Ecofeminism and the MST’s Educational Programs: A Case Study from the Brazilian State of Paraná

by Natasha Roccato Vieira Camacho

B.A. (International Relations), Faculdades Integradas Rio Branco, 2012

Thesis Submitted in Partial Fulfillment of the Requirements for the Degree of Master of Arts

in the School for International Studies Faculty of Arts and Social Science

© Natasha Roccato Vieira Camacho 2019 SIMON FRASER UNIVERSITY Summer 2019

Copyright in this work rests with the author. Please ensure that any reproduction or re-use is done in accordance with the relevant national copyright legislation. Approval

Name: Natasha Roccato Vieira Camacho

Degree: Master of Arts (International Studies) Title: Ecofeminism and the MST’s Educational Programs: A Case Study from the Brazilian State of Paraná. Examining Committee: Chair: Gerardo Otero Professor

Christopher Gibson Senior Supervisor Assistant Professor

Leslie Armijo Supervisor Limited Term Associate Professor

Kathleen Millar External Examiner Assistant Professor Sociology & Anthropology

Date Defended/Approved: August 1st, 2019

ii Ethics Statement

iii Abstract

This thesis explores the overlapping ideological and pedagogical tenets between Ecofeminism and the MST’s (Movimento dos Trabalhadores Rurais Sem Terra / Landless Worker’s Movement) educational model. One of the tools the MST uses to advance the rights of landless workers are settlement schools, in which classes are used to construct a new epistemology. This thesis focuses on how the Colégio Estadual do Campo Contestado (CECC), a specific settlement school in the South of Brazil, tries to advance these overlapping ideological tenets – intersectional aspects of social justice, acknowledgment of the unachievable, undesirable and unsustainable aspect of the catching-up development strategy, and the need for a new epistemology on socioeconomic development – on the ground. Overall, this thesis argues that the Brazilian public education system, along with patriarchal aspects of rural dynamics; the contradictions within Contestado’s own settlement regarding organic production; and the strength of Western scientific paradigms, together limit the CECC’s practical advancement of ideological and pedagogical tenets shared by the MST and Ecofeminism.

Keywords: Ecofeminism; MST; education; social justice; development; epistemology

iv Resumo

Esse trabalho tem como foco a convergência entre os princípios ideológicos e pedagógicos do Ecofeminismo e do modelo educacional do Movimento Sem-Terra. Educação é uma ferramenta largamente usada pelo MST na luta pela reforma agrária, na tentativa de ensinar um novo modo de pensar a população Brasileira. Por este motivo essa tese explora como o Colégio Estadual do Campo Contestado (CECC), uma escola de assentamento no interior do Sul do Brasil, tenta promover essa convergência ideológica na prática. Essa convergência é composta pelo aspecto interseccional da justiça social, o reconhecimento do caráter indesejável, inalcançável e insustentável da estratégia de desenvolvimento “catching-up”, e pela necessidade da construção de uma nova forma de pensar (epistemologia). Em suma, esse trabalho argumenta que a implementação dos princípios ideológicos e pedagógicos compartilhado pelo MST e pelo Ecofeminismo no CECC, são limitados pela natureza do sistema publico de educação do Brasil, pelo patriarcalismo da cultura camponesa, pelas contradições da produção orgânica dentro do assentamento de Contestado e pela forte influência dos paradigmas da ciência Ocidental.

Palavras-chave: Ecofeminismo; MST; educação; justiça social; desenvolvimento; epistemologia

v Dedication

To Cionara, Tiago and Antonio, with all my love.

vi Acknowledgements

I would like to thank my friends and family for the support and encouragement through this entire process. To my supervisor and professors at SFU and Langara that helped me understand how to navigate the academic world, a big thank you. I would also like to thank the teachers at Colégio Estadual do Campo Contestado that received me with open arms and treated me with great respect and affection. A special thanks to three astonishing women that were fundamental to this project: Marcia Mara Ramos, Sônia Fátima Schwendler and Cindy Fagan. But especially to Lealle Ruhl, that has supported, encouraged, and inspired me through this difficult process. I want to thank you for your patience, dedication, but most of all for believing in me when even I didn´t believe in myself! Lastly, I want to thank again my mom, Cionara, for supporting me with my decision to move to Canada and starting this difficult, but exciting journey. You were and will always be my safe harbor! I hope one day I can be as strong, brave, loving, passionate and caring as you are.

vii Table of Contents

Approval ...... ii Ethics Statement ...... iii Abstract ...... iv Resumo ...... v Dedication ...... vi Acknowledgements ...... vii Table of Contents ...... viii List of Tables ...... x List of Figures ...... xi List of Acronyms ...... xii

