The aesthetic literacy in the youth and adult education

This article is the result of a theoretical research and is part of a larger study under development in the doctorate program in Education of the State University Paulista Júlio de Mesquita Filho. It aims to understand the importance of aesthetic literacy for the development of reading and writing of young and adult students in rural education from readings and comic books productions. This study is based on Cultural-Historical theory and has as a method the Didactic-Formative Experiment. The data recording instruments used in the research are the field records of observations made in the classroom, the audio recording of interviews with the students, as well as visual records of the comic books produced by the students and classes recordings in videos. For data analysis, we will follow the perspective of Dialectical Historical Materialism. When considering reading and writing as social and cultural practices, literacy is fundamental in the educational process. In this sense, we understand that comic books are important instruments for the development of reading and writing of the young and adults of the rural education, allying text and image in the process of teaching and learning.


Introduction
This article is the result of a theoretical research that is part of a larger study under development in the doctorate program in Education of the State University Paulista "Júlio de Mesquita Filho", Marília campus.
It is linked to a set of collaborative research actions developed at the Marília campus, which includes youth and adult education as a vast theoretical-reflexive field, beyond the mere concept of adult literacy, as sometimes happens.Taken together, the research seeks to solve the following problem: what is the importance of aesthetic literacy for the development of reading and writing of young and adult education in the rural education from readings and comic books productions?
Thus, this study is based on the Cultural-Historical theory of authors such as Vygotsky (2007Vygotsky ( , 2001) ) and Davidov (1978) and has as a method the Didactic-Formative Experiment according to Aquino (2015Aquino ( , 2013) ) and Davidov (1978).The data recording instruments obtained in the research field are the field records of the observations made in the classroom, the audio recording of the interviews with the Youth and Adult Education (YAE) students, which will be later transcribed in full, besides photographs of the works -visual records of the comics books produced by the YAE students and videotapes of the experiment developed in class.For data analysis, we will follow the perspective of Historical and Dialectical Materialism (Vygotsky, 2007(Vygotsky, , 2001)).
This PhD research 1 is being developed at the Federal University of Tocantins, campus Tocantinópolis, State of Tocantins, Brazil, where one of the authors works as a professor of the Licentiate course in Rural Education with Qualification in Arts and Music.The subjects studied are the young and adult students of this course and the arts teacher of this same course as well.It is important to emphasize that Rural Education presents a dimension of youth and adult education, since it contains students from different age groups, many of whom are workers, usually with low schooling, who come from the countryside to the university and then return, in order to complete their studies (Caldart, Paludo, & Doll, 2006).
In relation to the work of the youth and adult education to reading and writing, Miller (2009) emphasizes that not only verbal language, but other languages, such as art, are important instruments of social interaction of the student with the world around.In this thought, he emphasizes that when reading and writing are in harmony with the collective work of the teacher, there is a greater possibility of this type of activity becoming more meaningful for the students.Thus, using comics as a methodology for working in the classroom serves as an important tool for the students of the youth and adult education to take ownership of literacy practices.
In this sense, the main objective of the research was to understand the importance of aesthetic literacy for the development of reading and writing of young students and adults of the field from readings and comics book productions.As specific objectives, we sought to understand how these students develop orality and writing from reading comics magazines; check if the aesthetic literacy is inserted in the arts classes of the rural education; analyze the comics produced by these students during class; understand how reading and writing practices of the youth and adult education are influenced and grounded by reading comics books; and, finally, understand how this student inserts himself into the written and visual culture from the aesthetic literacy.
In the first part of this text, we presented the methodological trajectory of the research in order to point the instruments used for data collection and analysis in the research field, as well as the theoretical matrix that based this study.Next, theoretical analyses are performed on comics books and youth and adult education as study objects of this research, in dialogue with Cultural-Historical theory, so that we can understand how this artistic language can contribute to the development of reading and writing from the reading and production of comics.Finally, some partial conclusions of the research under development in the Doctorate in Education at UNESP2 are presented.

Methodology
This PhD research is based on the perspective of Cultural-Historical theory using the Didactic-Formative Experiment as a method.The methodological tools used for collection of information are individual and recorded semistructured interviews, which are currently occurring, with approximately 60 questions related to the arts, reading, writing and Rural Education, which will be later transcribed in full; video recording of the art classes during the experiments, by means of a digital recorder; participant observation of art classes, which is occurring in the social and cultural context of the subjects of this research; documentary and bibliographical analysisphotography of comics books produced by students.We understand that, for this type of research, the method and the instruments chosen used will be able to address the problem and the objectives of this research.
