Female protagonism and emotional relationships experienced during recess in Elementary School: discussing teachers’ discourses

Abstract

The article aims at discussing issues of gender and sexuality present in discourses of Elementary School teachers about the personal relationships experienced by girls from a public school in a ghetto with classmates of more advanced classes during recess. The survey was conducted through focus group methodology with the participation of twelve teachers. The teachers, through their discourses (produced by a network of institutions and cultural artifacts), constitute truth regimes that operate in the governmentality of students’ behavior. From the analyses, it is possible to highlight that the teachers’ discourses aim at regulating the students’ modes of being, acting and living together. To do so, these discourses show a vocabulary that distinguishes the expected behavior of girls and boys, hoping that the former experience their femininity in a heteronormative standard. Therefore, it is concluded that the heteronormative discourses in the school context should be discussed, so that schools can contribute to overcoming inequalities, introducing in the curriculum and in everyday practice the questioning of all and any forms of gender discrimination.