated view concerning the black, the moment when the white is placed as an object of the gaze and the voice of the black is a constitutive space of the white man’s restlessness, who feels uncomfortable with this change in the focus/direction of the gaze. Sartre (1968) says

What did you expect to happen when you took off the gag that covered those black mouths? […] Here they are standing. Men who look at us. Here they are standing. I hope you feel the like and the commotion of being seen. […] For the white men enjoyed for three thousand years the privilege of seeing without being seen; it was pure look, the light of their eyes subtracted everything from their natal shadow, the whiteness of their skin was also a look, of condensed light. […] Today, these black men look at us, and our gaze reenters our eyes. Black torches light up the world, and our white heads are little more than small lamps swayed by the wind.

(p. 89)

When dealing with the harmful adversities of racism, intolerance emerges as the primary mechanism of exclusion and marginalization of the different – the one that does not fit into the ethnocentric worldview (founded on the appreciation of the white man called civilized). Faced with the civilizational crisis present in Modernity, the (re)dimensioning of the look means a (re)ordering of relational and cognitive fields.

In this complex universe of analysis where philosophy teaching in the high school assumes a fundamental place in understanding the processes of philosophizing at school, the importance of philosophy books having Law 10,639/03 as a reference in the construction of their contents is established.

The teachability of philosophy, understood in the field of teaching the subject at basic education, makes the analysis of textbooks a powerful way of apprehending how the processes of this formation/construction of knowledge are presented in the daily lives of the classrooms. Therefore, in this perspective, the research inscribes its analyses and reflections.

4. Ethnic-racial diversity in philosophy textbooks of the National Textbook Program (PNLD)/2018

The book is a blocked escape: one does not know which path the student will take, but one knows where he will not leave – from exercising his freedom.

(Jacques Rancière)

The qualitative research was carried out with the PNLD/2018 philosophy books and HS philosophy teachers as units of analysis. A survey was carried out on the presence/absence of themes related to Law 10,639/03 in books. It addressed the connection of these books to the theme of ethnic-racial diversity, particularly regarding their relationship with Philosophy and its teaching.

The questionnaires, in turn, encompassed 31 philosophy teachers from the high school as research subjects. The choice of the questionnaire was due to the possibility of the tool’s scope. Also, it was intended to obtain information about the inclusion of Law 10,639/03 in the contents worked in philosophy classes. The questionnaire was applied to HS teachers from private and public schools in Belo Horizonte and the Metropolitan Region.

Initially sent by email to a random sample of more than 70 HS teachers, the online questionnaire had low adherence. Therefore, another 60 printed questionnaires were delivered directly to respondents, reaching, at the end of 9 months, 31 respondents in total.

The PNLD/2018 was created in 1985, through Decree No. 91,542/85, in the wake of government actions initiated in 1929, when the government founded the National Book Institute (INL). Over the last few decades, the structure of the program has been altered, with the inclusion of the high school 2004, with Resolution No. 38 of the National Education Fund (FNDE)⁷.

With the enactment of Law 11,684/08, philosophy became a mandatory subject in the high school. Its inclusion in the PNLD in 2012 constituted an expressive landmark in the very demarcation of the discipline's space in the school curriculum. Philosophy becomes part of the PNLD⁸ from 2012. The books analyzed were the result of the choice of HS philosophy teachers and researchers involved with its teachability⁹. teachability. In the PNLD/2018, according to the Ministry of Education (2017), the eight books listed below were selected:

• Filosofia e Filosofias: Existência e Sentidos

• Filosofia: Experiência do Pensamento

• Reflexões: Filosofia e Cotidiano

• Filosofia: Temas e Percursos

• Fundamentos de Filosofia

• Iniciação à Filosofia

• Filosofando: Introdução à Filosofia

• Diálogo: Primeiros Estudos em Filosofia¹⁰

During the analysis of the books, the first step was observing how each author/work presented the philosophy concerning its origin, meaning, and objectives. There was a proposal for a reflection around the concepts of philosophy and philosophizing in each book. The characterization of these terms takes place through the prism of logos, whose matrices of thought have Greek rationality as their backbone.

In the PNLD/2018 philosophy books, the vision of philosophy of European origin is reinforced. Furthermore, regarding the origin of philosophy, according to Aranha and Martins (2016):

Philosophical thought emerged in Greece, in the 6^th century BC, more specifically in the Greek colonies, with the first thinkers: Thales of Miletus, Pythagoras of Samos, and Heraclitus of Ephesus. However, we recognize the importance of other sages who lived in the East during the same period.

