THE BOY WHO CARRIED WATER IN A SIEVE: AN INQUIRY-BASED EXPERIENCE IN YOUTH AND ADULT EDUCATION

Abstract

This study aims to understand the potential of integrating inquiry-based science teaching and Brazilian literature to foster scientific literacy processes among Youth and Adult Education (EJA) students. The proposal was developed with a Phase 1 EJA class consisting of 12 students from a school in the Metropolitan Region of Curitiba, during an inquiry-based experimental science activity. It is assumed that bringing poetic language and experimentation together can foster learning grounded in curiosity, questioning, and the construction of scientific knowledge. To this end, Manoel de Barros's poem “The Boy Who Carried Water in a Sieve” was used as a starting point for the didactic inquiry question: “Is it possible to carry water in a sieve?”, establishing connections between literature, everyday experiences, and scientific knowledge related to water. The study adopts a qualitative action-research approach, and the resulting corpus was analyzed using Discursive Textual Analysis. The results indicate that integrating literature and inquiry-based teaching stimulated students' participation, curiosity, and engagement. Students mobilized prior knowledge, formulated hypotheses, confronted ideas, analyzed evidence, and constructed explanations for the phenomenon under investigation. This process enabled connections between everyday knowledge and scientific knowledge, revealing manifestations associated with scientific literacy processes. It is concluded that integrating literature and inquiry-based science teaching constitutes a relevant methodological possibility for fostering scientific literacy processes in Youth and Adult Education by bringing together sensitivity, experience, dialogue, inquiry, and the collective construction of scientific knowledge.