O afastamento das meninas da matemática: um estudo do papel de professoras e professores de matemática do ensino médio no reforço de estereótipos de gênero

Abstract

The main objective of the research was to understand how gender-related beliefs of high school mathematics teachers might contribute to the objectification of the reproduction of gender inequalities in mathematics. The research question was: What beliefs related to gender issues are reproduced by high school Mathematics teachers? To answer it, we relied on theoretical assumptions from gender studies and Pierre Bourdieu's reflexive sociology. In terms of methodology, the research is situated within the qualitative paradigm. We conducted semi-structured interviews with four high school mathematics teachers from two public state schools located in the municipality of Ituverava, state of São Paulo, which were transcribed and later scrutinized by Content Analysis through pairing. Three categories of analysis were constructed, namely: 1) The sexual division of labor: feminization of teaching and the financial issue; 2) Mathematics didactic material: where are the women?; 3) Symbolic violence in discourse: a dichotomous view of femininity and masculinity in school. As a result, we identified several excerpts in which the interviewees evidenced in their opinions the beliefs about what would be the expected behaviors of girls and boys, where girls are expected to be more docile and organized in various ways, while boys' disorganization and rebellious behavior are accepted. The beliefs also encompassed which positions each gender occupies in society and that these positions are natural, such as women's dominance in the teaching career and their absence in the field of mathematics. We found that these beliefs are not based on physical or natural evidence but on cultural arbitraries, as they do not take into account various social and cultural factors that directly interfere in these behaviors, choices, preferences, and how individuals see themselves and others in their social groups. The reproduction of these beliefs can produce doxas that contribute to a process of symbolic violence that perpetuates gender inequalities in the school environment and can contribute to the naturalization of girls' withdrawal from mathematics.