THEY ARE HERE: TEACHERS' NARRATIVES ON THE RELATIONSHIP BETWEEN MINING COMPANIES AND SCHOOLS

Abstract

This article identifies and analyzes the practices built in the relationship between mining companies and schools in the context of the Fundão Dam collapse. The rupture, which occurred in 2015, has impacted the ways of producing and reproducing life in the affected region. The work was anchored in the concept of Pedagogical Silence, conceived to name the existence of a silencing in school practice on the theme of the rupture and the consequent socio-environmental damage of mining. Among the factors that produce silence, the relationship between mining companies and schools is identified. To this end, it was sought to identify how teachers understand this relationship through the results of three researches carried out through narrative interviews. 12 interviews were used with educators who work in the school in the village of Bento Rodrigues, in Mariana, and in schools in the district of Amarantina, in Ouro Preto. The results indicated that the companies establish the relationship through four actions: event financing; donation of school materials and uniforms; offer of continuing education for teachers; and active participation in activities that work on the theme of the Environment. Such actions, based on the teachers' narratives, are configured as evidence that the relationship between company and school contributes to building and maintaining the silence around the rupture and, therefore, the development of a critical perspective in relation to mining practice.