Chapter 1. Context and Methods ...... 1 1.1. Introduction ...... 1 1.2. Background...... 2 1.3. Research Objective and Methods ...... 6 1.4. Outline ...... 7

Chapter 2. Congruences between Ecofeminism and the MST – Ideological and Pedagogical tenets ...... 8 2.1. The emergence of Ecofeminism ...... 8 2.2. The emergence of the MST ...... 10 2.2.1. Land concentration in Brazil ...... 10 2.2.2. The peasant resistance ...... 12 2.2.3. The gender struggle within the MST ...... 15 2.3. Overlaps: ideological and pedagogical tenets ...... 20 2.3.1. Ideological tenets overlap ...... 20 2.3.2. Pedagogical tenets overlap ...... 34

Chapter 3. Case Study: Colégio Estadual do Campo Contestado ...... 47 3.1. The MST’s shift from informal to formal education and the structure of Colégio Estadual do Campo Contestado ...... 48 3.2. Intersectional aspect of social justice ...... 54 3.2.1. Educative Periods ...... 58 3.2.2. Study Complexes ...... 67 3.2.3. Democratic Management: Participatory Council, Evaluations, Self-regulation 75 3.2.4. Interdisciplinary Studies ...... 81 3.3. Unachievable, undesirable and unsustainable aspect of catching-up development strategy ...... 84 3.3.1. Unachievable and undesirable aspect of the catching-up development strategy 84 3.3.2. Unsustainable aspect of catching-up development strategy ...... 88 3.3.3. Implementation of the ideals of regenerative economy ...... 90

viii 3.4. Need for a new epistemology ...... 93 3.5. Conclusions ...... 101

Chapter 4. Conclusion: threats to the MST’s educational model and future scenarios...... 103

References ...... 118

ix List of Tables

Table 1- Evaluation Process Adriana ...... 79

x List of Figures

Figure 1 - Map of Contestado ...... 47 Figure 2 - CECC's Central building ...... 53 Figure 3 -Activity of Interdisciplinary Team headed by Portuguese teacher Adriana on Black Consciousness Week ...... 84 Figure 4 - Activity of Interdisciplinary Team headed by Portuguese teacher Adriana on Black Consciousness Week ...... 84

xi List of Acronyms

MST Movimento dos Trabalhadores Rurais Sem-Terra /Landless Worker’s Movement CECC Colégio Estadual do Campo Contestado INCRA National Institute of Colonization and Agrarian Reform. PPP Political Pedagogical Project

xii Chapter 1.

Context and Methods

1.1. Introduction

On October 12th of 2017, reading an article by Rebecca Tarlau about the challenges of social movement institutionalization, I had my first encounter with the MST’s (Movimento dos Trabalhadores Rurais Sem Terra/ Landless Worker’s Movement - the MST) theories about education. Growing up in a middle-class household in São Paulo, Brazil, and acquiring information about the MST only through mainstream media channels, I never really had comprehensive knowledge on the activities of the Brazilian peasant movement. I had to move away to another country to be able to set aside my preconceived notions and see the movement through a new perspective. I was recently in a Peace and Conflict program in which I had read extensively about the contributions of ecofeminism to creating a non-violent social change in developing countries, and the ideas and projects of the MST’s educational philosophy seemed to have a unique alignment with ecofeminist ideas. The more I read about the schools of the MST, the more curious I became about the movement’s educational project. The power of radical pedagogy to create social transformation is the core focus of this thesis. It shows that it is in their vision of radical pedagogy that the MST, Ecofeminist and Indigenous movements overlap.

To show this overlap, this thesis focuses on answering the following questions: First, in what ways can the MST’s (Landless Worker’s Movement) national pedagogy be considered ecofeminist? That is, is it possible to state that both movements share similar pedagogies, if we consider that both the educational system of Brazilian Landless Workers Movement and Ecofeminism explain inequality as a result of multiple systems of oppression (colonialism/ patriarchy /capitalism); both convey a deep connection between inequality and the dynamics of land and power; and both define their understanding of oppression as something that can be overcome through local knowledge and structural change as fostered by a radical transformed pedagogy? Second, how does the Colégio Estadual do Campo Contestado (CECC), a settlement school in the South of Brazil, try to advance these overlapping tenets on the ground? In what follows, this thesis explores the most significant obstacles to the implementation of this program. I argue that the Brazilian

1 public education system, along with patriarchal aspects of rural dynamics1, the contradictions of Contestado’s settlement regarding organic production, and the strength of Western scientific paradigms together limit the CECC’s practical advancement of ideological tenets shared by the MST and ecofeminism.

