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 material for teacher study that has as its purpose, and the promotion of valorization and respect for epistemological diversity, within the classroom. Our study uses as theoretical foundations: conceptual elements of the humanistic approach to the teaching of astronomy, in particular the respect to epistemological diversity, and the appreciation of the experience of heaven; national and international movements for the enhancement of autochthonous, as systematized by the Universal Declaration on Cultural Diversity, proclaimed by UNESCO in 2002 and Law 11645/2008; studies of indigenous ethnology, specifically the anthropological theory entitled Amerindian Perspectivism, rich source of the exercise of knowledge of new epistemological matrices; ethnographic accounts of Guarani indigenous knowledge of the sky and, more punctually, our own field research on the knowledge of the Mendonça sky of the RN. The study material is structured in three modules, The Skies and the Cultures, in which we reflect on the importance of including indigenous knowledge in astronomy education; Cultures and looks, which seeks an exercise in looking at other cultures identifying diverse epistemologies of ours, through the study of perspectivism, anthropological theory about the worldview of various Amerindian peoples; and Guarani Sky and Culture, which seeks to foster knowledge, experience and exploration of strategies and materials on Guarani traditional knowledge, especially the earth-sky relationship established by these peoples with the Moon and the constellations / asterisms, to be taken to the Basic Education classrooms.