Interculturalidade na Escola Pública de São Paulo

Abstract

This paper seeks to analyze the relationship between students who are Bolivian immigrants or the children of Bolivian immigrants and Brazilian students in a public school in São Paulo and how the school addresses this situation. Prior studies have shown that the teachers and the administration are largely indifferent to the presence of immigrant students in the some of publics schools of São Paulo city. Thus, there have been no specific pedagogical actions to deal with the particularities of the immigrants, nor has there been any attempt to manage the relationship between the groups to avoid the practice of bullying and, even less so, to promote integration between them. Classroom observation was conducted in two classes (8th and 9th grade) for four consecutive weeks in a state school in the central region of the city of São Paulo. It was found that the school observed has made advances in creating a multicultural environment, creating a more peaceful coexistence between the different cultures, but has not yet succeeded in building an environment of interaction and integration between the groups. The use of pedagogical practices that help foster coexistence between the groups was observed; however, there are still several actions that could be developed.