EPISTEMOLOGICAL DIVERSITY IN ASTRONOMY TEACHING: A COURSE FOR TEACHERS INVOLVING GUARANI AND MENDONÇA KNOWLEDGE ABOUT THE SKY
Astronomy Education; Epistemological diversity; Cultural Astronomy; Indigenous knowledge about the sky; Amerindian Perspectivism.
We present a proposal for a teacher training course based on, and having as a goal, the promotion of valorization and of respect for epistemological diversity within the classroom. Our study uses as theoretical foundations: conceptual elements of the humanistic approach to Astronomy Teaching, in particular the respect to the epistemological diversity, and the valuation of the experience of the sky; the national and international movements for the valorization of autochthonies, as systematized by the Universal Declaration on Cultural Diversity, proclaimed by UNESCO in 2002 and 11645/2008 Law; studies of indigenous ethnology, specifically the anthropological theory entitled Amerindian Perspectivism, a rich source for the exercise of knowing new epistemological matrices; ethnographic accounts of Guarani indigenous knowledge about the sky and our own field research on Mendonça group in RN state’s knowledge about the sky. The course is structured in three modules - to be developed in six meetings, namely, The skies and the cultures, in which we reflect on the importance of the inclusion of indigenous knowledge in Astronomy Education; Cultures and perceptions, which seeks an exercise of looking at other cultures by identifying epistemologies different from ours, through the study of perspectivism, anthropological theory about the worldview of several Amerindian peoples; Mendonca and Guarani Mbyá Skies and Cultures, in which it fosters knowledge, experience and exploration of strategies and materials on traditional Guarani and Mendonça knowledge, specially the earth-sky relationship established by these people with the Moon and the constellations/asterisms, for being taken to the Basic Education classrooms. We developed reading materials for the teacher for all modules of the course, which will be delivered and used during the meetings. They are: The skies and cultures, Indigenous people and cultural diversity in teaching, Amerindian perspectivism: the exercise of understanding others’ epistemologies, Sky and land relations by the indigenous Guarani, Sky and land relations among the Mendonça group in RN state. The proposal, with a workload of 30 hours, will be applied in the second half of 2019, focusing on teachers of the Sciences of Nature and other people interested in teaching Astronomy in a perspective of valuing the diversity of knowledge of the cultures about the sky. It will be offered 25 vacancies. In order to evaluate the Course we will use audio recording, the teacher's field diary, the registration form, an evaluation form and group conversation with the participants at the end of the Course. The data will be analyzed and the results will be used in order to improve the proposal for the final version to be presented at the conclusion of our master's work with the PPGECNM.