Teaching Challenges in Bilingual Literacy for Early Elementary Grades on the Brazil-Bolivia Border and the Inclusion of Chiquitano Indigenous Peoples in Municipal Schools of the Clarinópolis Cluster: An Analysis in Light of Article 78 of Law No. 9.394/96.
Bilingual literacy; Intercultural literacy; Chiquitano peoples; LDB 9.394/96; School Inclusion.
In this dissertation, developed within the Graduate Program in Education at the State University of Mato Grosso (PPGEdu/UNEMAT), under the research line Education and Diversity, We investigated the challenges of teaching bilingual literacy in the early years on the Brazil/Bolivia border and the inclusion of the Chiquitano indigenous peoples in the Municipal Schools of the Clarinópolis Hub: an analysis in light of Article 78 of Law No. 9.394/96. Qualitative in nature and grounded in the philosophical hermeneutics of Gadamer (2002), the empirical field of the research consisted of the rural schools of the Clarinópolis Hub (Clarinópolis and Soteco communities), a territory characterized by intense human, linguistic, and cultural flows. The study focused on the trajectories, perceptions, and narratives of school subjects, seeking within them the contradictions between national legislation and the lived pedagogical reality. The methodological pathway was structured in five stages: (i) bibliographic and documentary review (focusing on Article 78 of LDB No. 9,394/96); (ii) approximation with the empirical field and territorial immersion; (iii) open or in-depth interviews with the management triad and five literacy teachers; (iv) participant observation with descriptive-reflexive records in a field journal; and (v) comprehensive analysis, systematization, and interpretation of the data based on the hermeneutic circle and triangulation of sources. The central objective was to understand how pedagogical practices and institutional policies have dialogued with the multicultural and linguistic diversity of Chiquitano students. The specific objectives aimed to understand teachers' perceptions of diversity in the classroom, interpret the influence of continuing education on the application of Article 78 of the LDB, and propose reflections to strengthen sensitive and inclusive intercultural literacy practices. The discussions were based on a robust theoretical framework that articulates philosophical hermeneutics, Freirean pedagogy, and decolonial thought, dialoguing with Gadamer (2002), Grondin (2012), Pereira (2016, 2022), Freire (1987, 2011, 2020), Mignolo (2005), Quijano (2005), Candau (2009), Fleuri (2003), Anzaldúa (2005), and Achugar (2006).Partial results indicate that the implementation of Article 78 faces structural barriers, such as the lack of specific teacher continuing education and the shortage of differentiated teaching materials, revealing a veiled exclusion and the heritage of an assimilationist tradition that imposes monolingualism to the detriment of transitional bilingualism. It is concluded that the bilingualism and traditional knowledge of Chiquitano children function as a resistant balbucio (babble) of enunciation within the border's in-between space, whose authentic school inclusion demands a critical intercultural literacy praxis, grounded in dialogue and the legitimation of the diversity of their voices