Teaching sexual diversity in Brazilian schools

an education experience in Foz do Iguazu

Abstract

We intent in this paper to present a pedagogical experience that links anthropology and secondary schools in combating heterosexism and violence against LGBTQ community. The project created a pedagogical space where prejudice and discrimination for reasons of gender and sexuality were debated in an educational environment. We believe that especially in these times of global attacks on women's and LBGTQs' rights and human rights, it is essential that at local level we keep on resisting and creating spaces in which reflection and deconstruction of oppressive structures are promoted. This article deals with the experience of education projects on gender and sexuality carried out by a Brazilian federal university in a city in the interior of the state of Paraná, located on the triple border of Brazil with Argentina and Paraguay. It is important to note that Paraná is a state considered as extremely conservative. We hope to show how we develop an experience of what we call 'extension of the university' in Brazil, aligned with research and education on the subject of sexualities. We understand that this kind of project can be an efficient arena for applied anthropology and also as investment in educating young people as valuable human resources to combat violence and to promote peaceful communities. The experiment was carried out at the Federal University of Latin American Integration (UNILA), as an extension of a larger and older project carried out by the Nucleus of Identities of Gender and Subjectivities (NIGS) based in the Federal University of Santa Catarina.