FROM SOLID TO LIQUID, FROM LIQUID TO SOLID: HISTORY TEACHERS’ CONCEPTIONS ON THE PROCESSES OF CONSTRUCTION OF BLACK IDENTITIES

Abstract

This article analyzes basic education History teachers’ conceptions of black identities. The perspective used was inspired both by Bauman (2001, 2007) and by the post-structuralist version of cultural studies and postcolonial studies. The analysis was based on the interpretation of interviews with eight History teachers working in public and private schools in the city of Campo Grande/MS. This reading enabled us to perceive that black identities, despite escaping from the teachers’ identifications and going beyond them, are also provisionally solidified to fix meanings, which are essential for socio-cultural and political positioning. Respondents also see the complex and constant dynamics of differentiations that render black identities liquid, in spite of the teachers’ effort to identify and define them.