1.2. Background.

Inequality and exploitation have been part of Brazil's history since 1500 when Portuguese colonizers appropriated Indigenous lands in the Conquest. Understanding that the MST was founded in the desire to overcome the dynamics of colonial elite and the power structure that they created, and the disruption of Indigenous control of land is crucial to Brazil’s history. Portugal never saw Brazil, a resource-rich country, as a potential territory for settlement, only as a means to an end of achieving a policy of resource extraction. The only goal was the enrichment of the Portuguese Crown through the “civilization” (subordination), of the local population which was seen as inferior and savage. As a result, systems of oppression were created to support a social and economic hierarchy that benefited the oligarchic European elite. After appropriating Indigenous land and almost eliminating the local population, the Portuguese enslaved whoever survived the "first encounter." A hierarchical structure that valued life according to people's accumulated property was imposed in Brazil, disenfranchising the remaining Indigenous peoples.

This structure created the foundations of Brazil's modern inequality; consequently, Brazil's population never developed unity among themselves, even after independence, the local elites continued to replicate the rules of this system based on exploitation (North, 1982).This dynamic created a cycle of concentration of power and land in the hands of a few, generating poverty and unequal access to infrastructure in rural areas for many decades. It is precisely this unequal access to land that the MST contests. The 1958 emergence of the Communist Party as an active political force in the country, along with

1 It is important to highlight that by rural dynamics I don’t mean something pre-establish and unchanging, but something that I constantly changing and subject to negotiation. It is also relevant to point out that the dynamics of the country side are not alienated from the rest of the Brazilian society it is in fact a product of this highly patriarchal society. However, it seems even more damaging to women of the country-side since agency is taken away from them not only by secluding them to the private sphere, but also by stripping them away from land a crucial part of their identity.

2 the mobilization of the Catholic Church against inequality in the 1960s, gave rise to a wave of resistance within rural communities that later would culminate in the foundation of the MST. However, in a desperate attempt to control the situation and suppress a possible uprising, the elites arranged a coup, and in 1964 an authoritarian military government was installed in Brazil, postponing the rise of the movement for rural justice. An authoritarian military regime controlled the country for 21 years (1964-1985), with industrialization being its primary goal. The idea was to modernize the agricultural sector and thereby increase Brazil's competitiveness in the global market to increase revenues and decrease the costs of urban life (Skidmore, 2009).

Nevertheless, despite its initial successes, the consequences of land concentration for social well-being were drastic. In an attempt to industrialize agriculture, landowners received multiple incentives that culminated in land concentration of land ownership and urban migration of many rural workers. This resulted in lower salaries in the city and further inequality (Walford 2004, p.411). It was only in the last years of the authoritarian regime (1978-85) that rural families started to resist government policies once again and advocate for land distribution through occupation strategies2. It was out of these occupations in the South of Brazil, where rural workers established settlements until the land they occupied was given to them, that the Landless Workers Movement (MST) was created (Walford, 2004, p.412) and where it took its first steps in 1984.

The movement was initially a response to high levels of concentration of land ownership in Brazil, but with time, it broadened its concerns and established the long-term goal of social justice. The MST adopted tactics, including protests to bring awareness to the systemic inequalities, occupations to redistribute land ownership, and promote alternatives to the status quo through numerous activities of empowerment such as land occupation, rallies, political acts, occupations of buildings and road blocks, among others. Their educational program is one such empowering activity and is the focus of this thesis. The MST's broader goal relates to the movement’s perception of social disparity as a complex circumstance, composed of multiple elements. As such, the movement believes that social justice demands a complex solution involving the repudiation of free-market capitalism and the adoption of a more sustainable economic model that has its core in

2 The main strategy of this popular organization is the occupation of unproductive rural properties as a form of social pressure on the Public Power to carry out agrarian reform and ensure the effectiveness of fundamental rights (Aranha, 2013).

3 rural knowledge. In other words, inequality in Brazil is perceived by members of the MST as a result of constant domination and exploitation initiated in colonial times, and of generations being diminished by a hierarchical system that reproduces the core ideas of capitalism.

