RELIGIOUS EDUCATION AND SCHOOL CULTURE IN LIGHT OF LAWS No. 10,639/03 AND No. 11,645/08: CHALLENGES AND PERSPECTIVES IN A PUBLIC SCHOOL IN THE PERIPHERY OF JOÃO PESSOA, PARAÍBA

Abstract

The present article aims to show the difficulties and obstacles faced by a Religious Education teacher at a public school located in a peripheral area of João Pessoa, Paraíba, in 2024, when attempting to implement part of the requirements established by the Brazilian Law of Guidelines and Bases of National Education (LDB), Article 33. This article emphasizes the need to teach the subject without proselytism—therefore, without taking any specific religious stance as “correct,” and consequently, without a confessional or conversion-oriented approach. It also seeks to comply with the obligations set forth in Laws No. 10.639/03 and No. 11.645/08, which require Basic Education to address themes related to the participation of Black and Indigenous peoples in the national formation—culturally, socially, economically, and religiously. The study will first present a retrospective overview of the discipline’s provision and its field of study, as well as an analysis of the Religious Education teacher training programs in undergraduate courses. This analysis is essential to understand the precarious professionalization of these educators and the quality and availability of their initial training. Subsequently, the text will offer a case report on the experience of teaching the subject and the challenges encountered in the daily school environment. It will highlight the strategies employed by the pedagogical coordination, school administration, and classroom assistants to undermine, invalidate, and justify the neutralization of approaches addressing religious diversity and the civic formation of the school’s students.