Ethnic-racial representations in science teaching materials: approaches between Brazil and Colombia

Abstract

This study analyzes ethnic-racial representations in images from Science textbooks used in the early years of elementary education in Brazil and Colombia, aiming to understand how such representations may contribute to the reproduction or problematization of racial inequalities within the context of science education. The research adopts a qualitative approach, with a documentary and bibliographic nature, and is theoretically grounded in the perspectives of coloniality of knowledge (Quijano, 2005), cultural representations (Hall, 2016), and education for ethnic-racial relations (Gomes, 2003; Munanga, 2005). The corpus consists of selected images from Brazilian and Colombian textbooks, covering themes such as the human body, health, diversity, scientific protagonism, and Black childhood. The results reveal the persistence of representational patterns centered on whiteness, particularly in contents related to the body and science, while also exposing tensions between inclusive discourses and the effective insertion of racialized subjects in positions of intellectual legitimacy. Movements toward greater visual diversity are identified, especially in the Colombian material, although such advances coexist with symbolic legacies of coloniality. It is concluded that textbooks act as important cultural mediators in childhood, influencing processes of identification, belonging, and the construction of meanings about science and difference, which reinforces the urgency of strengthening anti-racist perspectives in science education.