Landless Workers and Schools: An Alternative Approach to Rural Education
Abstract
On the outside walls of a rural public school in Brazil, in the northern state of Pará, an unlikely set of images is painted: the Brazilian flag, the logo of the local municipal government, and the flag of one of the largest social mobilizations in Latin America, the Movimento dos Trabalhadores Rurais Sem Terra (MST)—the landless workers’ movement that has been a thorn in the side of the Brazilian state for almost 30 years. Alongside these symbols is written, “Reforma Agrária para Justiça Social e Soberania Popular” [Agrarian Reform for Social Justice and Popular Sovereignty]. This school is representative of an apparent contradiction occurring throughout rural Brazil: the active coordination between the government and the MST for the provision of public education.
But while bureaucrats in many states and municipalities are working cooperatively with MST activists, in other regions the official response is drastically different. Based on 17 months of ethnographic field research in three regions of Brazil, I analyze the conditions under which states cede power over education policy to social movements. Data come from 70 interviews with MST activists, 60 interviews with elected officials and government bureaucrats, extensive field notes, informal conversations, site visits, school observations, teacher training and shadowing MST activists.
Abstract
On the outside walls of a rural public school in Brazil, in the northern state of Pará, an unlikely set of images is painted: the Brazilian flag, the logo of the local municipal government, and the flag of one of the largest social mobilizations in Latin America, the Movimento dos Trabalhadores Rurais Sem Terra (MST)—the landless workers’ movement that has been a thorn in the side of the Brazilian state for almost 30 years. Alongside these symbols is written, “Reforma Agrária para Justiça Social e Soberania Popular” [Agrarian Reform for Social Justice and Popular Sovereignty]. This school is representative of an apparent contradiction occurring throughout rural Brazil: the active coordination between the government and the MST for the provision of public education.
But while bureaucrats in many states and municipalities are working cooperatively with MST activists, in other regions the official response is drastically different. Based on 17 months of ethnographic field research in three regions of Brazil, I analyze the conditions under which states cede power over education policy to social movements. Data come from 70 interviews with MST activists, 60 interviews with elected officials and government bureaucrats, extensive field notes, informal conversations, site visits, school observations, teacher training and shadowing MST activists.
