O que é Família? Uma Busca por Entendimentos sobre as Representações Familiares no Livro Didático de Língua Inglesa

Abstract

This very research aimed at looking for understandings (MILLER e MORAES BEZERRA, 2019) about the representation of family in a selection of English textbooks. To carry the research out, it was paramount to define family and its categorizations as well as note it as an institution with social functions (SINGLY, 2007; PIZZI, 2012; AMAZONAS, 2008). I am also aligned with Fairclough (2001), whose theories enable to understand power and ideology as components of the language, which was essential to think not only about discourses related to family and family roles but also about the positions of power that these discrourses take on when they are present in such a socially legitimized context that is the school one (AMAZONAS, 2008). This work is grounded in the concept of Critical Literacy (JANKS, 2016; JANKS, 2010; JANKS, 2012; LANKSHEAR and MCLAREN, 1993; SARDINHA, 2018) e in the Visual Critical Literacy one (SANTOS COSTA e XAVIER; 2016; DUNN, 2013) in order to investigate the discursive, lexical, syntactic and visual levels of the texts found in the textbooks analyzed and how such levels could either act upon the maintenance of a colonial and universalist (GROSFOGUEL, 2016) family paradigm or open up to discussions about the different ways that families can be organized throughout the world. The research that is hereby presented is framed in the critical and politically engaged Applied Linguistics field, as argues Moita Lopes (2006; 2009) and is based on the Exploratory Practice (ALLWRIGHT and HANKS, 2009) theory, which is an approach of research focused on the practioners and that aims to reflect upon the nature of the quality of life (MILLER and MORAES BEZERRA, 2019) of those involved in the research (ALLWRIGHT, 2006). Thus, I conduced this work so that it aims to seek understanding through the analyses of texts and images from the set of selected books of what is and what is not considered to be family according to those who put that collection of images and texts together into a book. It is also aimed at discussing the outcomes of the analyses through an exploratory lens (MILLER, 2001; MORAES BEZERRA, 2007; MORAES BEZERRA and NUNES, 2013).