Analisando obras de literatura infantil da educação antirracista no contexto das escolas de Manaus

Abstract

This work, linked to the Scientific Initiation project "My Hair, My Color, My Identities: Decoloniality, Antiracist Education and Children's Literature in the context of antiracist pedagogical practices of Early Childhood Education teachers in Manaus - AM", analyzed children's literature works used in municipal schools in Manaus. The general objective was to understand their potential in promoting antiracist education in Early Childhood Education. The specific objectives were to identify and analyze the representations of Black identity and Afro-Brazilian culture in the images and narratives of the selected children's books, as well as to evaluate how these works contribute to building positive identities and confronting racial stereotypes in the school context. The research, qualitative in nature, adopted as its central procedure the image analysis proposed by Schwengber (2012), which involved meticulous denotative description, connotative and interpretative analysis, examination of composition and framing, analysis of the image-text relationship, and a critical synthesis contextualized within antiracist education. Four works were analyzed: Menina Bonita do Laço de Fita (Pretty Girl with the Ribbon Bow), A Cor de Coraline (Coraline's Color), Abayomi, and Não Derrame o Leite! (Don't Spill the Milk!). The results revealed that the works present distinct and complementary approaches in representing Black identity, ranging from the exaltation of physical beauty—which can generate new aesthetic pressures—to a post-identitarian perspective that treats skin color as a subjective and fluid experience, including the reclamation of the memory of slavery as cultural resistance and positive representations of African daily life. It was concluded that antiracist children's literature must balance affirmative representation with the deconstruction of essentialized identities, promoting both sociopolitical recognition and the de-essentialization of differences. This research is a direct extension of the Scientific Initiation project, deepening the investigation into decoloniality and antiracist education through children's literature in the Manaus context, and its results contribute to mapping antiracist pedagogical practices in local early childhood education, the core objective of the original project.