Popular knowledge and academic knowledge in the Brasilian peasants’ struggle for land

This article discusses the inter-relationship between popular knowledge and academic knowledge in the context of mathematics education. The author, based on her field research with groups from the Brazilian Landless People’s Movement, analysed the political dimensions of an education project which seeks to investigate the traditions, practices and mathematical concepts of a subordinated social group. She then goes on to analyse the pedagogical work which was developed in order for the group to be able to interpret and decode its knowledge; to acquire the knowledge produced by academic mathematics; and to establish comparisons between its knowledge and academic knowledge, thus being able to analyse the power relations involved in the use of both these kinds of knowledge.