For Aquino (2013), Lev Vygotsky (1896-1934) rejected the methods of experimental psychology, which led him to seek new investigation methods related to historical and dialectical materialism.Thus, the formative experiment emerged from the studies of Lev Vygotsky and his main collaborators -Vasily Davidov (1930-1998), Alexei Leontiev (1903-1979) and Alexander Luria (1902-1977) -who considered it an efficient method for studying the individual's mental development from experiments, and is therefore a suitable method for understanding the higher psychological processes of human beings.From this method, it was created by other theorists such as Zankov (1984) and Davidov (1978), from the Cultural-Historical theory, in the field of developmental didactics, the Didactic-Formative Experiment, aimed at the development of human mental processes from learning activity.In fact, this method is the evolution of the genetic experiment method created by Lev Vygotsky.In this sense, we understand the concept of Didactic-Formative Experiment as: […] the intervention of the researcher in the mental processes that he studies, differentiating him from the experiments that aim at verification, which only show the state that is mentally formed.It is not the search for what is already formed in the subject, but the search for actions that provide paths which are effective in new psychic structures (Silva, & Arena, 2014, p. 38) 3 .
That is, one must search for new means that enables the young and adult students of the rural education to understand and advance in the content of the discipline in which they participate, which will refer to the students' mental development in education, a theory defended by Davidov (1978).But such advancement is only possible from learning activities that drive this development.In this respect, this method must be related to learning, and thus, from the activities developed with comics books in the classroom.Aquino (2015) states that the main assumption of this method is that the teaching-learning development process can boost the student's learning and development quality.This author clarifies that this method proves the thesis of Lev Vygotsky and his collaborators, regarding the developmental teaching of higher psychological processes as a field of study in education; therefore, it is based on Didactics.Moreover, for this theorist, this method makes it possible to study the mental processes of students in school learning situations.From the understanding of this method by Aquino (2015), the Didactic-Formative Experiment presents four stages of which we are following in the doctoral research: A) Review of the literature and diagnosis of the reality to be studied; B) Elaboration of the experimental didactic system; C) Development of the didactic-formative experiment; D) Data analysis and preparation of the report; In the first stage of this investigation, it was carried out a theoretical cut in the matrices of the Cultural-Historical theory and Didactics.Aquino (2015) explains that it is in this phase that the diagnosis of reality is to be made, in the case of this research, the Federal University of Tocantins, a Rural Education course, on which a documentary analysis -Course Pedagogical Project and Teaching Plan of the Art Teacher -since this diagnosis can refer to the state or condition of a pedagogical practice in teaching and in a particular discipline.It was at that moment that we sought to characterize the group to be researched, which is composed of 50 students of different age groups, from different peasant contexts -settlements, small villages, among others.
The next stage was characterized by the teaching plan elaboration by the researcher, but without changing the content of the discipline referred to above.The researcher submitted these contents to a didactic-superior organization -to advance -based on the ideas of Davidov (1978).
In these assumptions, Aquino (2015) lists the main scientific criteria for the elaboration of the Discipline Program, of which we follow: a) without changing the content, the researcher must seek the general principles and the fundamentals of the contents; B) listing the relationship between the course objectives and the contents; C) the program objectives should make clear to the appropriation of human experience with the production of scientific Acta Scientiarum.Education, v. 40(2), e34902, 2018 knowledge by young and adult students; D) the researcher must choose the most appropriate teaching method for the objectives and contents; E) the researcher should propose tasks to the students, according to their difficulties, to be solved by them, under their mediation/orientation.Aquino (2015, p. 7-8) reinforces that it is at this stage that the didactic system can be systematized by units, because " […] in each unit will be improved the tasks or problems that students must solve to appropriate scientific knowledge and build new capabilities".
