Discourses related to pre-historical men and women: possible implications for biology teaching

Abstract

This study aims to evidence the discourses produced by students in the biological sciences teaching undergraduate course regarding men and women in pre-historical societies. This is a qualitative feminist study, based on the interpretation of images and narratives produced by 29 university students. The theoretical principles of feminist epistemologies in their critical and constructive dimensions, difference biology discussions and discourse analysis were adopted to analyze the data, seeking to produce something novel. Regarding the discourses analyzed, someproduced reinforced scientific ideas from the XVIII century that marked the difference, in which men and women occupy well-defined and distinct spaces. Others were closer to the feminist theories anddepicted men and women performing similar actions and occupying the same spaces in a collaborative process, while some did not define men and women, only the possible activities developed by people. Contradictory discourses that defended equality, but marked differences were also found. Our results led us to propose such a biology teaching that enables (re)constructions and is open to doubts that lead people to rethink (im)posed truths that support discourses of power, domination and dichotomies, and also creates the possibility of reflecting on the female and male pluralities.

Keywords

• discursos da evolução humana
• questões de gênero no ensino de ciências e biologia
• formação docente e gênero