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Social and Racial Dimensions of Brazilian Education

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Social and Racial Dimensions of Brazilian Education MULTICULTURAL EDUCATION IN BRAZIL: THE IMPLEMENTATION OF LAW 11.645/08 IN PUBLIC SCHOOLS IN RIO DE JANEIRO A thesis submitted to The University of Manchester for the degree of Doctor of Philosophy in the Faculty of Humanities 2019 Gudrun Klein School of Social Sciences, Department of Social Anthropology Contents Figures ....................................................................................................... 5 Abstract ....................................................................................................... 6 Declaration ................................................................................................... 7 Copyright Statement ..................................................................................... 7 Acknowledgements ....................................................................................... 8 Introduction .................................................................................................. 9 Tracing social change through the socio-educational lens ........................................ 13 Multiculturalist policies .............................................................................................. 16 The Politics of Recognition ...................................................................................... 18 Multicultural Education .............................................................................................. 21 Decolonial Education ............................................................................................... 25 Methodology .............................................................................................................. 27 A brief discussion of ‘racial’ categories and terminology .......................................... 31 Thesis Outline ............................................................................................................. 34 1. Education for a better life – social and racial dimensions of Brazilian education .............................................................................................. 36 Dreaming up the ‘Brazilian race’ ................................................................................ 37 Law 11.645: from ‘diversity’ to the recognition of Afro-Brazilian and indigenous actors .......................................................................................................................... 43 The state of the implementation of Law 11.645/08 ............................................... 50 Education system........................................................................................................ 53 2 Rio de Janeiro: beyond the tourist’s gaze (centre and periphery) ............................. 56 Baixada Fluminense: Colégio Estadual Novo Horizonte (CENH) ............................. 57 São Cristóvão – Zona Norte: Colégio Pedro II São Cristóvão III ............................... 61 Public education compared – federal versus state school ......................................... 63 2. The implementation of Law 11.645/08 – from education offices to schools .................................................................................................. 66 ‘Everything is about political relationships’: education secretariats implementing the law ........................................................................................................................ 68 Two public high schools – two approaches to the implementation of Law 11.645/08 ................................................................................................................... 74 Centre for Afro-Brazilian Studies (NEAB): a centralised approach at a centrally administered school ................................................................................................ 75 Colégio Pedro II: ‘But I am white and an academic and talk about black people’ .. 78 Colégio Estadual Novo Horizonte: ‘You’re actually not bad for a black person’ .... 82 Colégio Estadual Novo Horizonte: ‘Project on Africa and the Black Diaspora’ ....... 88 Conclusion .................................................................................................................. 98 3. Enegrecer - ‘Black consciousness’ among white and non-white Brazilians ............................................................................................. 101 Straight hair, curly hair, don’t care? ......................................................................... 104 White people becoming Black (enegrecer) .............................................................. 117 (In)Commensurability of discrimination................................................................... 122 Black (female) leadership ......................................................................................... 127 Conclusion ................................................................................................................ 130 4. Law 11.645/08 – contested space ........................................................ 133 Aldeia Maracanã: a step towards the visibilisation of indigenous education in non-indigenous schools ............................................................................................ 135 Being an urban indigenous teacher in Aldeia Maracanã ......................................... 140 3 Being an urban indigenous teacher: authenticity and invisibility ............................ 145 Performing indigeneity ............................................................................................. 149 Uncomfortable silence (Silêncio que incomoda) ...................................................... 154 Conclusion ................................................................................................................ 156 5. No space for Exú .................................................................................. 160 Pentecostalism and Candomblé – an intricate relationship .................................... 162 Claiming the Truth .................................................................................................... 173 Religion, history or cultural heritage? ...................................................................... 177 Conclusion: (un)denominational anti-racism ........................................................... 185 Conclusion: Brazilian classrooms – battlefields for cultural politics? .......... 187 Final considerations .................................................................................................. 195 References ................................................................................................ 201 Online Ressources .................................................................................................... 220 Word Count: 79,823 4 Figures Figure 1: Rio de Janeiro and metropolitan area. ............................................................ 10 Figure 2: Decorated class room and disguised student .................................................. 89 Figure 3: Students drawing on one of Colégio Estadual Novo Horizonte's walls ........... 91 Figure 4: Students listening to their teacher at Cais do Valongo ................................... 95 Figure 5: Abayomis made by GPMC members ............................................................. 111 Figure 6: A Redenção de Cam, 1895, by Modesto Brocos ............................................ 123 Figure 7: Marize posing with two students after her ‘transformation’ ........................ 151 Figure 8: Natho Fulni-Ô applying black colour on Wakyse Fulni-Ô's face .................... 153 5 Abstract As part of affirmative actions targeting racial inequality, Brazil introduced educational Laws 10.639 in 2003 and 11.645 in 2008, which oblige every school in the country to teach African, Afro-Brazilian and indigenous history and culture. The black movement regards the reform as an important step towards the deconstruction of the ‘racial democracy’-myth and the reparation of injustices caused by the country’s colonial history, slavery and its branqueamento (whitening) immigration policies. By exploring the scope and limitations of different approaches to the implementation of Law 11.645/08, this thesis adds a new angle to the discussion about the effectiveness of multicultural education and its relevance in the creation of a person’s attitude towards racism and cultural difference. For my fieldwork I spent a year in the city of Rio de Janeiro and its Northern metropolitan area Baixada Fluminense, locating spaces in which institutions, groups and individuals work on the implementation of the law: I carried out research in two socially very distinct public high schools, two teacher education courses offered by public institutions and with various social activists, students and education professionals. Exploring the trajectories not only of individuals who are active in the implementation process but the profiles of two very distinct school districts, offers an analysis of Brazilian race relations through the lens of the socio-educational context. Different approaches to the law’s implementation from various positions of economic, symbolic, cultural or political capital all have a different effect on those involved in the implementation process and open up different conceptual and strategic questions. Such insights contribute to our understanding of how social policies, as well as ethnic-racial education, can be applied in a meaningful way to various educational contexts and to the
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