Observation is the main instrument for data collection in the third stage of the Didactic-Formative Experiment, since the arts classes are being observed in the locus of the research.According to Aquino (2015), the observation must occur in two ways: visual records, from video recording of all classes that take place in this experiment; and direct observation, so that they can describe in detail the actions taken in the researched environment, in this case, the classroom.This theorist points out that in this stage, there are also interviews with teachers and students, which aims to "[…] understand from the speech of the protagonists of the training experiment itself, how they appropriate the method of teaching (teachers) and the method of learning (the students)" (Aquino,  2015, p. 12) 4 .It is important to emphasize that it is at this stage that the data collected are being organized and categorized for analysis in this research.That is, the research is currently at this stage.
Data collected and systematized comprise the last step of this method that, according to Aquino (2015), is when the researcher must describe, explain, abstract and generalize a procedure that Vygotsky (2007Vygotsky ( , 2001) ) calls 'objective analysis'.
The analysis of the data must be oriented ... to the facts actually observed; the analysis is not apodictic or predictive, it must be true, real; the analysis is carried out after the experiment is carried out, it is retrograde; analysis comes from induction and guidance, not from intuition; and the most important: analysis leads to generalizations that have limits and degrees, but which are elaborated from the essences.The movement that we make, with the aid of analysis, which starts from the observation of the facts, passes through the abstraction of the essential and then generalizes the generalization and is what allows the elaboration of the conclusions of the didactic-formative experiment (Aquino, 2015, p. 12) 5 .
In this sense, with these procedures, we intend to understand how aesthetically literacy contributes to the development of reading and writing of young students and adults in the rural education from comics books readings and productions, that is, through art.For this reason, we adopted the Vygotsky (2007Vygotsky ( , 2001) ) and Davidov (1978) studies in the Cultural-Historical literature as the Didactic-Formative Experiment, as we believe it is adequate to the development of this research.It is important to emphasize that in the form of analyses of the information obtained, we will follow the perspective of Dialectical-Historical Materialism.
With these brief considerations on the methodology used and in dialogue with the literature that bases this study, we present below some already completed steps of the theoretical research carried out.

Theoretical analysis
School dropout is one of the problems that have persisted in Brazilian schools for many decades.Many young people and adults had their schooling denied due to adverse circumstances.Generally, they are low-income people with the goal of achieving a better insertion in the labor market, implying returning to school or university so that they can, finally, complete their studies.According to Reichwald JR. et al. (2006), as far as rural education is concerned, school dropout among young people and adults seems to be more relevant in rural areas, since the working conditions of teachers in the countryside and the conditions that the peasants have to study are quite precarious: schools with no adequate physical structure, usually multi-grade classes, poorly trained teachers, long distance between the young and adult students' homes and the school, are just some of the problems in rural education in rural areas that corroborate the low schooling of the young student and adult.
In general, in broad segments of the Brazilian society in transformation still exists a narrow conception of youth and adult education that comes down to mere literacy, that is, a vision of schooling of an instrumental nature.But educating is more than schooling or literacy; it is not just deciphering the language code.
what concerns the learning and development of writing and reading, which has been another serious educational problem in Brazil for a long time.In view of this, we consider that we can no longer postpone the perspective of science in general, of art and culture as components of literacy, and we start from the hypothesis that comics contribute fully to the teaching and learning process of youth and adult education in regard to the development of reading and writing, by allying written and visual codes in the process of creating their stories, essential for insertion in the written and visual culture.
Comics books have existed since the earliest days of civilization, with cave paintings as an example.Throughout the human history, comics books have spread in a variety of forms, in print, advertising, on the internet, and in textbooks, as well as traditional forms such as newspaper strips and the comics magazines themselves, which are vehicles of communication around the world.
We agree with Barbosa (1991, p. 28) when pointing out that visual representation contributes in a relevant way to verbal communication and that it can be related to the graphic productions of comics books made by youth and adult education in schools, since they "[…] allow the development of visual discrimination, which is essential to the literacy process [...] you can learn the word by visualization" 6 .Exposed this, according to Chaves, Tuleski, Lima and Girotto (2014), pedagogical practices based on visual arts can offer didactic resources and rich possibilities for the full development of student teaching and learning, because "[…] educational practices should prioritize musicalization, didactic procedures with fabrics, or teach to enchant through characters of stories, through the rhythm and movement of poetry and songs" (Chaves et al., 2014, p. 131)  7 .
