Homofobia, Silêncio e Naturalização: por uma narrativa da diversidade

Abstract

Schoolbooks are pedagogical tools for the promotion of the principles set by Brazilian National Curriculum Parameters (PCNs), and sexuality is a crosscutting theme to be dealt with in school curricula. This research analyzed the quality of the discourse of a sample of schoolbooks used in Brazilian public schools, distributed by the Brazilian National Program of Schoolbooks (PNLD) and National Program of Schoolbooks for High School (PNLEM), as well as dictionaries distributed by PNLD and the National Program of School Libraries (PNBE). It was found that, while dictionaries convey clearly homophobic affirmations, schoolbooks are silent about sexual diversity and naturalize heterosexuality and gender binarism. Even though there are not homophobic assertions in the books, the affirmation of sexual diversity as a social value remains absent in the pedagogical material. There are two challenges in recognizing that homophobia should be fought against by formal education: the fi rst is to break the silence about sexual diversity in the books; the second is to fi nd rhetoric mechanisms to present it in the matrix of the promotion of equality and diversity.