The MST rejects the idea, reflected in official government policy for many decades, that economic growth will necessarily lead to development. The movement argues that an economic system based on privileging exports, comparative advantage, and industrialized economies of scale, is not the best path towards development. They argue that this model is inappropriate for Brazil's reality since an economic growth based on comparative advantages will never be possible given the inequities between the Global North and Global South. That is, in this strategy the South will be limited to produce what it has – commodities – in bigger quantities; while the North will focus on producing more technological and knowledge-based goods. The MST argues that this gap results in a dynamic that maintains inequality, dependency and environmental damages in the South (Roberts & Thanos, 2003). Social change and economic development can only be achieved if the structures of Brazilian society are modified; education can be an excellent tool to achieve this transformation. However, traditional schools in Brazil are a reflection of the dominant system and its ideas. As described earlier, the movement's core ideology rejects the very notion of a free-market. To provide access to education to the rural community, the MST built an alternative educational system that combines the movement's socialist ideologies with the model of critical pedagogy developed in Paulo Freire’s The Pedagogy of the Oppressed (Pahnke, 2017). This initiative was rooted in a horizontal learning system in which there is no hierarchy between educator and learner, a bottom-up approach to education structured by the active participation of learners in curriculum design and stipulation of necessary hours of study. More specifically, learners’ rural daily lives are a big part of the curriculum and school's schedule in this program. These schools base their schedule in a methodology known as alternative pedagogy (pedagogia da alternância) that alternates learners' activities between three months in the settlements3 and three months in school (Pahnke, 2017). The key feature of the MST is its conviction that all education is political – a belief shared by many social movements, including indigenous movements and ecofeminism, as will be demonstrated. In light of

3 Through this thesis this term will be used to reference MST’s communities that were formed within a plot of land that was previously considered unproductive and as such was fit for land reform.

4 this, it is not surprising that the MST regards education as a primary ideological battleground. In putting forward a transformative vision of school curriculum and classroom structure, the MST demonstrates its core values, just as conventional education enacts its core values of hierarchy (privileging teachers over student), inequality (systems of grade and differential access to education), and imperialism (privileging model of Western science and history). The MST considers a counterhegemonic pedagogy vital to confront and replace these core values in its educational model.

Similar to the emphasis on a bottom-up approach to education in Freire's pedagogy (Freire, 2013), Ecofeminism puts forward a model of knowledge that is non- hierarchical and asserts that Indigenous knowledge can contribute to environmental and social justice. Ecofeminism is rooted in the analysis of how gender oppression and the destruction of the natural world align. Ecofeminism points to a similarity between the oppression imposed on women by the dominant system (patriarchy) and the oppression and exploitation expressed by the same system on nature. Both women and nature are seen as objects with no agency and rejected due to their natural diversity. That is, they are both defined by what they are not4, as the "Other," the not-man category; so, they couldn’t be included in the patriarchal idea of male sameness (Shiva, 2006, p.238; Beauvoir, 2006, p.116). For that reason, Ecofeminism understands sustainable development as a necessary connection between a sustainable/regenerative economic system and an egalitarian society, since it sees inequality as a multifactorial phenomenon that overlaps the oppression caused by patriarchy, colonialism, and capitalism. Moreover, ecofeminists argue that sustainability can only be achieved through the acceptance of human interdependence with nature and with each other, through the acknowledgment of the intrinsic value of life (non-commodification), and lastly through traditional knowledges of how to work the land sustainably (Glazebrook, 2012).

Overall, both Ecofeminism and the MST incorporate a transformative way of thinking and acting. They both advocate for sustainable development instead of capitalist relations of production and exchange, the intrinsic value of life over its commodification, an appreciation of the rural way of living and traditional knowledges instead of the dominant, colonial way of thinking that the notion of free-market capitalism embodies.

4 The passive voice here is used with the intention of showing that the dominant culture’s definitions of “women” and “nature” relates to their lack of agency, and its multilayer and multifaceted interactions with oppression.

5 Considering this overlap of ideologies, it seems logical that we explore a crucial tool of the MST vision of social transformation – the rural schools – to explore whether MST’s model of radical pedagogy is actually realized in practice. The alternative educational system present in the rural schools of the MST is a fundamental reflection of the movement's program of social change, and as such, is a significant element in the pursuit of their primary goal: sustainable development and social justice.

1.3. Research Objective and Methods

From the beginning of the research, it was clear to me that my objective would require a better understanding of the role of women and sustainable development in the educational system of one of the most important social movements in Brazil. There seemed to be a large number of studies regarding the institutionalization of the movement through education, and the ideals of the MST’s education. However, there was a gap in the literature regarding the implementation of these ideas in a public education setting. For that reason, I decided to pursue field research on how the MST advances its program for social transformation through educational programs.

Initially, I applied to pursue my field research in São Paulo, my home town. However, accessing the movement was no simple task. Various Brazilian governments have opposed the MST movement, resulting in them being labelled as a violent and anti- government movement. As a result, major media outlets perpetuated the view of the MST as a negative force 5 . Consequently, the movement is careful regarding the authorization of research on their camps and settlements. Due to this difficulty, my initial project to pursue a study in São Paulo had to be abandoned. I was only authorized (by Marcia M. Ramos, a member of the National Collective of Education of the MST) to visit the CECC in Lapa, a municipality of the Brazilian state of Paraná. The director of the school authorized me to visit the premises only on Wednesdays, since that was a day the teachers had more free time to accommodate my research. In addition to these difficulties, my research coincided with an election period filled with political instabilities, riots, and

5 The movement participants and supporters has been marginalized because they defined its forms of struggle through land occupations and encampments; sit-ins in public buildings, public squares, rally with interruption of highways, hunger strikes, among other strategies of struggle. And these methods are considered disruptive to a status quo that defend the interest of agribusiness, a sector that represent a significant portion of Brazil’s economy.