(p. 25)

In addition to the authors mentioned above, it is possible to identify, in other books, linearity in the presentation of Ancient Greece as a point of origin of philosophical thought. The fragment below illustrates this finding:

Philosophy and Its Greek Origins

Between the 9^th and 8^th centuries BC, the Greeks expanded beyond the Greek peninsula, establishing important colonies such as Ephesus, Miletus […]. It was in some of these cities that the first philosophers lived.

(Gallo, 2016, p. 14)

To the question about the origin of this thought, we repeatedly see answers that validate the following information: “ In the history of Western thought, philosophy was born in Greece between the 7^th and 6^th centuries BC, promoting the passage of mythical knowledge (allegorical) to rational thought (logos). Authors’ emphasis” (Cotrim & Fernandes, 2016, p. 205).

Despite systematically presenting Greece as the origin of philosophy, it is possible to identify a particular disdain for mythical thinking that does not fit the parameters determined by Greek rationality. This data can be seen in the statement below:

Is there an Eastern and an African philosophy, alongside the philosophy invented by the Greeks in Antiquity?

If we stick to the broad sense of philosophy, according to which philosophy is the activity of general reflection, every individual who has reflected on the essential questions for human beings has practiced philosophy. […] However, in its most specialized sense, philosophy originated among the ancient Greeks, and in its development, it never failed to refer back to its origin.

(Figueiredo, Bolzani Filho, Vieira Neto, Valentim, Repa, & Cuter, 2016, p. 10 - My emphasis)

All the analyzed books maintain this approach to philosophy's meaning and “invention.” In other words, there is a maintenance of this unique look, where the sui generis exclusive space of philosophical thinking, in its origin, is Greece. A curious fact is: in addition to establishing Greece as a point of origin, the conception of philosophical thought is restricted to the molds of Greek rationality. This means affirming that only this model of thought is recognized as philosophy.

In this sense, Chaui (2016) states:

[…] philosophy was constituted when some Greeks, dissatisfied with the explanations of reality given by tradition through myths, began to ask questions and seek answers to them. Admired and amazed by reality, they demonstrated that human beings and things of nature could be known by human reason and that reason itself is capable of knowing itself.

(p. 33)

The counterpoint to this homogeneous view of the origin of philosophy is found in the book Reflexões: Filosofia e Cotidiano by Vasconcelos (2016). The author encourages reflection/review around the principles that establish the Greek origin of philosophy in this work. In the paths of social mobilizations around the insertion of ethnic-racial agendas inside and outside academic spaces, the author highlights the importance of directing our eyes in other directions than just the Eurocentric perspective. He considers that:

Debates about the existence and character of a specifically African Philosophy begin to emerge in Sub-Saharan African countries only from the 20^th century onwards, with African decolonization. As these countries have a predominantly black population, the field of study of African Philosophy has developed concerning movements such as the Black Diaspora, Blackness, and Pan-Africanism, which concern the cultural achievements of Afro-descendants both inside and outside the African continent.

(Vasconcelos, 2016, p. 365)

The hegemony of the Eurocentric model regarding the determination of philosophy and its spaces, its epistemological and axiological structure is indisputable. As observed in the research, the PNLD/2018 philosophy books trace a demarcation of philosophy as a “product,” a way of thinking linked, almost exclusively, to the Greeks. In other words, there is a finding in textbooks that philosophy has its origin in Greece.

The textbook is an instrument with its meaning through the use given by the teachers who use it. Hence the need to broaden the debate around African epistemology and its interlocution with the formation of the identity of the Brazilian people make it even more essential to include Law 10639/03 in the axes that order philosophy classes at high school.

However, although we can perceive, in the last decades, the (re)construction of new narratives about Africa and its practical contributions in the formation of Western thought and culture, there is, therefore, an urgency to (re)signify it and its people (inside and outside the African continent) in its multiple faces, philosophy has not yet incorporated this theme into its theoretical-methodological guidelines.

According to Noguera (2014):

[…] philosophy — here understood as academic knowledge officially constituted and certified by Universities and as a school subject — would be much timider than other significant areas in the field of Humanities […] more and more we find reflections in this area about the legal provisions of affirmative action, in addition to social and economic indicators of racial inequalities. However, these themes rarely integrate the investigations of philosophy.

