Etarismo nos cursos de ciências da natureza da Unipampa

Abstract

This research has the general objective of investigating the Ageism marker with academics from the Natural Sciences courses at the UNIPAMPA, Uruguaiana and Dom Pedrito campuses, in order to understand how much this socio-cultural marker is present and how it influences academic life, being a reference for the future teaching profession. As specific objectives: to know how much academics understand or experience Ageism and if they are ready to combat these stereotypes; verify agerelated discriminatory experiences in the academic environment; understand the reality in the teacher training environment about age-related prejudice and solutions to combat this type of prejudice. This research is exploratory, with a qualitative approach, and is investigative by using the online form instrument, prepared in Google Forms, sent by institutional email to all academics of the two courses mentioned above. Consisting of open and closed questions, related to the research theme and organized into six blocks: personal aspects; level of knowledge about ageism (preform), cultural and academic aspects, reality, solutions and level of knowledge (postform). The questions were answered by 24 academics, from the two campuses, in which the students' level of perception about the presence of elderly people in the academic environment, knowledge about the prejudice that the group suffers and suggestions for dialogue about Ageism in the academic environment were identified. As main results, 37.5% of the participants answered that they know nothing about Ageism and only 16.6% considered they knew the subject. Nobody claims to have fully known the topic in the post-questioning; 87.5% of the participants believe that prejudice exists and 12.6% do not know or believe that there is no prejudice related to age; 37.5% believe or may believe that age influences intellectual capacity, but most participants understand that in academic life there is no ideal age to enter; 45.8% of those stated that age is not important for attending certain environments. Academics assume that it is common for elderly people to have cognitive problems and that they are not capable of using technologies. On the other hand, some academics consider the correct existence of difficulties, but exclude the age factor. Most participants do not believe that the elderly interfere in any way with the general progress of the class. As for interpersonal relationships and the ability to learn, the answers were positive. The students understand that these points are not related to age, but to the relevance of relationships between generations and the value that a more experienced person can increase to the environment, making it more diverse and rich. As suggestions that help in the fight against Ageism prejudice: lectures, seminars, conversation wheel, host group and space for the elderly person's voice to be heard. We hope that we can discuss more deeply and insert studies in the curriculum about Ageism, understand and identify it in teacher training courses, and collectively, find solutions that mitigate this prejudice.