Thus, pedagogical practices can contribute to the development of memory, attention, perception, thought, and emotions, which may lead to the advancement of the teaching and learning process, resulting in good teaching.In this sense, we understand that artistic language plays an important and fundamental role in school education.In this regard, we highlight in this research the comics in Youth and Adult Education.
It should be emphasized that comics books are highlighted by the National Curriculum Parameters (NCPs) (Parâmetros Curriculares Nacionais: Arte, 6 Our translation from the original "As artes plásticas também permitem o desenvolvimento da discriminação visual, que é essencial ao processo de alfabetização [...] aprende-se a palavra visualizando". 7Our translation from the original "As práticas educativas devem priorizar a musicalização, procedimentos didáticos com telas, o ensinar a encantar-se por personagens de histórias, pelo ritmo e movimento das poesias e canções".1997) in the area of Art.In turn, the Law on Guidelines and Bases of National Education (GBNE) (2013) 9.394/96 establishes the teaching of art as a compulsory curricular component in basic education, which will imply the obligatory teaching of the four main artistic languages -Visual Arts, Theater, Dance and Music -through this discipline, which made possible a greater insertion of comics books in school education.
For Setubal and Rebouças (2015), the relationship between comics books and education was not always friendly.Many achievements and advances have had to occur in Brazilian education, among them, the recognition of this language by the GBNE 9.394/96, NCPs, and its recognition as a pedagogical resource for the teaching and learning process, which seems to have become more evident in the 21 st century.
However, the investment in the genre of comics started to be sketched out in Brazilian education in the 1990s, through these legal bases cited above.However, programs such as the National Library of the School Program (NLSP) can be considered the main driver for the insertion of comics in Brazilian education in this century (Setubal & Rebouças, 2015), although most of the comics books chosen by NLSP refers to the national and foreign literature.
Although the appearance of comics in the school context was initially slow, with the function of illustrating some text in a textbook (Vergueiro, & Santos, 2012), it is possible to observe in recent years a greater use of this language in the classroom, which, in fact, asserts the thesis that using comics in school brings numerous benefits to students, among them, motivation to read and perform artistic practices, but provided that the teacher uses them appropriately, attending to the effective teaching and learning needs of his/her students.
It is always good to remember that comics are produced for different audiences (children, adolescents or adults) and therefore cannot be used indiscriminately.Moreover, even those that are intended only for entertainment and leisure, whose content was not generated with the concern of informing or passing knowledge, can be used in a didactic environment, but require greater care on the part of the teachers (Vergueiro, & Santos, 2012, p. 84)  It is necessary to point out that comics books in education can be used as a methodological resource by offering the student a better understanding of certain content worked in the classroom, as well as enabling creativity through an artistic language that relates text and image, that is, comics books can serve as a relevant pedagogical support when working with concepts related to the content in which the teacher intends to work in class with his/her students through images and texts, being a language very close to the universe of children, young people and adults, thus contributing to the educational background of the learner.
From an early age, children, young people and adults are encouraged to interact with the social environment and with artistic manifestations in which they are inserted, to get to know them and to learn and absorb them, developing forms in their ways of thinking and appreciating the different languages present in society, as in this case, comics books.
By working with comics books in the classroom, students can have the ability to select visual elements -text and image -present in that language, determining better conditions to communicate with the world around them, improving their reading and writing practices.It also allows us to apply concepts that contribute to the teaching and learning process, using sequential language in a more dynamic and creative way.In this sense, knowing the elements that make up the visual language of comics becomes important in the creative process of narratives.
However, talking about comics is talking about language.In this context, it is worth emphasizing that the individual is constantly faced with a wide variety of languages, such as verbal, visual, digital, among many others, important for human communication, creation and dissemination of ideas and information necessary for the construction of knowledge.
Consequently, the languages are constituted and reconstructed historically and socially, therefore, they are directly related to the experience of the human being.When the student modifies his/her reality, by producing a work of art, assigning meanings and concepts, producing meanings and reconstructing/modifying the language he/she has learned throughout his/her life, he/she creates and socializes new forms of knowledge.
In this line of thought, art assumes an important role in being the language that expresses and socializes information and senses, because of its great capacity for expression, creation and interpretation, which, together with the innumerable other languages present in society, contribute to the production and dissemination of knowledge.