6 protest. In total I conducted 10 interviews, 6 with teachers, 1 with the school secretary, 1 with the child educator specialist, 1 with a member of the National Collective of Education of the MST and 1 with a professor from UFPR (Paraná Federal University) who worked with the school multiple times. All the interviews were carried on in Portuguese and later translated by me into English for the purpose of this thesis. Those interviews were semi- structured. As I observed the dynamics of the school and their Political Pedagogical Project, I refined my questions so I could have a deeper understanding of the role of women and sustainable development inside the Colégio Estadual do Campo Contestado.

1.4. Outline

This thesis includes four Chapters including the Introduction Chapter and conclusion Chapter. Chapter two begins with the origins of Ecofeminism by highlighting the patterns of domination that link women and nature. It will present a brief background on land concentration in Brazil, the emergence of peasant resistance and the dynamics of gender struggle inside the agrarian resistance movement. As a result, we arrive at the overlapping ideological and pedagogical tenets between Ecofeminism and the MST. Chapter three applies my case study research to describe the structure of CECC and investigates how these overlapping elements between the MST and Ecofeminism educational framework are implemented on the ground. Lastly, the conclusion addresses the future challenges to the implementations of a horizontal model of education at Contestado imposed by the new conservative Brazilian federal government, the MST’s possible reactions, and how Ecofeminism can contribute to overcome these difficulties in pedagogical implementation.

7 Chapter 2. Congruences between Ecofeminism and the MST – Ideological and Pedagogical tenets

In order to answer the first research question regarding the possible overlaps between the MST and Ecofeminism, we first need to comprehend why and with what purpose Ecofeminism emerged. Next, we will explain the background of land concentration in Brazil, the emergence of peasant resistance, and the dynamics of gender struggle within the agrarian resistance movement. Finally, it is important to explore the commonalities between the ideological tenets and pedagogical models of the MST and Ecofeminism.

2.1. The emergence of Ecofeminism

In addition to being an ideology, Ecofeminism is a social movement that advocates planetary survival, social justice, and resistance to the widespread oppression of women and nature. The name Ecofeminism originated from Françoise d’Eaubonne’s 1974 publication, Le Féminism ou la mort, in which the author highlighted the need for a feminist revolution to ensure global survival. However, the 1970’s Chipko Movement, an organization of Himalayan Indian women to protect their forest, is widely cited as the movement that initiated Ecofeminism (Mack-Canty, 2004). Rosemary Radford Ruether (1997) states that “Ecofeminism brings together these two explorations of ecology and feminism, in their full, or deep forms, and explores how male domination of women and domination of nature are interconnected, both in cultural ideology and in social structures” (cited in Howell, p.232). This new perspective relating the oppression of women and nature emerged between the 2nd and 3rd waves of feminism. To understand core ideological tenets of Ecofeminism, it is important that we first understand the path of the feminist movement.

Commentators typically divide gender-based social struggles into three waves. The first wave extends from the end of the 19th century through the beginning of the 20th, and arose in the context of industrial societies and liberal-democratic politics in the United States and Europe. Its main concerns were equal access and opportunities for women, more specifically the right to vote; and the rejection of both women’s domesticity and women’s alleged biological inferiority by men. Even though this wave had a participation

8 of the abolitionist movement and the working class, it was mainly composed of white, middle-class, well-educated women. The focus of 1st wave of feminism on solving women’s subjugation by propelling women into the public sphere neglected the needs of non-heterosexual and non-white women. This negligence contributed to the 2nd wave of feminism (1960s to 1990s), that was rooted in the claim that gender was socially constructed and not a product of biology, and that women’s access to institutions was not enough to guarantee equality, since those institutions were a reflection of a culture that saw women as inferior beings. The slogan of that period was “the personal is political” which indicated that the personal experience of each woman wasn’t an isolated matter but a structural problem within society and it needed to be addressed as such. This period achieved many victories, but the idea of sameness, of a singularity of female experience remained, and even though an “identity politics” that addressed different women’s experiences was emerging, it was still very compartmentalized. A feminist 3rd wave erupted in the mid-1990s with a focus on the deconstruction of gender as a binary phenomenon, an appreciation of subjugated knowledge and a call for acknowledgement of the intersectional aspect of human beings (Krolokke and Sorenson, 2005). Mari Matsuda (2006), argues that we are not binary beings, and as such cannot be defined by only one sphere of our lives. Human beings are a complex interaction of multiple dimensions and that complexity is what generates our thoughts and our identities. This is especially relevant to feminism as this understanding of identity highlighted the need to coincide many overlapping and intersecting sources of oppression in women’s lives. In other words, women have very different experiences and as such different types of oppression. A white woman and a black woman will have different experiences. Both women suffer with the oppression of patriarchy, but only one of them suffers oppression from patriarchy and racism. According to Patricia Hill Collins (2006) we must recognize the intersectional aspect of humanity and feminism, because to ignore those experiences is to ignore the struggle of others.

