Interiorização simbólica da ciência na Experimentoteca de Física do Mudi

mediação educativa e justiça sociocognitiva

Abstract

The democratization of science in Brazil faces the challenge of overcoming geographical and symbolic asymmetries that restrict access to knowledge. This article analyzes how the educational praxis of the Physics Experiment Hall at the Interdisciplinary Dynamic Museum (Mudi/UEM) catalyzes processes of knowledge appropriation in rural and hinterland contexts. Grounded in Freirean pedagogy, Falk and Dierking’s Contextual Model of Learning, and Moreira’s Critical Meaningful Learning, the study proposes the original category of “symbolic interiorization of science”. This category is defined as the process of deconstructing the cultural “foreignness” of academic knowledge, transmuting it into a resource for identity and regional belonging. Methodologically, the investigation adopts a qualitative critical-interpretative approach via data crystallization (documentary analysis, academic productions, and audiovisual records), structured into axes that cross-reference indicators of agency, autonomy, and epistemic sovereignty. The results reveal that qualified mediation acts as an engine for socio-cognitive justice, allowing visitors to negotiate meanings with physical phenomena through the lens of popular culture and local memories. However, it is noted that symbolic interiorization is a contingent process, vulnerable to public policy discontinuities and the tension between pedagogical analogy and conceptual rigor. The study concludes that the Mudi model subverts the center-periphery logic by converting naive curiosity into critical autonomy, consolidating science as a habitable heritage for citizens in the country's interior.