A construção de representações sobre corpo na sociedade e o papel da escola na desconstrução dos padrões impostos

Abstract

Along the history of the Science, the knowledge of the human body is related with the separation and analysis of anatomical breakdowns and physiologic systems, implicating in the currently existent strong curricular tradition of fragmentation for its study and in its treatment as purely biological. In schools, usually classes are supplied starting from the text book that brings the representation of a body isolated from its social context, not discussing the relationships of power in which the one is submitted. Thinking about this, with the objective to create strategies to investigate and to discuss the representations on body produced by different practical social, mainly based on the contributions from the Cultural Studies (particularly in the productions linked to the post-structuralistic perspective), we elaborated pedagogic workshops to map relative representations of students to the theme and at the same time to make possible moments of dialogue about the prejudices and the speeches directed to body. The workshops are described to proceed: 1. Body to sell products and products to sell a body: discussion on the media while cultural pedagogy implicated in the promotion of certain behaviors, consumptions and values; 2. The body as screen... returning to the origins or building new bodies: discussion about the construction of alternative bodies (with tattoos, piercings, etc.) and their acceptances in different cultures and historical times; 3. The ictatorship of a perfect body: discussion on the role of culture and language in the constitution of the ideal of perfect body in vogue in the society. The idea of these workshops appeared through experiences in classroom and through the faith in the dialogic work developed by the research group INTERNEXUS. They were implemented firstly in a group of trainee academics of the course of Biological Sciences (to be adjusted) and later in the schools (four implementations in Santa Maria-RS and twelve implementations in Nova Palma- RS, from the 5th to 8th year classes). The difficulties found were the school structure (the space limiting the sounds of the discussions, the reduced time for the activities), the logic of the right and of the wrong on the part of the students, the disregard of some teachers with contents that are not present in the curriculum. Through the students' speeches we evidenced social representations linked to the family, religious, school or of the media speeches in relation to a disciplined and civilized standard body, to a universal body in the european molds, to an ideal beautiful body and still class representations and of the school space. Also, starting from their evaluations we could verify that the work was valid for allowing that they had expressed their opinions in the discussion of subjects that were part of their lives and in the sense that the own workshops can also have sense for the construction of other representations on body. This study is inserted in the Research Line: Curriculum, Teaching and School Practices of the Post Graduation Program in Education of UFSM.