Análise discursiva foucaultiana do silenciamento da homossexualidade nos livros de inglês

Abstract

This article investigates how homosexuality emerges discursively or is silenced in four English language textbook collections approved by the Brazilian National Textbook Program (PNLD) 2024, two published by Editora FTD and two by Editora Moderna. The study is grounded in Michel Foucault’s theoretical framework on discourse, power, and the dispositive of sexuality, articulated with Guacira Louro’s reflections on gender and sexuality in education. Methodologically, the research adopts a lexicological and discursive approach. In the first stage, terms related to sexuality and homosexuality were identified and mapped across the textbooks. In the second stage, the meanings produced and the discursive silences surrounding the topic were described and analyzed. The findings reveal a systematic silencing of homosexuality in the analyzed materials, with rare or almost nonexistent references to the topic. Such silencing operates as an effect of power that regulates what can and should be said within the school context, functioning discursively as a regularity. The study concludes that by silencing dissident identities, English language textbooks reproduce cisheteronormative regimes of truth and reinforce exclusionary discursive practices, highlighting the need for a critical and inclusive approach to language teaching.