Children’s University UFMG: A practice for knowledge decolonization?

Children’s University UFMG: A practice for knowledge decolonization?

Author: Juliane Amorim – Universidade Federal de Minas Gerais (UFMG), Brazil

Co-authors:
Francisco Coutinho – Professor at Faculty of Education, UFMG, Brazil
Débora Reis – Professor at Institute of Biological Sciences, UFMG, Brazil

We aim to present a science communication model that is currently applied in a science communication project with children’s audience, and to further analyze it as a knowledge decolonization pratice. Children’s University UFMG is an extension project of the Federal University of Minas Gerais, Brazil, that exists since the year of 2006. From questions presented by children, the team creates workshops and materials that are used to stimulate and potentiate conversations about the human body and its relationships with the environment. The data that we will present are related to workshops that have been performed with 2 groups of students (4-6 years old and 9-14 years old) , from public schools, most of them belonging to low-income family. By using the methodology of participatory observation, we have collected elements related to the practices and discourses of the students, which represent our object of analysis. Embedded by the presuppositions of decolonization practices, data obtained will be discussed in the light of contemporary proposals of science communication.

Financing support: CNPq, FAPEMIG and PROEX

The author has not yet submitted a copy of the full paper.

Presentation type: Idea in progress
Theme: Science
Area of interest: Investigating science communication practices