(p. 14)

In the educational scenario, the inclusion of what was requested by Law 10,639/03 and the very presentation of issues related to blacks and Africa outside the marginalizing/discriminatory look is still scarce. Muller (2018), when doing a Study of Art¹¹ about the textbook and ethnic-racial relations, presents one of the results found:

The authors [of the analyzed theses and dissertations] also observed that the books showed a more varied use of iconographic resources and an expansion of the textual content related to the theme after Law No. 10,639/2003, perhaps as required by the PNLD notices, but a relationship between text, image, and the caption is not always established.

(p. 88)

This means that it is necessary to broaden the debate around the History and Culture of Africa to discuss the formation of Brazilian identity beyond the myth of racial democracy. Continuing in this line of reasoning, Muller (2018) also highlights that, given the way of conceiving and dealing with racism in Brazil today:

The most critical challenge for those who fight racism in Brazil is precisely to convince public opinion of the systematic and non-casual character of these inequalities. Fighting racism does not mean fighting individuals, but opposing practices and ideologies.

(p. 88)

While Law 10,639/03 was incorporated into the LDB/1988, the approach to the ethnic-racial diversity theme and the elements linked to it is absent in almost all works of philosophy chosen by the PNLD in general. This finding was also made concerning the analysis of the PNLD/2015 philosophy textbooks.

It is worth noting that, even proposing a discussion about African philosophies in the book Reflexões: Filosofia e Cotidiano, the fact is that the issues involving a change in the way of conceiving the participation of Africa and its descendants, beyond the ambiance of art and the exotic, lack more depth.

It is for this reason that Noguera (2011, 2014, 2017), Dantas (2016, 2017), Ramose (2011), and other authors included in the discussion of decoloniality establish their criticism of Eurocentricity as a fundamental axis given to philosophy, proposing the promotion of a (re)configuration of philosophical thought through theoretical outlines based on Afrocentricity/perspectivity that (re)define philosophy and its epistemological matrices.

In this regard, Nascimento (2008) points out that:

Afrocentricity, […], consists of constructing a non-hegemonic theoretical perspective rooted in the African experience […]. The African positioning is at its center, intending to understand the world through references specific to African peoples. […] Afrocentricity does not assume a universalist stance, nor does it intend to impose its model through the subjugation of other peoples, as Eurocentrism did.

(p. 52)

Noguera (2011) highlights the malleability of meanings and approaches present in African culture and states that “the most important thing is that affections, becomings, and powers are black, i.e., the perspectives are in favor of difference in a radical sense. […] An image of thought that always operates through difference” (Noguera, 2011, p. 5 - My emphasis). This makes it essential to include ethnic-racial diversity and its prerogatives in teaching materials to support philosophy classes.

It is up to philosophy to deal with concepts (Deleuze & Guattari, 2010). Since, in the analysis of the works, I observed that the word Race almost did not appear, I decided to count the frequency of the words Black, Race, Africa, and Slave in the textbooks. In addition to the lack of the ethnic-racial diversity theme, the absence of use of words Black, Race, and Africa¹² was also observed. On the few occasions in which the words Black and Africa appear (with their variations), the presentation took place through the prism of the black's invisibility and culture.

Assuming that words gain importance because they are representations of concepts, a search was done concerning the words: Africa, Black, Race, and Slave. The intention was to obtain an approximate value of the frequency of these words in the analyzed LDs. Table 1 brings a compilation of the results obtained¹³:

Table 1
Frequency of terms Black/Race/Africa/Slave in the PNLD/2018 Philosophy books

Word/theme Book	Black/ Blackness	Race/ Racism/ Racial	Africa/ African/ Africanity/ Afrodescendant	Slave/ Slavery/ Enslavement
1- Filosofia e Filosofias: Existência e Sentidos	5	0	13	12
2- Filosofia: Experiência do Pensamento	3	3	5	14
3- Reflexões: Filosofia e cotidiano	43	6	114	19
4- Filosofia: Temas e Percursos	13	3	10	12
5- Fundamentos de Filosofia	11	2	9	59
6- Iniciação à Filosofia	28	8	20	19
7- Filosofando: Introdução à Filosofia	6	27	4	16
8- Diálogo: Primeiros Estudos em Filosofia	15	9	8	12

• Source: Research data, 2019.

