Sociolingüística, política educacional e a escola pública estadual de Fortaleza/CE: correlações teórico-metodológicas e político-pedagógicas

Abstract

The present study comes from a reflexive process about how the linguistic variation in Portuguese Language teaching is treated in the 8th grade of public schools in Fortaleza. Considering that the National Curriculum Standards (PCN) deal with the linguistic variation, this study aims to show a relationship between the directions they bring about this subject and the Basic Curricular Principles (RCB). The research also tries to design a correlation between information brought in the official documents and the principles that schools express in their political pedagogical project (PPP) as well as the practices they perform. The study was developed in six public schools in Fortaleza. In each school, the methodological procedures involved the following steps: the analysis of the Integrated School Management document – GIDE, which contains the PPP; the interview with the pedagogical principal and the 8th grade Portuguese teacher; and the application of an assessment activity to this teacher’s students. The aim was to identify the way how these school agents realize the linguistic variation and what kind of behavior they have facing this phenomenon. The theoretical way of the study was based in William Labov’s Variation Theory. From previous linguistic studies that show how relevant is the examination of variation native language teaching, political linguistic was considered as a political stem of Sociolinguistics. The study verified how native language teaching, which is one of the axes of such policy, is performed, intersectorially, through educational policy. Finally, it was necessary to investigate the school, where teaching really occurs. According to the collected data, in GIDE, schools move superficially towards linguistic variation, which shows little correlation with information in official documents. Pedagogic principals revealed no reflexion on the topic and showed prejudice with student’s speech. Portuguese teachers did not show deeper awareness on the topic either. They demonstrated to understand variation in polarized terms: formality x informality, and their concept of speaking was still based on correct/wrong speech, which strengthens linguistic prejudice with varieties that are not in accordance with the socially established standard. Concerning to students, they showed to realize regional factors and they recognized the use of standard variety. Nevertheless, they based their speech on the right/wrong speaking, showing a strong prejudice with the ones who do not speak the privileged variety, including themselves. The results demonstrate that school practices are far from the comprehension of how relevant is the observation of linguistic variation in native language teaching, in order to develop communicative performance among students.