It was in this context of 3rd wave feminism, attuned to the reconstruction of connections between women and nature, that Ecofeminism emerged. In Mack-Canty’s (2004) words “From ecology, it [Ecofeminism ] learns to value the interdependence and diversity of all life forms; from feminism, it gains the insights of a social analysis of women's oppression that intersects with other oppressions such as racism, colonialism, classism, and heterosexism” (p.169). These connections are also present in MST’s ideological and

9 pedagogical tenets. However, before we explore the overlaps between the MST and Ecofeminism, let us highlight the historic emergence of MST in Brazil and the dynamics of gender struggles within MST.

2.2. The emergence of the MST

2.2.1. Land concentration in Brazil

The main objectives of the Brazilian Landless Workers’ Movement (the MST) are to fight for land, land reform, and a society that expresses social justice and solidarity. Thus, to understand the role of this movement in Brazilian society, it is necessary to comprehend the dynamics between power and land that disrupted Indigenous control over the territory and trapped Brazil in a system of inequality and exploitation. Since its arrival, the Portuguese crown considered Brazilian territory an object of desire, a means to an end: the enrichment of the crown. The intentions of the Portuguese crown were never to settle in Brazil, but to exploit its resources. The Portuguese crown considered the Indigenous population inferior and savage. In the colonizer's eyes "civilizing" natives meant "saving" this population and at the same time guaranteeing a smoother implementation of a resource extraction operation. At the beginning of colonization, a method of land grant named sesmarias was established in the territory. This system guaranteed that all land would be productive. Because, in order to maintain ownership, owners had an obligation to work the land. However, the sesmarias system sanctioned the colonizer elite to distribute extensive areas of land to private interest (Wolford, 2010, p. 38).

Likewise, the process of land concentration has deep connections with slavery in the Americas and the privatization of land. Since the sixteenth century, the Indigenous population fought against captivity and slavery. However, with the expansion of the sugar cane industry, slavery gained force in Brazil. Natives resisted subjugation for many years, but eventually they were overcome by mass territory invasion and the decimation of most of their people. With inadequate labor to operate the sugar cane industry, Portugal decided to bring slave-laborers from Africa (Fernandes, 1999; Tarlau, 2014). It is estimated that at the end of the sixteenth century, there were “fifteen thousand black slaves in Brazil, which constituted seventy percent of the labor force on plantations. In the Northeast part of Brazil, slaves made up half of the population, and nearly two-thirds of the population in

10 sugar cane regions” (Williamson, as cited by Tarlau, 2014, p.5). In 1850 Brazil incorporated a new land law (Lei de Terras). This law had a significant impact on Brazilian land distribution system. Instead of owning the land by working it, now people could only own the land if they purchased it. As a result, banks began to accept land, instead of slaves, as collateral for credit. The commodification of land encouraged large-scale property, and land ownership by making it difficult for small land farmers to own the land they lived in; it also constrained the conditions for squatting. In 1888, when Brazil officially abolished slavery, the recently freed black population had no means to acquire land. Meanwhile, local elites bypassed the difficulty of acquiring property through land grabbing and falsification of land deeds.

With the end of slavery, the Brazilian government decided to promote international migration to fill the labor gap. In the eyes of rural elite, local labor was no longer a viable option. Land owners considered that former slaves wouldn’t work hard enough, now that they were free. In the 1870s, the SP state government began to encourage immigration from Germany and Italy, since both regions had a long peasant history and were also considered “civilized” enough to work with the elite. It was also an effort to “whiten” the population (Wolford, 2010, p. 39). European immigrants received a plot of land once they entered the country, but in general, most of them were trapped in an unfair work contract. However, due to immigrant’s previous knowledge in their rights as workers and high pressure from their country of origin governments, in 1890 such arrangements became illegal. The result, however, was not as expected. There was a mass eviction of immigrant and traditional workers from the plantations. These workers were left with only three options: go to the cities, São Paulo in particular; move South in an attempt to acquire land of their own; or move back to their country of origin. Most of these workers decided to go South in search of land (Wolford, 2010).