In general, the data presented in Table 1 enabled us to infer how the authors (and the philosophy teachers who chose the books themselves) deal with the issue of ethnic-racial diversity and racism, identifying the insertion (or not) of the theoretical axes related to Law 10,639/03 in the selected books. Thus, there is a lack of discussion of ethnic-racial diversity in the works analyzed.

An intriguing point observed when counting the frequency of the selected words in the PNLD/2018 Philosophy books is that slave (and its variations) has a relatively high frequency. This aspect becomes more disturbing when we observe that the presentation of the term does not refer to the issue of the emancipation of black people in the face of the perversity of the still stigmatizing context currently experienced.

While the frequency of the words does not indicate per se that Law 10,639/03 is part of the pedagogical practice carried out in philosophy classes, it is interesting to observe that the absence of the words Africa/Race/Black seems to indicate that the textbook touches on the racism or, simply, makes the theme invisible in its contents. Therefore, it becomes even more evident how much it is necessary to have more than books to deal with black people’s invisibility.

Thus, in the direct correlation of the words: Black, Race, and Africa with the word slave (and its variations), it is evident that:

The racialization of everything about Africa is a universally insidious practice that history-assessed people no longer perceive as an element of violent dehumanization of African human beings. Studies on Africa have been based on these shifting foundations that undermine scientific rigor for several centuries.

(Wedderburn ¹⁴, 2005, p. 140)

The contact with the works showed that the book “Reflexões: Filosofia e cotidiano” stands out as the only work to dedicate an entire space to dealing with African philosophy. While it does not present a robust discussion about ethnic-racial diversity itself, the author brings a reflection on the demarcation of African epistemology and its vicissitudes.

By bringing aspects linked to the issue of European colonization itself and its implications for the ways of conceiving Africa and its peoples, Vasconcelos (2016), in the chapter entitled: “African and Afro-descendant philosophies,” proposes a re-reading of the theoretical demarcations that structure the way of thinking about the contributions of the African continent in the formation of rationality – philosophy – present in Brazil and the world.

The almost non-existence of the theme of ethnic-racial diversity in philosophy books demonstrates the gap present in editorial and academic productions of works capable of promoting the repositioning of views/questions/studies on black people and their presence in Brazilian society. Since it is intended to understand how philosophy and its teachability can foster actions and reflections on ethnic-racial diversity, it is essential to investigate how HS philosophy teachers organize their professional practice.

The respondents did not present the theme of the existence or not of an African philosophy¹⁵ and what its characteristics would be. On the contrary, the data obtained show that philosophy has a clear European demarcation. Thinking about a different approach to philosophy itself produces a change in the theoretical presentation about man, the world, and its relationships, to amplify the anti-racist struggle and resolve the invisibility of black people in our society.

Concerning HS philosophy teachers, the answers also showed the lack of including Law 10,639/03 in HS classes. This finding can be noted in the words of one of the research subjects who stated:

[Do textbooks bring in their chapters the theme of ethnic-racial diversity?]

[…] They don’t bring it! Especially philosophy books…they don’t have any… Probably there is only a book that […] talks about the history of Africa, Culture, this issue… Those who are sent to school, […] that I received, none has it. Cotrim's is like that; he doesn't reference Africa… […].

(Teacher V. – 2019).

Data analysis identified that the LDs adopted do not deal with topics related to Law 10,639/03 and that teachers have not yet effectively included it in their classes, despite stating that the Law is critical. The research showed that the issue of racial diversity is only discussed occasionally on May 13 and on November 20¹⁶.

Analysis of the research enabled us to observe that racial and ethnic diversity, from the perspective of Law 10,639/03, is still little worked on in HS philosophy classes. Either because Higher Education graduates did not have the theme in their general education or because of the theme’s non-inexistence in the contents of the textbooks used by BE philosophy teachers. The fact is that the European philosophical approach has been presented as the best (perhaps the only) form of valid philosophical thought.

5. Perceptions and analyses – by way of conclusion

Until lions invent their stories, hunters will always be the heroes of hunting narratives.

(African proverb)

The recognition of the political-social struggles that engendered the sanction of Law 10,639/03 introduced in the 21^st-century scenario the stimulus to promote educational-pedagogical actions capable of enhancing dialogues with and between the ethnic-racial differences present in Brazilian society. The political character of the theme embodies the movement to contest the silencing and invisibility given to ethnic-racial diversity and racism as a manifestation of intolerance and disrespect for the “non-white.”

