Denaturalizing Identities in EFL Classes: the Case of a Brazilian Public School

Despite being known for mixing races and cultures and for its alleged acceptance of differences, Brazilian society is still reticent in combating inequalities, as can be seen in the statistics on violence against minority groups. The country has subscribed international human rights documents and possesses official guidelines in favor of an education "based on the principles of freedom and ideals of human solidarity,"; however, issues related to identity and difference are still far from being discussed in school curricula. Currently, there is a violent clash between groups in favour of approaching these issues at school and others totally against it. On the rare occasions they appear, in coursebooks, for example, topics related to multiculturalism, identity and difference are focused through a troubling prospect that naturalizes or essencializes both identity and difference or appeals to the notion of 'tolerance' for diversity. This poster sheds light on an experiment conducted with 8th graders in a public school in Rio de Janeiro, where these issues were worked by analyzing the representation of black people and women on magazine covers in English. Assuming that both identity and difference are subject to vectors of force and power relations, the notions of 'normality' and 'abnormality' were challeged, by questioning the processes of production of what we consider 'normal' and showing that those processes are subject to a historical erasure. Foucault, Butler, Wittgenstein and the Brazilian Tomaz Tadeu da Silva provided us with the necessary theoretical framework.