TEACHERS OF AFRICAN STUDIES IN UNIVERSITIES OF BAHIA STATE/BRAZIL: CHALLENGES FOR A MORE PLURAL EDUCATION
African studies; degree courses; teacher training; Bahia federal universities; plural curriculum.
This research aimed to analyze how the professors of the Bahia federal universities have worked with the subjects of African studies and contributed to the formation of teachers. Moreover, it intended to assess the need to debate this theme in the undergraduate courses in Bahia's higher education, aiming a more plural formation based on these disciplines. Data were collected through interviews with seven professors who teach subjects in the area of African studies. The meetings occurred by video conference and were examined through qualitative analysis. From the results obtained, the significant advances of the African studies trajectory in the degree courses in History in our state stand out; however, it is clear that these discussions are scarce in other degree courses and in different areas of knowledge. It was detected that professors in countryside universities still face difficulties in accessing specialized bibliography on African studies in physical libraries, having the electronic medium as an ally for the construction of knowledge in these disciplines. In order to strengthen the network of the provision of materials for these components, the proposed didactic product is a website. It contains the interviews with the teachers and the bibliography discussed by them in the university classrooms, making these material more accessible to basic education teachers and the general public.