This history of land use and distribution is responsible for the foundations of modern inequality in Brazil. This dynamic created a cycle of concentration of power and land in the hands of a few, generating poverty and unequal access to infrastructure in rural areas for many years.

11 2.2.2. The peasant resistance

Even though there were many resistance movements throughout colonization and the beginning of the republic, it was the expansion of coffee production during the 1830’s that sparked peasant political action. Not only did coffee production attract foreign capital for the first time, but it also created a domestic market for commodities. The laborers on the plantation no longer had the permission to grow other types of food besides coffee. This prohibition forced them to purchase, instead of cultivating, all the other goods essential for life. With time, the economy became more modern, and the government began to direct investment into the Southeast, the region with the biggest coffee production of the country (Wolford, 2010). Consequently, there was an unequal development between the North and the South of Brazil. The Northeast was forgotten, left in the hand of a rural oligarchy that exercised “absolute authority in the countryside” (Tarlau, 2014, p.5). As a result, many landless workers migrated in search of land. In Bahia, a resistance movement arose against the rural oligarchy of the Northeast. According to Bernardo Fernandes (1999):

The landless peasants camped at the Canudos farm in 1893, and they started calling it Belo Monte. The economic organization was carried out through cooperative work, which was essential for the reproduction of the community. All were entitled to land and developed family production, ensuring a common pool for a portion of the population, especially the old and the helpless, who had no way of subsisting in dignity (p.3).

Canudos was the greatest example of organized peasant resistance in Brazil. However, the resistance was accused of defending the monarchy, which had been overthrown in 1889, giving the oligarchic but formally-republican government an excuse to attack the camp and defend the interests of the coffee monoculture economy. More than ten thousand peasants were massacred in one year, from October 1896 to October of 1897 (Fernandes, 1999). Like Canudos, a resistance movement on the South was also initiated as a response to the expansion of coffee production. With the expansion of the coffee market in Brazil, the government saw the need to build a railroad that would efficiently distribute the production. This led the government to concede development rights to a foreign company to build a railroad system between Rio Grande do Sul and São Paulo, and with it the ownership of the area revolving the railroad (15km on each side), including a region that was being contested by the states of Paraná and Rio Grande do Sul. As a result, many farmers were dispossessed of the lands near the railroad, especially the ones

12 in the contested area. The combination of national consent to build the railroad and the local rivalry between the states initiated a war between landless migrants, Paraná and Rio Grande do Sul states. The “Contestado” war gathered almost 30,000 rebels against the government. They organized themselves in collectives and followed principles of equality and non-commercial exchange of goods. The resistance lasted until 1915, when the government finally eliminated the rebel camps (Wolford, 2010).

Nonetheless, the rural resistance movement persisted throughout the years. The resistance falls into three significant periods marked by which organization had leadership of rural resistance at the time: Peasant League, CONTAG, and the MST. The Peasant League characterized the first period of peasant resistance. The PL was an organization of rural workers created by Brazilian Communist Party (PCB) in the 1940s and was one of the most important movements for agrarian reform and improvement in rural living conditions. Its most relevant contribution to the peasant resistance was the ability to help PCB pressure the National Constituent Assembly (Assembleia Nacional Constituinte) to include the agrarian issue in the new Constitution in 1946 (Fernandes, 1999; Welch, 2009). The outcome was an original article that allowed for land expropriation, but the conditions of the dispossession that insured compensation had to be “prior, just, and monetary effectively,” making the application almost impossible (Wolford, 2010, p. 43). The second period begins with the creation of the National Confederation of Agricultural Workers (CONTAG) in 1954. CONTAG was created out of a struggle for the support of rural workers between a progressive section of the Catholic Church and the PCB. The strength of the peasant resistance was growing and the support of the support of the Church gave momentum to the struggle. João Goulart, Brazilian president at that time, designed CONTAG as an attempt to remedy the historical gap between urban and rural workers that had been aggravated by Getúlio Vargas’ Work Laws Consolidation (CLT) program. The CLT increased the protection of urban workers, but it didn’t extend the same rights to rural workers, creating a bigger gap between the two groups (Fernandes, 2000). By assuring that CONTAG was a national organization, the government could give rural workers the “right to collective bargaining,” while maintaining control over peasant resistance. Unfortunately for elite landowners, CONTAG’s leadership was constituted by communist activists. The new direction of progressive agrarian reform defended by Goulart in a context of Cold-War paranoia about the raising of Communist threats in the Western hemisphere, raised the attention of the military elite (Tarlau, 2014). In a desperate

13 attempt to control the situation and suppress a possible upcoming of the rural resistance, the military elite carried out a coup, and in 1964 an authoritarian military government took over the country.

