EDUCATION AND PANDEMY

LITERATURE AND THE MUNICIPAL EDUCATION SYSTEM’S PEDAGOGICAL TEXTBOOK

Abstract

It discusses, based in studies under a historical materialist perspective, the presence and absence of literature in the education offered to final grades of elementary school students, in the Serra’s (ES) municipal educational system, during the atypical school year 2020. Initially, it claims the importance of teaching literature in human formation; the social responsibility in defining the curriculum; and the specificity of the school and teaching work. Next, it analyzes the presence and absence of the literary text in the pedagogical textbooks, recently prepared by education professionals from that system and sent to students enrolled in schools, in a moment of distance from the school locus, both by students and teachers, due to the social isolation context imposed by the Covid-19 pandemic, which started in March 2020. Finally, it emphasizes the relevance of literature teaching, in school education, albeit – or mainly – in an adverse context. In the final remarks, it synthesizes contradictions that constitute the educational process and, particularly, the literature teaching, at this historical moment.