Representações sociais de crianças e estereótipos culturais: análise nos contos de fadas do imaginário à realidade na Amazônia Amapaense

Abstract

This dissertation investigates the social representations of children and pedagogical practices related to the teaching of children's literature, focusing on the fairy tale genre. It analyzes the symbolism of these narratives, the European and bourgeois ideologies they convey, and their defining features—social, religious, and other—as well as cultural stereotypes. This aligns with the research focus on Education, Cultures, and Diversity and seeks to answer the question: What are children's social representations of fairy tales present in school pedagogical practices, in relation to cultural stereotypes, in the Amazon region of Amapá? To answer the guiding question, the general objective was to analyze children's social representations of fairy tales in school pedagogical practices in the Amazon region of Amapá. To this end, the specific objectives discuss the epistemology of fairy tales in social representation as an influence on children's culture; To investigate the social representations present in fairy tales, in school pedagogical practices, with children in relation to cultural stereotypes in the Amazon region of Amapá, and to identify material evidence that expresses the thinking of children in the Amazon region of Amapá regarding cultural stereotypes present in fairy tales. The methodology adopted a qualitative approach, relying on the hermeneutic method to enable the interpretation of the social phenomena studied. The research strategy used a case study, which enabled direct contact with the research subject—5th-grade children (initial years) at the Josafá Aires da Costa Municipal School. For data collection, the case study employed qualitative techniques, primarily semi-structured interviews and discussion circles, enabling detailed recording of participants' interactions and perceptions. Data interpretation followed Bardin's (2011) content analysis and Moscovici's (2007) concepts of anchoring and objectification. The theoretical framework was based on classical and contemporary authors, including Moscovici (2012;2007;2000;1984;1981;1978), Freire (2003;2001;2000;1982;1976), Piaget (1969;1964), Cohn (2005), Coelho (2012), and Maria Tatar (2004), whose contributions supported the analytical categories and concepts mobilized in the research. The results indicated that Amazonian children's social representations of fairy tales, in school pedagogical practices, reflect a dynamic between tradition and innovation, reproduction and creation, cultural mastery and symbolic resistance. Stereotypes persist, but coexist with new readings that integrate the local imagination and reveal children's capacity to reinterpret the world based on their own cultural references. Thus, the analyzed data allow us to affirm that the social representations of Amapá children regarding fairy tales are configured in a dual dimension: the symbolic reproduction of Eurocentric stereotypes and the cultural redefinition based on the Amazonian context. Thus, the importance of a critical pedagogy that values diversity, encourages reflective thinking, and recognizes children as protagonists of their own culture is reaffirmed. This understanding reinforces that the study of childhood, especially in multicultural contexts like the Amazon, must remain open to listening, diversity, and the constant reconstruction of the meanings children themselves attribute to the world around them.