ENSAIOS DA ESCOLA DO TRABALHO NO CONTEXTO DAS LUTAS DO MST: A PROPOSTA CURRICULAR DOS CICLOS DE FORMAÇÃO HUMANA COM COMPLEXOS DE ESTUDO, NAS ESCOLAS ITINERANTES NO PARANÁ

Abstract

The following thesis has the objective of analyzing until what point the implementation of the curricular proposal “Cycles of Human Formation with Study Complexes,” in the Itinerant Schools in the MST’s encampments in Paraná, can contribute to altering the form of the school, and create fighters and constructers of social change. This study is focused on the schools that are linked to the struggle for agrarian reform in Brazil. The proposal was constructed from the practices that developed in these schools and the necessities of the movement. During its 32 years of existence, the movement has constructed a pedagogical theory called the Pedagogy of the Movement, which has several pedagogical areas: life, work, social struggle, collective organization, culture, and history. It is a pedagogy based in Paulo Freire’s (2005) Pedagogy of the Oppressed. This curricular proposal is connected to the educational practices that working class groups developed in the Russian revolution, including the experience of the School of Work analyzed by the authors Pistrak (2000 & 2009) and Shulgin (2013). The theory produced during this process of class struggle was critically incorporated into the Itinerant Schools in Paraná, advancing the school’s goals, and offering paths for a new form of school based in the practices of self-governance and socially beneficial work. This thesis is based on an intense process of investigation, with an analysis of primary and secondary documents and fieldwork. The fieldwork consisted of: a) Participation in the process of curricular planning in 2012 and 2014, through meetings of the Pedagogical Collective, which includes representatives from all of the Itinerant Schools in Paraná. B) Research in one of the Itinerant School, Caminhos do Saber (Paths of Knowledge), in the municipality of Ortigueira, Paraná, where I verified the implementation of this proposal in the everyday life of the school. The methods included observations, interviews with educators and pedagogical coordinators, focus groups with the students that coordinate the sectorial nucleuses, and the application of a survey with the students in the final years of primary and secondary school. This research illustrates that the Itinerant Schools are a collective experiment in recreating the School of Work, which involves the participation of the educators of the school, the MST Education Sector, students, the community in the encampment, and university professors dedicated to this pedagogical process. I show evidence of a new form of school that has been created, based in the values of work and life, with the organization of the “Cycles of Human Formation” that bring students together by age/time of life. This experiment also utilizes instruments of participatory evaluation, through the Study Complexes, and develops practices and spaces of student self-governance, with the creation of sectorial nuclei, spaces of practical work (garden, memory, library, domestic services, among others), and the participation of students in the administration of the school. This thesis provides evidence that the teachers are attempting to teach through a dialogue with the life of the students (portions of their reality), through the application of a “survey of reality” and through collective planning, which allows them to connect all of the curricular content to an aspect of students’ lives. This pedagogical experiment is in process and has many limits, given the fact that these are public schools. These schools are also located in spaces of working class struggle, in camps that were created by landless families, and have many physical and financial difficulties. The State does not guarantee the necessary conditions for the schools. Despite these difficulties, these schools have become fertile spaces of innovation, and of the creation of a curricular proposal that is linked to the struggle of working class groups. This thesis presents lessons about this important experiment in altering the content and form of the school, in order to form youth that are fighters and constructers of social change.