The discussion around the world/knowledge approach presented by decolonialism and its prerogatives for the re-signification of the identity of Latin American peoples promotes openness and, consequently, brings the provocation to change our theoretical-social frameworks towards the criticality of the non-place where non-European/American countries are placed.

The philosophical tradition (present in the contents worked in the classroom) reproduces the view that outside Europe/the USA, there is no formation/construction of knowledge. In the Western epistemological view, generally, there is the (im)possibility of breaking with the frontiers of knowledge demarcated by the homogenizing ethnocentric gaze (re)produced/imposed/placed in the interlocution between knowledge, whose central point is the dominant colonialist view.

At the end of the research, it was possible to identify a significant gap in the PNLD/2018 philosophy books regarding Law 10,639/03 in the construction/presentation of its contents. The analysis of the PNLD/2018 philosophy books showed little or nothing about Africa and the black outside the Eurocentric epistemological matrix in seven of the eight books.

The book Reflexões: Filosofia e Cotidiano by Vasconcelos (2016), as found in the research, is the only one that brings an approach to the theme proposed by Law 10,639/03, presenting an overview of African thought and pointing out some of the African philosophers and their theories, leaving the hegemonic parameter that, when dealing with philosophical thought and its variabilities, only cites Eurocentric epistemology.

According to Law 10,639/03, the explicit inclusion of racial diversity is not required in the contents that make up the philosophy LDs. However, this Law must be present in them, as this would promote greater regularity of the theme in the teaching plan of HS philosophy teachers and systematization of the pedagogical practice of philosophy teachers at this level of education. If philosophy is the “mother” of all other school “subjects,” it should have been the first to walk the paths of anti-racist struggles.

Thus, since the textbook is an essential ally in the teaching processes, especially at basic education, having books with content that contemplate Law 10,639/03 can mean an effective contribution to bringing the themes to the center of the school and, consequently, foster the debate on the issue of ethnic-racial diversity, thus contributing to forming more autonomous and ethical subjects.

There is, therefore, still a long way to go for philosophy and its teaching at HS. If the didactic material – the textbook – is committed to presenting new perspectives, there is a greater possibility that new narratives about ethnic-racial diversity in Brazil will be produced and, consequently, encourage the construction of new identity demarcations concerning the ethnic-racial diversity.

• 2
  Standardization, preparation, textual review: Andreza Silva (Tikinet) - [e-mail]
• 3
  English version: Henrique Akira Ishii (Tikinet) - [e-mail]
• 4
  According to Law 10,639… (2003, n. p.), the text that changes the LDB 9394/96 has in its wording the following information: “Art. 26-A. In primary and secondary schools, both official and private, the teaching of Afro-Brazilian History and Culture is mandatory.”
• 5
  The group of 31 teachers of philosophy from the high school investigated had the following configuration: they declared themselves to be male (28) and female (6); 17 are between 41 and 60 years old, 12 up to 40 years old, and one over 60 years old; 25 have degrees in philosophy, 4 in history, 1 in Social Sciences, and 1 has a priestly formation; 16 declared themselves white, ten brown, four black, and one indigenous; 15 taught philosophy in private schools and 16 in public schools.
• 6
  For Nascimento (2016, p. 231-232), this expression by Ramón Grosfoguel (2007) is presented as “a social articulation of knowledge that considers non-Western knowledge as inferior to Western knowledge and establishing a criterion of relevance so that only part of what is produced in the West is assessed as worthy of belonging to the model lines of the Western canon of knowledge that must be disseminated.”
• 7
  This program is an initiative of the Federal Government, represented by the Secretariat of Basic Education (SEB) of the Ministry of Education (MEC), in cooperation with the Secretariat of Continuing Education, Literacy, Diversity, and Inclusion (SECADI) and with the National Development Fund of Education (FNDE). The objective of this joint effort was, […], to promote the acquisition of didactic works to be distributed in federal public schools and in those that integrate the state, municipal, and district education networks that joined the PNLD. (Ministério da Educação, 2017, p. 6)
• 8
  While the program related to the distribution of HS books is called the National Book Program for Secondary Education (PNLDEM), in the Didactic Books Guide itself – prepared by the MEC – the nomenclature used is only PNLD.
• 9
  It is worth noting that: […] from the parameterization and selection works of the Philosophy collections over the last three of the PNLD, a tradition and an institutional network of discussion and evaluation of the didactic material to be used in the high school was consolidated, thus inaugurating unprecedented attention to teaching and learning experiences in the area. Around this experience, different conceptions about the specificity of Philosophy and its teaching were intertwined, whose most remote roots we had the opportunity to reconstruct and traverse […]. (Ministério da Educação, 2017, p. 11).
• 10
  Full references are at the end of the article.
• 11
  According to the abstract of the article that presents the research results: “This study aimed to ‘systematize and analyze the academic production on education and ethnic-racial relations between 2003 and 2014 assessing theses and dissertations carried out in stricto sensu graduate programs in Education and Qualis A and B journals in the area of Education’ made available in Capes databases” (Muller, 2018, p. 78).
• 12
  This strategy contributed to a general perception of the works since the descriptors can promote discussions about racism and its consequences. The absence of the use of terms related to Africa, for example, seems to demonstrate how minor the issue of racial diversity is present in the consulted works.
• 13
  This compilation was elaborated from counting the frequency of words/terms in all eight books through digital search and, also, with the (dynamic) reading of the printed books page by page.
• 14
  Most of this author’s works bear only the surname Moore in the catalog and not Wedderburn, as shown in this article from which this fragment was taken.
• 15
  “For many years, social movements to combat racism have insisted on the need to re-signify the widespread images of African populations - and their descendants - as intellectually inferior, bringing elements that demystify the presence of the black population in our country.” (Filosofia africana…, 2015, n. p.). This seems to be the primary justification for thinking that LDs have in their contents explicit theoretical elements related to the study of “Afro-Brazilian and African History and Culture.”
• 16
  The complementary materials cited were: films/texts/documentaries/news from newspapers and magazines. No teacher claimed to use systematic material to discuss the topic.

