Ensino de língua materna na Educação de Jovens Adultos e Idosos (EJAI): o livro didático e a autobiografia como objeto de aprendizagem e de reflexão para e sobre estudantes da ejai

Abstract

This research aims to investigate the conception of language teaching combined with the importance of students' life stories in Youth, Adult and Elderly Education (EJAI), based on the Portuguese language textbook and teaching activities planned for sensitive listening to the students' voices. The problem developed is guided by the questions: How is the teaching of the mother tongue conceived and explored in the textbook Meta do Saber 8th and 9th grades EJA? What do the autobiographies of students, specifically adults and the elderly, reveal about the relationship between access to and permanence in school? The general objective is to investigate the conception of language teaching guiding the textbook Meta do Saber for students in EJAI, as well as to pedagogically explore autobiography as learning content that makes it possible to know and value the (school) life history of students. This is a qualitative investigation, with an exploratory approach and document analysis. As objects of analysis, we delimited the student textbook *Meta do Saber* for 8th and 9th grade, 4th Edition, 2022, published by IMEPH, and also the autobiographical writing produced by adults and elderly students in the 8th and 9th grades, based on an intervention activity developed in the classroom, as a methodological procedure for data generation. To achieve the proposed objective, we mobilized authors who understand language as a dialogic activity, among whom Bakhtin (1986) stands out, contributing to the conception of language as a social practice and interaction; Geraldi (2005), who discusses language teaching in a situated way; and Freire (1996), whose perspective of emancipatory education guides the valuing of the experiences of EJAI (Youth and Adult Education) students. The results obtained invite us to a critical reflection on the need to adapt teaching materials to the specificities of EJAI students. This connection highlights how the experiences lived by students are still not adequately addressed by textbooks, reinforcing the importance of improving pedagogical practices aimed at this audience.