Encontros e reencontros: a cultura de Jaboatão dos Guararapes através da fotografia

Abstract

This research, entitled “Encounters and Reunions: The Culture of Jaboatão dos Guararapes Through Photography” aims to qualitatively and experimentally address the previous knowledge that students from both public and private education systems have regarding the use of photography as a learning tool about the social, historical and cultural development of city of Jaboatão dos Guararapes. This paper also intends to demonstrate the importance of the Cultural Heritage for the identity of Jaboatão dos Guararapes and the need for its preservation by society. It also aims to encourage the school community and society to rediscover their city through the culture of images. Thus, it was initially evaluated the knowledge of the school community (students) about local personalities such as artists, politicians and famous people who live or have lived in Jaboatão dos Guararapes and also how important they consider the use of photography as a learning tool. A bibliographical review was performed, including journalistic texts and oral reports of inhabitants from the city. During the methodology step, we also had a visit at the Historical Institute of Jaboatão (IHJ) and participated at the city’s traditional celebration “Festa da Pitomba” (on April 2019) for data collection too. Considering the hypothesis that we are an imaginary centered community on the appeals of vision and visibility, it was shown that photography is not only composed of steady image. It is also loaded with affective content that might be retrieved through the eye. In addition, imagery records last longer in memory and this also leads to the belief that the viability of using this resource in classroom will become a “gateway” to new knowledge every day. In practice, the work was developed by interviews and questionnaires for students and teachers from two elementary schools focusing on the 9th grade, one public and one private. The choice was based on how the teaching of local history and the use of photography in classroom as a tool for teaching and retrieving that history are performed. It was also analyzed the relationship between the people interviewed and the city and with the photograph itself. From the results obtained, one can conclude that the importance of the photography is undeniable to establish a relationship involving cultural, historical and local affective belonging.