How Do New Critical Pedagogies Develop? Educational Innovation, Social Change, and Landless Workers in Brazil [Teachers College Record] (original) (raw)

Abstract

Background: Over the past 30 years, the Brazilian Landless Workers' Movement (MST), one of the largest social movements in Latin America, has developed a series of pedagogical practices for public schools that support the movement's struggle for agrarian reform in the Brazilian countryside. The MST's educational initiatives can be viewed in terms of their place in the debate about how grassroots movements develop alternatives to dominant educational practices. Purpose: This article examines the diverse pedagogies and educational theories that MST activists have drawn on, while also assessing the political implications of this participation in the public schools. Setting: Research took place in Brazil, in several dozen public schools located in MST communities. Population: Research participants included MST activists, students attending schools in MST communities, teachers working in these schools, administrators, and public officials. More than 150 people were interviewed. Research Design: This research is an ethnographic, qualitative case study, examining the MST's educational initiatives in four different regions of Brazil. Field research took place over 15 months, between October 2010 and December 2011. Research methods included semistructured interviews, classroom observation, participation observation, analysis of primary documents, and focus groups with teachers and students.

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References (79)

  1. For more on the MST, see Branford & Rocha, 2002; Wolford, 2010; and Wright & Wolford, 2003.
  2. The MST's legal claim to these lands is based on a clause in the Brazilian con- stitution that requires the government to "expropriate for the purpose of agrarian reform, rural property that is not performing its social function" (Article 184). Social function is defined as using fertile land for agricultural production.
  3. Diretrizes Operacionais da Educação do Campo, passed in April of 2002 by the Conselho Nacional da Educação/Câmara da Educação Básica (CNE/CEB).
  4. Brazilian Decree Nº 7.352, passed in 2010 by President Luis Inácio Lula da Silva.
  5. I refer to this as an MST "movement school," as it functions outside of the tradi- tional public school network and is administered by MST activists, while still receiving legal state recognition.
  6. These include Pedagogy of Indignation (2004), Pedagogy of Freedom: Ethics, Democracy, and Civic Courage (2001), Letters to Cristina: Reflections on My Life and Work (1996), Pedagogy of Hope: Reliving the Pedagogy of the Oppressed (1998), Education for Critical Consciousness (1994), and Pedagogy in Process: The Letters to Guinea-Bissau (1978).
  7. For information on the lack of educational access in rural Brazil during this time, see Plank, 1996.
  8. For more information on liberation theology, see Berryman, 1987; and Gutiérrez, 1973.
  9. This was mentioned to me in several different interviews with MST activists, and is also recorded in other historical accounts of the MST's emergence (Branford & Rocha, 2002; Fernandes & Stédile, 2002).
  10. All of the following information is from an interview with Edgar Kolling on November 18, 2010. 11. All of the following information is drawn from an interview with Salete Campigotto on January 13, 2011, and supplemented by a published interview with her in the text: Tedesco & Carini, 2008. 12. Interview with Ivori Moraes, October 3, 2011.
  11. All of the following information is from an interview with Carmen Vedovatto on January 5, 2011. 14. Interview with Salete Campigotto, January 13, 2011. 15. Interview with Edgar Kolling, November 18, 2010.
  12. MST activists make the distinction between an "Education in the Countryside" (Educação no Campo) and what they were fighting for: "Education of the Countryside" (Educação do Campo).
  13. This was an explicit critique of Lenin's theory of vanguardism and the need for a vanguard core in organizing a revolution.
  14. Field notes, September 2011.
  15. However, the movement does strive to create spaces where new activists can take on coordinating tasks, and Freire is the inspiration for this ideal. For more informa- tion on these gender dynamics, see Peschanski (2007).
  16. It was not until the late 1980s that Freire had the chance to implement his ideas within the Brazilian school system, and even then it was a short two-year experiment (O'Cadiz, Wong, & Torres, 1998).
  17. Interview with Salete Campigotto, January 13, 2011.
  18. While activists still refer to Krupskaya, Pistrak and Makarenko are more com- mon references.
  19. It was not until 2010 that Professor Luiz Carlos de Freytes translated a second book by Pistrak into Portuguese, Escola Comune (Commune School).
  20. This colony was named after a Russian intellectual who Makarenko highly respected. 25. The internal structuring of members of political organizations into "base nucle- uses" is a common practice throughout Latin America. 26. Interview with Edgar Kolling, November 18, 2013.
  21. Field notes, September 2011, during a course for MST activists on the "Pedagogy of the MST." 28. Concern with Makarenko's discipline was expressed in several interviews with MST teacher-activists.
  22. Interview with Marli Zimmerman de Moraes, November 21, 2010. 30. Food sovereignty is an approach to hunger and poverty that emphasizes eco- logically appropriate production and local food systems as ways to guarantee food for all peoples. For more information on food sovereignty, see the MST (mst.org.br) or La Via Campesina website (viacampesina.org/en/).
  23. Interview with Rosali Caldart, January 17, 2011. 32. Ibid.
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  25. Named after the Brazilian geographer who wrote Geography of Hunger (de Castro, 1952).
  26. From 1995 to 2001, these high school programs were run through a research institution known as ITERRA (Technical Institute of Research and Training on Agrarian Reform).
  27. Field notes, September 2011.
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  29. This partnership was through the Program for Education in Areas of Agrarian Reform (PRONERA).
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  79. REBECCA TARLAU is a Postdoctoral Scholar in Education at Stanford University, affiliated with the Lemann Center for Educational Entrepreneurship and Innovation in Brazil. Rebecca's research focuses on the relationship between states, social movements, and educational re- form. Her scholarship engages in debates in the fields of political sociol- ogy, international and comparative education, critical pedagogy, global and transnational sociology, and social theory.