Referências

• Andrade, É. (2017) A opacidade do iluminismo: o racismo na filosofia moderna. Kriterion: Revista de Filosofia, 58(137), 291-309. https://doi.org/10.1590/0100-512X2017n13704ea
  » https://doi.org/10.1590/0100-512X2017n13704ea
• Aranha, M. L. A. & Martins, M. H. (2016) Filosofando: Introdução à filosofia (6. ed.). Moderna.
• Chaui, M. (2016). Iniciação à filosofia (3. ed.) Ática. https://www.fnde.gov.br/index.php/centrais-de-conteudos/publicacoes/category/125-guias?download=10738:guia-pnld-2018-filosofia
  » https://www.fnde.gov.br/index.php/centrais-de-conteudos/publicacoes/category/125-guias?download=10738:guia-pnld-2018-filosofia
• Cotrim, G. & Fernandes, M. (2016). Fundamentos de filosofia (4. ed.) Saraiva Educação.
• Dantas, L. T. F. (2016). A invisibilidade da filosofia africana no discurso acadêmico brasileiro. Educação e Filosofia, 30(59), 405-424.
• Dantas, L. T. F. (2017) A tradução do conceito: apolítica do ensino de Filosofia Africana. In M.V. Alencar, S. R. G. Carneiro, A. Correia & A. E. Paschoal (Eds.) Filosofar e ensinar a filosofar (pp. 91-105). ANPOF.
• Deleuze, G. & Guattari, F. (2010). O que é a Filosofia? (3. ed.) Editora 34.
• Figueiredo, V., Bolzani Filho, R., Vieira Neto, P., Valentim, M., Repa, L., & Cuter, J. V. (2016) Filosofia: Temas e percursos Berlendis & Vertecchia.
• FILOSOFIA africana. 2015. https://filosofia-africana.weebly.com/#:~:text=H%C3%A1%20muitos%20anos%2C%20os%20movimentos,popula%C3%A7%C3%A3o%20negra%20em%20nosso%20pa%C3%ADs
  » https://filosofia-africana.weebly.com/#:~:text=H%C3%A1%20muitos%20anos%2C%20os%20movimentos,popula%C3%A7%C3%A3o%20negra%20em%20nosso%20pa%C3%ADs
• Foè, N. (2013). África em diálogo, África em autoquestionamento: universalismo ou provincialismo? “Acomodação de Atlanta” ou iniciativa histórica? Educar em Revista (47), 175-228. Editora UFPR.
• Freire, P. (2000) Pedagogia da indignação: Cartas pedagógicas e outros escritos Editora UNESP.
• Gallo, S. (2016) Filosofia: Experiência do pensamento (2. ed.) Scipione.
• Lei nº 10.639, de 9 de janeiro de 2003 (2003). Altera a Lei no 9.394, de 20 de dezembro de 1996, que estabelece as diretrizes e bases da educação nacional, para incluir no currículo oficial da Rede de Ensino a obrigatoriedade da temática “História e Cultura Afro-Brasileira”, e dá outras providências. Brasília, DF: Presidência da República. http://www.planalto.gov.br/ccivil_03/LEIS/2003/L10.639.htm
  » http://www.planalto.gov.br/ccivil_03/LEIS/2003/L10.639.htm
• Levinás, E. (1997) Entre nós: Ensaios sobre a alteridade Vozes.
• Lopes, N. (2002) Racismo explicado aos meus filhos Nova Fronteira.
• Melani, R. (2016) Diálogo: Primeiros estudos em filosofia (2. Ed.) Moderna.
