Astronomia cultural: uma perspectiva de aprendizagem baseada na alfabetização científica

Abstract

Cultural Astronomy investigates how the cosmological knowledge of different societies was produced from the close sociocultural relationship of these peoples with the sky. This multicultural approach, validated by the current educational documents (Law nº 11.645/08), allows the expansion of the vision that the student has in relation to the construction of scientific knowledge, when considering other perspectives regarding the dynamics that involve astronomical phenomena considering the perspective of traditional peoples. Thus, the insertion of aspects that involvement in the field of Cultural Astronomy represents several possibilities to enrich science teaching, making it more encouraging and meaningful, in addition to allowing the overcoming of the traditional approach, merely content and purely Eurocentric. The possible difficulty of students in understanding the behavior of astronomical phenomena, combined with the need for a deeper contact with concepts related to astronomy of traditional peoples, such as indigenous peoples, for example, expose the need for a more meaningful approach based on these knowledge. With that, the following question is asked: how can the insertion of cultural astronomy promote scientific literacy in high school students? Thus, this research had as its main objective to investigate which aspects of Cultural Astronomy are capable of promoting the learning of Astronomy contents mediated by scientific literacy. Therefore, the application of the research took place in the city of Manaus (AM), in a class of the 2nd year of regular public high school, composed of non- indigenous students, and consisted of the application of a didactic planning divided into three distinct moments, with focus on the execution of a workshop based on the asterisms of the Tukano indigenous group. The results showed that the students' prior knowledge of Cultural Astronomy, with an emphasis on astronomy developed by indigenous peoples of the Tukano ethnic group, was very proven. However, the data collected (through semi-structured interviews, observation and observation) during and after the intervention process, verify the presence of some indicators (serialization, organization, classification, justification and explanation) that point to the initiation of the literacy process science in students. In this way, the inclusion of Cultural Astronomy in the curriculum of basic education proves to be an important resource to favor the formation of an individual aware of the Brazilian ethnic and cultural diversity.