A elaboração de narrativas históricas ficcionais pelos alunos da educação básica foi o objeto de estudo desta dissertação. Pretendi analisar como é possível construir conceitos históricos, como racismo e identidade, reconhecer e desenvolver posicionamentos ético-políticos através das narrativas. Além disso, a proposta também foi explorar as possibilidades do “e se?”. A pesquisa foi realizada em duas turmas de segundo ano do ensino médio da Escola Estadual de Ensino Médio Presidente Costa e Silva, na cidade de Porto Alegre, durante os meses de agosto a outubro de 2017. O objetivo foi oportunizar aos estudantes, com o uso da imaginação e da escrita criativa, pensar outras possibilidades para a história, fazendo da sala de aula espaço de percepção das múltiplas narrativas históricas e de como estas constroem-se. Isso a partir da seguinte provocação: “Escreva uma narrativa histórica ficcional pensando como seria o Brasil se os africanos tivessem vindo para cá em outra condição que não a de cativos ou, e se jamais tivessem vindo?”. Foi com base nesse enunciado que os alunos escreveram suas narrativas ficcionais. Assim, é por meio deste assunto específico que este trabalho volta-se para uma proposta de educação antirracista, tomando como norte para tal, os princípios da Educação das Relações Étnico-Raciais. Do mesmo modo, utilizei como referenciais teóricos, os conceitos de imaginação histórica, sob o prisma do historiador estadunidense Hayden White e de narrativa histórica e narrativa histórica ficcional sob a ótica do filósofo francês Paul Ricoeur. As análises das narrativas constataram que os alunos buscam explicações para o racismo no passado escravista do país e na falta de conhecimento das pessoas. Muitas das concepções sobre o racismo estão baseadas em discursos construídos pela mídia, através da produção de materiais didáticos de história e pelas próprias aulas desta disciplina, onde se fundamentam ideias negativas a respeito do continente africano, principalmente, aqueles relacionados à pobreza. Quando se trata das populações negras, estas estão vinculadas à escravidão, ao trabalho e ao sofrimento. Localizam-se em uma posição de sujeição e desprovidas de subjetividade. No entanto, os alunos tendem a positivar a presença africana no Brasil, tendo sua cultura e costumes como elementos essenciais da construção da identidade brasileira. Posicionam-se firmemente contra o racismo e acreditam nos fundamentos da democracia e na educação como capazes de transformar o panorama das relações étnico-raciais no país. / The elaboration of fictional historical narratives by students of basic education was the object of study of this dissertation. I wanted to analyze how it is possible to construct historical concepts, in this case, racism, identity, recognize and develop ethical-political positions through narratives. In addition, the proposal is to explore the possibilities of "what if?". The research was carried out in two classes of second year of high school in the State School of Higher Education in the city of Porto Alegre, during the months of August to October of 2017. The objective was to provide students with the use of imagination, and creative writing, to think of other possibilities for history, making the classroom space of perception of the multiple historical narratives and how they are constructed. This from the following provocation: "Write a fictional historical narrative thinking how Brazil would have been if the Africans had come here in a condition other than that of captives, or if they had never come?" It was on the basis of this statement that the students wrote their fictional narratives. Thus, it is through this specific subject that this work turns to a proposal of antiracist education, taking as the north for such, the principles of the Education of the Ethnic-Racial Relations In the same way, I used as theoretical references the concepts of historical imagination, under the prism of the American historian Hayden White and of historical narrative and fictional historical narrative from the perspective of the French philosopher Paul Ricoeur. The analysis of the narratives found that the students seek explanations for racism in the slave-owning past of the country and the lack of knowledge of the people. Many of the conceptions about racism are based on discourses constructed by the media, through the production of didactic materials of history and by the classes of this discipline, where negative ideas are based on the African continent, especially those related to poverty. When it comes to black populations, these are linked to slavery, to work and to suffering. They are located in a position of subjection and devoid of subjectivity. However, students tend to positivize the African presence in Brazil, having their culture and customs as essential elements of the construction of the Brazilian identity. They stand firmly against racism and believe in the foundations of democracy and education as capable of transforming the landscape of ethnic-racial relations in the country.

Contemporary Italian philosopher, Gianni Vattimo (1991), has described ‘the end of history’ as a motif of our times. While neo-liberal conservatives such as Francis Fukuyama (1992) celebrated triumphantly, and perhaps rather prematurely after the fall of the Berlin Wall, ‘the end of history’ in the ‘inevitable’ global acceptance of the ideologies of free market capitalism and liberal democracy, methodological postmodernists (including Barthes, Derrida, Baudrillard, Lyotard, and Foucault), mobilised ‘the end of history’ throughout the later half of the twentieth century as a symbol of a crisis of confidence in the discourse of modernity, and its realist epistemologies. This loss of faith in the adequacy of representation has been seen by many positivist and empiricist historians as a threat to the discipline of history, with its desire to recover and reconstruct ����the truth���� of the past. It is argued by defenders of ‘traditional’ history (from Appleby, Hunt, & Jacob, 1994; R. J. Evans, 1997; Marwick, 2001; and Windschuttle, 1996; to Zagorin, 1999), and some postmodernists (most notably, Jenkins, 1999), that if we accept postmodern social theory, historical research and writing will become untenable. This study re-examines the nature of the alleged ‘threat’ to history posed by postmodernism, and explores the implications of postmodern social theory for History as curriculum. Situated within a broadly-conceived critical-reconceptualist trend in curriculum inquiry, and deploying a form of historically and philosophically oriented ‘deconstructive hermeneutics’, the study explores past attempts to mount, and future possibilities for, a curricular response to the problem of historical representation. The analysis begins with an investigation of ‘end of history’ discourse in contemporary theory. It then proceeds through a critical exploration of the social meliorist changes to, and cultural politics surrounding, the History curriculum in New South Wales (NSW), Australia, from the Bicentennial to the Millennium (1988-2000), a period that marked curriculum as a site of contestation in a series of highly public ‘history wars’ over representations of the nation’s past (Macintyre & Clark, 2003). It concludes with a discussion of the missed opportunities for ‘critical practice’ within the NSW History curriculum. Synthesising insights into the ‘nature of history’ derived from contemporary academic debate, it is argued that what has remained uncontested in the struggle for ‘critical histories’ during the period under study, are the representational practices of history itself. The study closes with an assessment of the (im)possibility of History curriculum after ‘the end of history’. I argue that if History curriculum is to be a critical/transformative enterprise, then it must attend to the problem of historical representation. / PhD Doctorate