According to Rego (1995) knowledge construction is directly related to the social interaction that the individual has with the environment, surrounded by information, written and visual symbols, as well as diverse ways of communicating with the world.In this context, learning is necessary and fundamental for the full and social development of the human being.From the Cultural-Historical perspective, development is driven by learning and good teaching effectively, will be responsible for advancing development.With regard to the contribution of Lev Vygotsky's studies in this perspective, his research demonstrates the importance given to language and thought, relevant elements for human communication.This thought considers language as a prime factor for communication and social interaction between people inserted in a historical and cultural context.
In addition, when addressing the acquisition of human written language, Vygotsky (2001) will say that this is not the only way a person seeks to communicate or relate to the world, because by learning to write, this person can achieve different ways to think, act and relate to all the people and objects of knowledge around.
In this reasoning, art assumes an important role in education by transmitting ideas, expressing and producing knowledge in society and by expanding its field of dissemination.The Art discipline in Youth and Adult Education is an important curricular space for the cultural, aesthetic and creative formation of the student, as well as for the critical and social, playful and corporal development.It produces significant knowledge in working with interdisciplinarity with other areas, such as Pedagogy, Portuguese Language, Mathematics, Physical Education, History and others, narrowing the student's culture with the social environment that is inserted.Cultural diversity can also be addressed in art classes through creative and expressive visual works (Alvares, 2012).
For this, verbal thinking is not a natural form of innate behavior, but it is determined by the Cultural-Historical process and has specific properties and laws that cannot be found in the natural forms of thought and discourse (Vygotsky, 2001).In this way, words play a great role, not only in the thought development, but also in the historical development of consciousness as a whole.
In highlighting comics books in education, we understand that language is directly related to the act of communicating with the other, transmitting or assimilating information and experiences that may be individual or collective.According to Socha and Marin (2010), the concepts constructed in the classroom by the students and the subjects worked by them only occur if learning is constant and the knowledge produced between teacher and student is articulated to new educational practices; so, the comics books fit perfectly.Thus, when there is social interaction between teacher and students, the construction of knowledge in this environment becomes more meaningful.
In this relationship, the learning of writing associated with symbols, both in the form of drawings and letters and words, can improve and develop the child's cognition in school, as well as the acquisition of verbal and visual language.But what about the young and the adult individuals?
In this respect, experiences are a unique part of their experiences accumulated throughout their lives.In art teaching, the young and adult can find stimuli to better understand the historical and social processes, since art is practical and involves an aesthetic knowledge that produces knowledge.Therefore, artistic knowledge enables meaningful experiences for the young and adults from the constant contact with the art.
Art can be the means by which the student of the youth and adult education can deepen his/her experience with the world around him/her, due to the fact that it allows the capture and expression of reality, which can also occur through reading and writing.In this aspect, art is a social phenomenon and is object of study that reveals a certain society and culture historically.It is through art that the individual dialogues with the world, in addition to understanding and knowing the cultural diversity between different peoples, because "[…] we cannot understand the culture of a country without knowing its art.Without knowing the arts of a society, we can only have partial knowledge of its culture" (Barbosa, 1998, p. 16) 9 .In this same line of thought, Ferraz and Fusari (1993, p. 16) contribute by affirming: "[…] its importance is due to the indispensable function that art occupies in people lives and in society since the dawn of civilization, which makes it a of the essential factors of humanization"10 .
However, the practices of reading and writing in the youth and adult education need more attention in the educational literature.We are inserted in a society organized through written practices and practices of reading, as both are essential for the process of teaching and learning, while providing understanding of different contents.In the wake of this thought, Silva and Arena (2014, p. 318) make an important observation: Thinking about teaching and learning to read young people and adults taken out during childhood is an even greater commitment, because learning to read and write is an important tool to become part of the world and to be part of it, because writing and reading make possible the expression of the subject, communication, the appropriation of different knowledge that circulates in society, that move and determine it.Writing is not the only human language, but it is certainly the language that allows access to the most diverse sources of knowledge 11 .
The appropriation of writing and reading observed by Silva and Arena (2014) occurs when the social use of reading and writing is taught, when the methodologies used that do not emphasize the technical aspects of writing and reading, nor prioritize the coding and decoding of graphic signals.That is, learning and teaching situations can adequately meet the real needs of young people and adults.Thus, "[…] thinking about the process of teaching and learning to read and write in the education of young people and adults is to open the way for this process to be manifested in a dynamic and dialogical way" (Silva & Arena, 2014, p. 320)  12 .
