Educação para a paz: representações sociais de jovens do ensino médio público sobre a tolelerância/intolerância

Abstract

This research aimed to analyze the social representations of young people from public high school on Tolerance / Intolerance, based on the articulation of studies in social representations –founded by Serge Moscovici in 1961– along with the reflections established in the Education for Peace field. Methodologically influenced by the Dimensional Analysis of Social Representations, the research was organized in two complementary stages. In the first stage, aiming to establish an exploratory mapping regarding the Information, Attitudes, and the structure of the Representational Field of the possible social representation that Young People of Public High School have about Tolerance and Intolerance, we applied a questionnaire guided mainly by the Free Word Association Technique (TALP) with 110 young people. Subsequently, with the aim of facilitating the analysis of the data produced, they were processed using the free Interface de R pour les Analyses Multidimensionnelles de Textes et de Questionnaires –IRaMuTeQ (Version 2014). The exploratory results indicated that the antinomy Tolerance / Intolerance has its social representation inscribed by symbolic elements: linked to historical ballast; from the I-Other-Context relationship; arising from the order of the sensitive – affections/emotions/feelings; personification of the Subject as 'Being tolerant or intolerant'; associated with transversal symbolic axes linked to freedom of speech and thought, fundamental rights and social minorities. These three axes were set as the analytical axes of research. In the second stage, the attitudinal dimension was analyzed in depth.Therefore, a Reference Matrix and a research instrument composed of projective scenarios were developed and validated; then, the same was applied to six youngsters from public high schools in a focus group. To assist in data analysis, an adaptation of the content analysis advocated by Maria Laura Franco was used. The results of this second stage indicated that the Youth: evaluate themselves as tolerant and, in certain circumstances, adopt intolerant postures; declared that Brazil is currently a more intolerant than tolerant country; manifested general attitudes towards conflicts related to Tolerance/Intolerance portrayed in projective scenarios - they took an active/coping stance in all projective scenarios, highlighted the importance of establishing a dialogue to try to resolve conflicts, indicated that social actions in opposition to intolerance, they are closely related to the sphere of the sensitive, they mentioned the value of social institutions as mediation agencies in conflict situations. Through these stages of the study, we conclude that such social representations are possibly objectified: in the historical base; in the circumstantial relationship between I-Other-Context; in personification; in the social actions of “stand”/“not stand”, “bear”/“not bear”, “submission”/“nonsubmission”; in transversal elements – freedom of thought and expression, fundamental rights; social minorities. Concerning the possible anchorages would be: in the dyad of the presence or absence of dialogue; in the belief in the enlightenment/ignorance dyad; in moral and normative elements; on the legitimacy of institutions as mediation agencies for social conflicts; rooted in elements of the sphere of the sensible. Given these results, we defend the urgency of educational institutions to set in motion experiences that allow them to develop critical consciences capable of understanding other aspects of tolerance/intolerance, given the current historical contingencies