O brincar, a educação e as crianças Calon do acampamento cigano de Quissamã, RJ: uma fotoetnografia de brincadeiras e de aprendizagens

Abstract

This thesis investigates the play and daily life of Calon children residing in the Mathias gypsy camp, in the municipality of Quissamã, in the state of Rio de Janeiro. The objective is not only to present and describe the playful daily routines of these children but also to discuss the possibility of learning from their world, which triggers memories of our own childhoods and reshapes the dominant images surrounding the Romani people, which often reduce them to negative stereotypes. Thus, it adopts a playful and critical approach as its guiding thread. Playful, because it not only maps out the play activities of Calon children but also engages with them, using active participation as a research tool. And critical, because play functions as a trigger for reflecting on the concept of childhood among the Calon, as well as their modes of existence amidst the stigmas directed towards them by Brazilian society. Therefore, this study seeks to learn from and about the Calon Roma of the Mathias camp. To do so, it adopts a listening perspective, mobilized through the playful narratives of the children about their daily lives, conflicts, and uncertainties, in order to share with non-Roma society their ways of thinking and acting, their sense of ethnic and communal belonging. This connects to a perspective of more inclusive and plural education, advocating for specific public policies for Roma communities. The research is justified by the fact that Brazilian society has limited knowledge about the Calon and even less understanding of the experiences and daily lives of their children, which perpetuates prejudices and stereotypes. By aiming for a broader dissemination of the Calon's own perceptions of themselves and the world, instead of those organized by non-Roma prejudice, this writing assumes a political stance in confronting the stigmatizing reductions to which the Romani people have been and still are subjected. In terms of methodology, a "micro-photoethnography" approach was chosen, as proposed by Caputo (2008). Thus, the Calon child becomes the protagonist of the text, always at the center of it - even when non-Roma playful memories are evoked, as they arise when prompted by the play activities in Mathias or as a need to propose alternative stimuli. Through micro-photoethnography, the aim is to respect the images and value the dialogues arising from the Calon's daily life. In this sense, the voices and images of Calon children from Mathias permeate this thesis, giving rise to the creation of the concepts of "play-creator" and "narrating-creator," which refer to the imaginative play so prevalent among the children in the camp. The act of playing is what constitutes a "play-creator": the creation of gestures and movements, drawing their own culture, or reminiscing about playful games from the past. The "narrating-creator" relates to the act of storytelling, creating narratives based on the gypsy daily life. The research revealed that the daily lives and play activities of Calon children in Quissamã are closely associated with the traditions of their people, and some of them have allowed for the observation of the preservation of the camp's culture.