Formação crítica, ensino de inglês e letramento digital: a educação como meio de inclusão de pessoas em situação de vulnerabilidade socioeconômica

Abstract

According to the first article of the Universal Declaration of Human Rights (1948), “All human beings are born free and equal in dignity and rights’’. However, for many people, this is only a formal equality, as many citizens still live in extreme socioeconomic vulnerability situations, since they are denied access to the basic conditions that a human being requires to live fully. Such a condition is far beyond his/her control, and it is up to government officials and public institutions to process public actions and policies in order to reduce the levels of inequality. One of the main means that can contribute to this decrease is through education. Only through quality education, with a focus on the critical development of students, will it be possible to provide underprivileged classes with access to knowledge and the means to act in society as productive and empowered citizens. In addition to critical education, we can point out that there are other fundamental points that can provide the inclusion of students in this situation and, in this research, therefore, we emphasize the teaching of the English language and digital literacy. Thus, the general objective of this study is to ascertain whether the issue of the inclusion of students in socioeconomic vulnerability is contemplated within the official documents that guide the teaching of English in Brazilian basic education. The theoretical references that support this research are Paulo Freire’s (1967) critical education, Monteiro’s social vulnerability (2011) and Lankshear and Knobel’s (2005; 2011) digital literacy. The nature of this study is qualitative, focusing on documentary analysis, having as source the main documents that regulate the teaching of the English language in Brazilian basic education. Within this study, we were able to verify that the question of the inclusion of students in socioeconomic vulnerability has been partially covered in the documents, despite the fact that they point to teaching as access to knowledge, which is a means by which the levels of inequality can be reduced. These texts do not explicitly address the issue of inclusion, though. From this perspective, we emphasize that this question should be presented directly, só that educators can be encouraged to return their teaching to practices, within the English language discipline and with the incorporation of digital literacies and critical education, which will provide opportunities to the students in socioeconomic vulnerability situation, to their full inclusion in our society.