Geoscience contents in Elementary School I Science and Geography Textbooks: proposal of approach from the local context for the city of Natal / RN
Basic Education, Common National Curriculum Base, content quantification, landscape, dunes
Even though geology is not a compulsory subject in the Brazilian Basic Education curriculum, the contents of geosciences are distributed in existing disciplines, especially in Science and Geography. The researches that aim at studying the contents of geosciences in Brazilian Basic Education cover mainly Elementary School II and High School. However, studies indicate that even in Elementary School I these contents are present, although often not recognized as geoscientific, which favors the use of superficial information and detached from students' daily life. Published in 2017, the Common National Curriculum Base (BNCC) is the most recent Brazilian Basic Education policy document. Its function is to guide the essential learning that all students should develop throughout the stages and modalities of Basic Education. Both the BNCC and its predecessor legal documents stipulate that the contents must be complemented, on a local and regional scale, in order to contemplate the diversity and particularities of the student's universe. The object of study of this research were the textbooks of the disciplines of Science and Geography adopted in the Elementary School I by the municipal schools of Natal City, for the 2019-2022 quadrennium. The objective is to identify, quantify and elucidate the contents of geosciences present in this teaching cycle and propose a theme from which it is possible to study geosciences in an integrated manner, considering the local context. To quantify these contents, a counting methodology is described using ¼ page increments. The quantification of the contents was made considering the Thematic Units proposed by the National Common Curricular Base, as well as the spaces for the Student Book and the Teaching Guidelines in the Teacher's Manual. The results show that the contents of geosciences are present mainly in the science discipline; 18.13% of the contents of the science textbook were identified as contents of geosciences, being the the most representative studies related to the universe. The discipline of geography presented a total of 14.75%, mainly covering the study of the natural landscape. The joint analysis of the disciplines of science and geography shows that 16.44% of the contents addressed in them are from geosciences. In general, it is from the 3rd year onwards that the contents of geosciences are most expressive; in sciences they focus mainly on the 3rd grade book and, in geography, in the 4th grade book. The effort to propose a central theme for the study of geosciences from the local context of the city of Natal / RN culminated in the suggestion of the landscape, one of the emerging categories of the geography discipline, as possible articulation with other geoscientific contents. In the context of the coastal city of Natal, the study of the dune landscape is indicated as an integrative possibility of geoscience contents.