Representation Matters: a discussion with high school students

Abstract

The underrepresentation of black and indigenous women in institutional politics is a historical problem in Brazilian society. It doesn't take much effort to realize that these spaces are made up, for the most part, of men, white, older and upper middle class. That said, when discussing this subject in the classroom, with high school students from a public school in the state of Bahia, there was an identification of them with the theme, also caused by the political scenario of the 2020 district elections. This interest, in turn, led to research being carried out in partnership with students on the topic in question. Therefore, the objective of this work is to analyze the representation of black women in Brazilian institutional policy with high school students. In total, six third-year high school students carried out the research. The selection took place on a voluntary basis and the meetings took place at the end of 2021 and beginning of 2022. To achieve the objectives, the research path developed by the students was analyzed based on the data collected and their field notebook. In this way, the theoretical methodological procedures of this research are configured as participatory research. In general, it can be said that the research developed with the students resulted in collective learning in the construction of knowledge on the themes of racism, discrimination, and prejudice present in the discussion about the representation of black women in institutional policy, allowing students to question their own unequal and adverse reality.