About Gabriela Abuhab Valente

MICRO-BIO

  • I have been studying the interface between religion and education since 2007. I have started this career working with the subject Religious Education in public schools. Since then, I am very keen on secular States debates, specially if the education...More

EXPERIENCE

  • University of Sao Paulo
    • Teacher assistant
    • Education faculty
    • August 2015 to June 2016

EDUCATION

  • University of Sao Paulo and University of Lyon
    • Phd
    • August 2015 to Present

    Teaching practices and religious questions This research aims to identify and analyze the cultural dispositions origins of Basic School (Ensino Fundamental II) teachers in what concerns religion in São Paulo State. The proposal is to take part in the construction of an interpretative international framework related to teaching practice, assessing dispositional references and arguments that are mobilized by teachers when they need to manage school conflicts regarding the religious theme. The research is located in the domain of Sociology of Education, hence the terms socialization, configuration and hybrids dispositions of habitus are essential notions. Moreover, the study is based on the secularism debate, thus Brazilian and international references are going to be used. We work on the hypothesis that some particular elements of Brazilian culture and dispositions, such as their hybrids dispositions of habitus, can be used as an analytic operator of the articulation between action and speech resources. Taking into account a specific socio-cultural configuration, as the Brazilian one, the teaching practice genesis will be analyzed from a procedural and relational perspective, in which the conformation of historical, evaluative, individual and structural aspects are combined either in tension, either in synergy. In order to achieve our target, it is essential to do a literature study concerning the current debate about secularism in Brazil, its history and its particularity, and also a case study, which will allow us to observe teaching practice and to do in-depth interview with teachers.

  • University of Sao Paulo
    • Master
    • August 2013 to June 2015

    VALENTE, Gabriela A. The hidden presence of religiosity in teaching practice. 2015. 120f. Dissertação (Mestrado) – Faculdade de Educação da Universidade de São Paulo, São Paulo, 2015 This research aims at identifying and analyzing the presence of religiosity in public schools through observing diffuse strategies and mechanisms. The hypothesis that we worked with was that religiosity is present in Brazilian public scholar institutions in a veiled and naturalized way. In order to contextualize the religiosity in a public space, it was made necessary to note this phenomenon in the Brazilian society and how its individuals realize their religiosity(ies). In order to reach our objectives, a case study was done in a municipal public school in Santo André city (São Paulo). Using many methodological resources inspired in the ethnographic methodology and built from the notion of scholar culture (FORQUIN, 1993), the profiles of two teachers were elaborated targeting their teaching practice. In the direction of categorizing the teaching practice, we used the notion of belief (BOURDIEU, 2001). The first conclusion was that the configuration of individuals beliefs establishes the teaching practice, including religious beliefs, due to an absence of control or limits of these practices. Consequently, the religiosity is not only present in teaching practice, but also it influences the children’s process of socialization. The last conclusion was that the presence of religiosity in public schools is verified in a hidden way, because without sociological tools it looks as if it was absent. Indeed, this invisibility is what legitimizes and maintains the religiosity in public schools. Key words: religion, religiosity, Brazil, public school, teaching practice

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