Entre licenciandas e professoras no ensino superior: perfil, presença e experiências de mulheres no campo da matemática

Abstract

This study aims to investigate the process of training, experience and insertion of women in the teaching of Mathematics in Higher Education in Salinas and Januária campuses of the Federal Institute of Northern Minas Gerais (IFNMG), and Darcy Ribeiro campus of the State University of Montes Claros (Unimontes). To guide this investigation the following problem was defined: How do gender relations occur in the process of formation, insertion and permanence of women in the teaching of Mathematics in Higher Education? The dissertation is organized in a multipaper format, consisting of an Introduction, three articles and final considerations. With the aid of the Oral History methodology, five female mathematics professors who teach in the undergraduate courses of the above mentioned institutions were interviewed, with the purpose of apprehending their memories, knowledge and achievements in an area marked by male predominance. The theoretical framework refers to the discussion about gender relations and its intersections with the field of Mathematics Education; to census data about the presence of female students in undergraduate courses in Mathematics; and to the understanding of the concepts of habitus and field in the teaching of Mathematics in higher education in the North of Minas Gerais. The results show that there is a quantitative parity among the students of the course, but that this similarity is not verified in the quantity of women as professors of Mathematics in Higher Education; the choice for the teaching profession had its genesis in childhood, explained by the ease in teaching and learning Mathematics; The three-fold journey - wife, mother and teacher - is the main factor that imposes obstacles to the development of the collaborators' careers; the male habitus present in the university does not recognize or validate the practices carried out by women, putting them to the test at all times; moreover, there is evidence that the collaborators believe that the more Pure/Applied Mathematics is, the more demanding are attributes of rationality, "firmness" – considered by them to be masculine. The results also indicate that women's experiences in the field of higher education teaching in mathematics are still under-researched. We conclude that teaching mathematics in higher education is, in the web of discourses, a field of male performance and development, since these discourses subjugate and secondaryize the practices performed by women teachers. Thus, it is evident that there are power relations in this space and that, for being rooted and structured, they are far from being purged from the university.