Educação química e o ensino na unidade prisional: um relato de experiência

Abstract

This article aims to understand how Chemistry teaching takes place in a prison unit, based on the narrative of a coordinating teacher linked to the State Center for Youth and Adult Education of Dourados CEEJA/MS, who works at the State Penitentiary of Dourados PED. The research was developed through a qualitative approach, using a semi-structured interview as the data production instrument, conducted with the research collaborator, identified by the pseudonym Professor Esperança. The study is based on the understanding that education is a social and human right, also guaranteed to individuals deprived of liberty, and that Chemistry teaching can contribute to the critical, scientific, and social formation of these students. The results indicate that teaching in the prison unit occurs through Youth and Adult Education, with classes organized from a specific course project, methodologies based on thematic axes, dialogical classes, and some experimental practices adapted to safety regulations. The interview revealed challenges such as the lack of specific training to work in this context, the social invisibility of people deprived of liberty, difficulties with abstraction in Chemistry teaching, students’ low self-esteem, and the need for humanized pedagogical practices. It is concluded that Chemistry teaching in the prison unit, when developed in a contextualized, problematizing, and dialogical way, can value students’ knowledge, life stories, and possibilities for reconstruction, contributing to a more inclusive, critical, and transformative education.