• Ministério da Educação. (2017). PNLD 2018: Filosofia Secretária de Educação Básica. https://www.fnde.gov.br/index.php/centrais-de-conteudos/publicacoes/category/125-guias?download=10738:guia-pnld-2018-filosofia
  » https://www.fnde.gov.br/index.php/centrais-de-conteudos/publicacoes/category/125-guias?download=10738:guia-pnld-2018-filosofia
• Moreira, A. M. F. (2016). O processo educativo da comunidade quilombola de carrapatos da tabatinga: A afirmação identitária e a formação de sujeitos engajados mediante transmissão oral de uma memória compartilhada [Dissertação de Mestrado, Universidade do Estado de Minas] PPGE-UEMG.
• Muller, T. M. P. (2018). Livro didático, Educação e Relações Étnico-raciais: O estado da arte. Educar em Revista, 24(69), 77-95. http://doi.org/10.1590/0104-4060.57232
  » https://doi.org/10.1590/0104-4060.57232
• Munanga, K. (2005). Superando o Racismo na escola (2. ed. Revisada). Unesco.
• Nascimento, E. L. (Org.). (2008). A matriz africana no mundo Selo Negro.
• Nascimento, W. F. (2016). Aproximações brasileiras às filosofias africanas: Caminhos desde uma ontologia Ubuntu. Prometeus, 9(21), 231-245. https://doi.org/10.52052/issn.2176-5960.pro.v9i21.5698
  » https://doi.org/10.52052/issn.2176-5960.pro.v9i21.5698
• Noguera, R. (2011). Denegrindo a filosofia: O pensamento como coreografia de conceitos afroperspectivista. Griot: Revista de Filosofia, 2(4), 1-19. http://doi.org/10.31977/grirfi.v4i2.500
  » https://doi.org/10.31977/grirfi.v4i2.500
• Noguera, R. (2014). O ensino de Filosofia e a lei 10.639 Pallas.
• Noguera, R. (2017) Pinóquio e Kiriku: Infância(s) e educação na filosofia de Kant e Ramose. In M. V. Alencar, S. R. G. Carneiro, A. Correia & A. E. Paschoal (Eds.). Filosofar e ensinar a filosofar (pp. 106-124). ANPOF.
• Oliveira, J. M., & Nascimento, S. L. (2016). A construção do legado: a negação de uma epistemologia filosófica africana. Revista da ABPN, 19(8), 177-194.
• Ramose, M. B. (2011, outubro). Sobre a legitimidade e o Estudo da Filosofia Africana (Trad. D. E. N. Solis, R. M. Lopes, & R. R. Cassiano). Ensaios filosóficos, 4, 6-23.
• Ribeiro, R. I. (1996). Alma Africana no Brasil: Os iorubas Oduduwa.
• Sartre, J. (1968). Reflexões sobre o racismo (5. ed.). Difusão Europeia do Livro.
• Savian Filho, J. (2016). Filosofia e filosofias: Existência e sentidos Autêntica.
• Vasconcelos, J. A. (2016) Reflexões: Filosofia e cotidiano SM.
• Wedderburn, C. M. (2005). Novas bases para o ensino da história da África no Brasil. In Educação anti-racista: Caminhos abertos pela Lei Federal nº 10.639/03 (pp. 133-166). Ministério da Educação.

Edited by

1

Responsible Editor: Silvio Donizetti de Oliveira Gallo. https://orcid.org/0000-0003-2221-516

Publication Dates

• Publication in this collection
  28 Mar 2022
• Date of issue
  2022

History

• Received
  06 Nov 2019
• Reviewed
  29 May 2020
• Accepted
  11 June 2020