Relações de gênero no contexto escolar: Matemática não é para mulheres?

Abstract

The differences attributed to the feminine and the masculine are a latent social event. These differences do not isolate itself from a broader social formation. It is possible to find in numerous writings and speeches, scientific or not, the diferences established on the sexes. In history, female and male roles extrapolate the simple genetic and reproductive relation and substantial differences were demarcated in a relation of power. Following this reasoning, this research approaches the gender relations in the learning of Mathematics and the existence of the discourse, directed to the depreciation of the feminine before the discipline, from teachers and/or from students in the school context. Given the invisibility of female presence in the studies of mathematics and the discourse that mathematics is not for women, we sought to analyze, through a survey, the historical context about the participation and contribution of women in the history of mathematics, women in the academic educational context and the feminist contribution in the acquisition of feminine rights, taking as reference researchers of the area. There was also a field survey conducted through a questionnaire that sought to identify the relationship between girls and math and if boys and girls think that there are differences in the performance of both in this discipline, in addition to which discourse girls have been listening regarding women and math. Thus, the objective of this research is to understand the relations between the common sense of the student in relation to the learning related to the gender and the discourse used in the school environment, to investigate the social and historical construction of gender discourses related to the area of mathematics and to identify speeches of gender, perceived by the students in the school context, that assign difficulties or facilitate with respect to mathematics for men and women. The field research was done at the Federal Institute of Goiás, in Valparaíso - GO campus, where, for a week, questionnaires were answered by boys and girls from classes of integrated technical high school of Mechanics and Automation courses. As results, it was noticed that a portion of the male students claims to perceive differences in the relations of the female gender with mathematics. Among the feminine gender it is unanimous that there is no difference between gender and the study of the discipline. However, even though a significant portion of girls and boys claim not to believe that there is any difference, girls still experience a large occurrence of disparaging discourses of their status as an exact science course student.