The indigenous Parkatêjê teacher

Protagonism at the service of his language-culture

Abstract

This article presents considerations regarding indigenous Parkatêjê teachers who work at the Pēptykre Parkatêjê Indigenous State public school for early childhood, elementary and secondary education, located in Mãe Maria indigenous reserve, in the municipality of Bom Jesus do Tocantins, southeast of Pará. Our aim is to show that this professional of indigenous school education has been presenting itself as a collaborative agent of his people, leading actions not only with regard to the valorization of his traditional language-culture taught in the school institution, but also in terms of strengthening of the indigenous identity of the people. The Parkatêjê language is currently endangered and its ancestral culture competes strongly with the values ​​of the surrounding society. In this sense, the indigenous teachers of that school, a group formed not only by teachers with a degree in higher education, but also by indigenous people from the first generation who contribute with their ancestral knowledge. They through their pedagogical practices work in favor of retaking the language, even though their actions are still incipient, placing the school as a place of transmission of the traditional knowledge of the people.The considerations presented here are based on information contained in the linguistic and educational literature and result from observations and data collected through interviews and forms in fieldwork carried out with the Parkatêjê school community in February 2020. The qualitative results point to the protagonism of the Parkatêjê teachers in the constitution of the school in their village.

Keywords: Parkatêjê language-culture; Indigenous teacher; School education; Traditional knowledge;  Protagonism.