MUSEOLOGICAL ACTIONS AS AN EDUCATIONAL DEVICE: A STUDY OF THE EXPERIENCES DEVELOPED AT ESCOLA ESTADUAL DR. GARCIA DE LIMA (SÃO JOÃO DEL-REI)
Museum actions, High School Students, Cultural Heritage.
This dissertation is about a project "Diversities: a school for all ande all", carried
out at Escola Estadual Dr. Garcia de Lima, in São João del-Rei (MG), between 2016-
2020. The project involves a set of actions developed with high school students and
their teachers throughout the school year. These actions culminate with the
construction of a “Museum of Contemporary Art” at the school, a case studied
profoundly in this dissertation. The reflections are based on the concepts of Democratic
Education (Paulo Freire), Social Museology (Santos) and Experience (Larrosa). The
methodology used was the Case Study, with the data constructed from a project
memorial, the author's personal archive, mainly photographs, the application of a
sociocultural questionnaire to daytime High School students and semi-structured
interviews carried out with four former students of the school. The results revealed that
Teaching students belong to the middle classes, have a certain degree of comfort and
“cultural capital”. The interviews revealed that the former students liked the school and
the teachers, as they prioritized dynamics that boosted reflexivity and creativity. In
addition to understanding that museum actions were important educational devices,
combined with the principles of contemporary art, they enabled students to reflect on
the world they live in and encouraged them to rebuild ideas already established in
society.