The Chiquitano Presence in Porto Esperidião

A Decolonial Perspective Through Play.

Abstract

This article was developed within the Research Group “Body, Education, and Culture,” linked to the Graduate Program in Education at the Federal University of Mato Grosso, in the Research Line “Social Movements, Politics, and Popular Education.” Its aim is to understand play as a formative space that expresses the lived reality of children on the Brazil–Bolivia border, at Maria Gregória Ortiz Cardoso Municipal School, seeking to identify and describe the social practices of play among early elementary school students in the municipality of Porto Esperidião (MT). This is a participatory research project grounded in the analysis of daily school life and children’s experiences, using the ethnography of everyday school life as a methodological approach. The study dialogues with research on ethnic-racial relations within the context of Chiquitano history and culture, considering the presence of this Indigenous people in the border region. From this perspective, the research seeks to understand children’s play by recognizing their social practices and the meanings they produce in the social formation of children living in the urban area of Porto Esperidião. The investigation is anchored in intercultural dialogue and education from a critical intercultural and decolonial perspective, positioning the school on the Brazil–Bolivia border as a space of coexistence and negotiation of knowledge.