DISCUSSING GENDER AND HOMOSSEXUALITY WITH STUDENTS OF v PEDAGOGY COURSE

Abstract

The article originated during the practice of three teachers in the Pedagogy course who realized the doubts and difficulties of students to deal with issues involving sexuality in the context of the school environment. So, from the video presentation “Boneca na mochila” (Doll in a Backpack) and subsequent discussions, a hypothetical situation was presented for students in the 6th semester of Pedagogy of a private institution in the State of São Paulo: the students were asked to write narratives focusing on one alleged case of homosexuality. Thus, the work inevitably rose to issues concerning gender, conceiving it as a social and cultural construction. The aim of this work is to identify the gender conceptions of future educators and the referral performed when the situation occurs, enabling the discussion of teacher education. This is a survey of the methodological approach of qualitative nature, and the data was analysed by the Thematic Content Analysis mode. After analysing the results, we can observe that to discuss homosexuality in the school context is not something simple, but loaded with standard-setters and prejudiced social values. Although the work is a sample, there are few prospective teachers who are willing to offer guidance and clarification on homosexuality, without showing conceptions of homophobia. It is expected that the results of this study will add to the proposals for sex education in teacher training, because, to change entrenched values, we need historical, scientific and cultural concepts.