Avaliação do livro didático de Biologia na perspectiva histórico-crítica

Abstract

The textbook (TB) has been one of the most used teaching resources in Brazilian education. It is a resource that, most of the time, defines the sequence in the presentation of the contents and the way to assess them. It still prevails, as a source of consultation and of study for students of public schools, that still lack libraries. How are these textbooks analyzed and selected by teachers or by Brazilian public educational institutions? Are there any particularities in this process, regarding the field of Natural Sciences and/or Biology? These initial inquiries led to a preliminary literature review that indicated a gap in terms of an approach that was theoretically contextualized on the subject. This was the basis for the formulation of the guiding question of the present research, which refers to the evaluation process of the Biology textbook with regard to the contribution(s) of Historical-Critical Pedagogy to the process of evaluation of textbooks by the teacher. We established as a general objective: to understand the contributions of Historical-Critical Pedagogy to the evaluation of the Biology textbook by the teacher. To analyze the Brazilian academic production on the textbook in Biology, a second literature review was carried out, which identified two major approaches to the topic: the instrumental perspective and the critical perspective. Based on these studies, a Matrix was proposed as a product for the analysis and selection of the Biology textbook in the light of Historical-Critical Pedagogy. The aforementioned Matrix was elaborated, validated and applied with three Biology teachers of Regular High School from the public school system in the state of Goiás. The three professors, subjects of the research, responded to an initial interview, applied the Matrix, made their analysis and were interviewed after this process. The Analytical Matrix dealt with aspects that mobilized the reflection of the research subjects about the pedagogical-political foundations that involve the assessment of textbooks (TB). The foundations of the HCP provoked the need for the subject teachers to consider the elements of a pedagogical-didactic nature and not only of a formal or technical nature. The fact that the Matrix is based on a radical pedagogical construct, a pedagogical theory also made it possible to understand studies that deepen the understanding of HCP, so that the assessment of textbooks goes beyond the practical and immediate dimension.