Terremotos de João Câmara/RN dos anos 1980: um contexto epistemológico à luz da teoria antropológica do didático

Abstract

Brazil is not free from earthquakes. Studies point to seismic records dating back to the year 1720, and even though they show a low seismicity rate in recent decades, they warn of the remote possibility of events in the country with a body wave magnitude (mb) of 7.0. Marked by a sequence of seismic shocks starting from the 5.1 mb event in 1986, the municipality of João Câmara/RN (JC) becomes a landmark in Brazilian seismology, registering in about 7 years more than 50 thousand seismic events of varied magnitudes that damaged over 4 thousand buildings, mobilizing the population and various national authorities. Through a joint effort of various institutions and researchers investigating these occurrences in the interior of RN, the Samambaia Seismic Fault (FSS) was identified, becoming a product of a scientific episode in the History of Brazilian Science (HCB). On the other hand, in the context of Basic Education and in topics related to seismology, the historical and epistemological elements that permeate this episode are not fully recognized and addressed, as exemplified by the Curricular Reference of High School Education in Rio Grande do Norte (RCEMP), thus suppressing the potential of conceiving Science as a collective social practice in constant transformation, as well as the possibility of teaching seismology in an epistemologically profound manner. In this sense, and based on the Anthropological Theory of Didactics (TAD), by French mathematician Yves Chevallard, this thesis argues that understanding the praxeological constituents and levels of praxeological organization in the investigation of seismic shocks that occurred in João Câmara/RN (1980s) can foster the rescue and epistemological deepening of knowledge about seismology potentially relevant from a didactic-pedagogical perspective for the curriculum of Natural Sciences in Basic Education. To this end, through qualitative research and case study, an attempt was made to understand the scientific knowledge related to the investigation of the JC earthquakes, using intertextuality between primary and secondary sources from academic works, collections of printed newspapers, consultations with researchers, and residents. In parallel, in light of TAD, this knowledge was categorized and analyzed based on the constituent elements of the Reference Praxeological Organization (OPR), specifically in the social practice of researchers in Seismology regarding the case in question. In general terms, it is highlighted that the elaboration of this OPR rescued the identity of savoir-faire, used to explain the phenomenon in context, fostering discussions so that its didactic implementation is possible with the potential for the development of didactic proposals involving this scientific episode and its aspects related to the Nature of Science. The research also culminates in discussing the latent theoretical subsidies of TAD, weighing the didactic-epistemological conditions for the elaboration of teaching units deepened in socioscientific contexts.