However, when considering reading and writing as social and cultural practices, it is important to note that when the person, even literate, does not master the reading and writing skills necessary for effective and competent participation in social and professional practices involving the written language, it is said that he/she is not literate.Indeed, literacy "[…] is the result of the action of teaching or learning to read and write: the state or condition that a social group or individual acquires as a consequence of having appropriate writing" (Soares, 2009, p. 18)  13 .In view of this, this reflection is completed by saying that an adult can be illiterate and literate at the same time, 11 Our translation from the original "Pensar no ensino e na aprendizagem da leitura dos jovens e adultos, retirados durante a infância, é assumir um compromisso ainda maior, porque aprender a ler e a escrever é um instrumento importante para se inserir no mundo e fazer parte dele porque a escrita e a leitura possibilitam a expressão do sujeito, a comunicação, a apropriação de diferentes conhecimentos que circulam na sociedade, que a movimentam e que a determinam.A escrita não é a única linguagem humana, mas, certamente, é a linguagem que permite acesso as mais diversas fontes do conhecimento". 12Our translation from the original "Pensar no processo de ensino e de aprendizagem da leitura e da escrita na educação de jovens e adultos é abrir caminhos para que esse processo se manifeste de forma dinâmica e dialógica". 13Our translation from the original "É o resultado da ação de ensinar ou de aprender a ler e escrever: o estado ou a condição que adquire um grupo social ou um indivíduo como consequência de ter-se apropriado da escrita".Acta Scientiarum.Education, v. 40(2), e34902, 2018 If he/she lives in an environment where reading and writing have a strong presence, he/she is interested in listening to the reading of newspapers by a literate person, if he/she receives letters that others read to him/her, if he/she dictates letters for a literate to write them, he/she asks someone who reads warnings or indications posted somewhere, this illiterate is, in a way, literate, because he/she makes use of writing, gets involved in social practices of reading and writing (Soares, 2009, p. 24) 14 .
Therefore, we use the term 'aesthetic literacy' in this research related to the development of writing and reading by the student of the youth and adult education from an artistic language, that is, through comics books.However, it is important to clarify that the concept of aesthetic literacy is a concept under construction in this research, since there are still few studies and researches on this topic in the Brazilian educational literature.Thus, the development of this work would also contribute to the production of knowledge about this topic, important for research in education, especially in what concerns the expansion of research on reading, writing and literacy.

Conclusion
In the doctoral research that is under development, we have the hypothesis that comics books are important instruments for the development of reading and writing in the youth and adult education, allying text and image in the process of teaching and learning of the student, besides contributing to the understanding of the reality to which one is inserted.In addition, they enable the attention of children's readers, young people and adults, for the diversity of stories, colors and drawings, which leads the reader to imagine, to create and to enter into this narrative universe, constructing new concepts and meanings of the world around.
The stories created by young people and adults can address different themes and issues with educational, social and political perspectives.However, it is important that the teacher is able to select the comics book that will work with the students, as well as the contents of the stories that may be appropriate to the objectives and the teaching and learning process of the youth and adult education students.It is important to note that comics books have the capacity to foster criticality in their readers, for the various social and political moments that occur in society, through textual reading and visual production.
Therefore, we intend with the results of this research to understand, discuss and seek new ways to develop writing and reading practices with students of youth and adult education from the language of art, which will contribute effectively to their teaching and learning process.
In the Brazilian society in transformation, in which social actors who were once disregarded are now demanding time and voice, reading and writing, influenced by the expanded notion of literacy, assuming fundamental roles of exceptional added value for formation and awareness.More than decoding, it is necessary to interpret and make decisions; beyond the text, it is necessary to understand the context, which makes possible the understanding of the real, the collaborative action and solidarity and the organized search for solution of the problems in the daily life.
With this, the current stage of research allows us to conclude that the term literacy points to a set of social practices in the context of written culture in which subjects can engage.In our understanding, aesthetic literacy is a cultural asset to which children, youth and adults have inalienable right and the school has the duty to watch for the development of a didactic proposal aimed at bringing the reader closer to the text.
Indeed, we believe that the conclusion of this study will have implications for the organization of teaching programs, resulting in benefits not only for the academic community, but also for all those involved in this research and for society as a whole.