The third period of peasant resistance is characterized by the emergence of the Brazilian Landless Workers’ Movement. The new military government was responsible for increasing inequality in Brazil, fueling, even more, the rural defiance movement. With the help of the progressive branch of Catholic Church, this resistance culminated in the creation of the MST. The authoritarian regime controlled the country for more than 20 years (1964-1985), with repression of rural resistance and increased industrialization as its primary objective. Suppression of all opposition was the most characteristic feature of this government. Along with democracy advocates and human rights activists, the military dictatorship suppressed peasant movements, by persecuting, humiliating, murdering and exiling anyone that dared to challenge the state. On another front, an elusive land distribution program controlled the claim for agrarian reforms. Colonization of the Northern border was promoted with the intent to control the agrarian problem by diverging from agrarian reform. Families seeking land received a plot in areas of difficult cultivation like the Amazonian basin and the Centre West savannas as a way to calm the demands for land reform. However, they did not receive any other type of support (technical, economic, medical) to make these plots viable for cultivation. As a result, many families returned with frustration to the South, fueling the sentiment of resistance (Fernandes, 2000; Wolford, 2010).

Meanwhile, the military government was concerned with transforming Brazil into an export economy and including the country in the Green Revolution that was spreading throughout the world. Latin American countries were starting to apply modern technology to agricultural production. The goal was the substitution of traditional farming procedures by large scale, mechanized mono-crop export production, vast irrigation systems, along with “high-yielding” varieties of seed that were developed in laboratories and “seed- specific agrochemicals to feed the plants and control pests” (Timmons, Thanos, and Helvarg, 2003, p.68-69). The idea was to modernize the agricultural sector and increase Brazil’s competitiveness in the global market to increase revenues and decrease the costs of urban life. In an attempt to industrialize agriculture, landowners received multiple incentives that resulted in land concentration and the urban migration of many rural workers. Despite the initial success in the South, the consequences for land concentration

14 and social well-being were drastic. Lower salaries in the city and further inequality was the result of all those changes in the government perception of development. This new decrease of standard of living was a topic of regular discussion in the Base Ecclesial Communities (CEB – Comunidades Eclesiais de Base) of the Catholic Church, a space that supported the peasant organization during the oppressive military regime. The Catholic Church experienced a transformation due to Liberation Theology, and as a result, they became a force against the state in support of agrarian reform (Wohnrath, 2017). The Catholic Church became a participant in the land struggle through the Pastoral Land Commission (CPT), an organization that was responsible for articulating the different experiences of the new reality of the Brazilian countryside. By the end of the 1970s, CEBs had become a space for dialogue and learning on how to transform the existent state of affairs through land struggle and the refusal of top-down “conservative modernization” (Fernandes, 2000, p.49-50). From that moment on, rural family resistance towards government policies turned into protest that advocated for land distribution through occupation strategies. The creation of the Landless Workers Movement was a result of these occupations in the South of Brazil, and in 1984, the MST took its first steps (Walford, 2004).

2.2.3. The gender struggle within the MST

The MST aims to: (1) build a society without exploitation in which work has supremacy over capital; (2) re-define land as a good of all that must be at the service of all in society; (3) guarantee work for all, with fair distribution of land, income and wealth; (4) permanently seek social justice and equal economic, political, social and cultural rights; (5) disseminate humanist and socialist knowledge in social relations; (6) combat all forms of social discrimination and seek the equal participation of women (Bauer, 2016). According to their online manifesto:

Striving for a more just and solidary society means that conventional workers and landless workers support and engage in initiatives that seek to solve the serious structural problems of our country, such as social and income inequality, discrimination of ethnicity and gender , the concentration of communication, the exploitation of the urban worker, etc. We know that the solution to these problems will only be possible through a Popular Project for Brazil - fruit of the organization and mobilization of the workers. And we trust that carrying an Agrarian Reform, democratizing access to land and producing food, is our most effective contribution to the realization of a Popular Project. Therefore, the MST also participates in articulations

15 and organizations that seek to transform reality and guarantee social rights. Nationally, we participate in the National Forum of Agrarian Reform, Coordination of Social Movements and permanent or conjuncture campaigns. Internationally, we are part of Via Campesina, an initiative that unites social movements from five continents (MST, 2014).

As can be seen by MST’s goals and manifesto, the movement’s ideological tenets have a considerable overlap with feminist principles. However, this feminist perspective was not always a focus within the movement; rather, it was an achievement of women’s struggle within the broader land struggle. For that reason, it is important to consider the path of women’s empowerment inside the MST. But we must first understand the definition of empowerment used within MST.

According to Srilatha Batliwala (cited by Schwendler, 2015b, p.104) empowerment enables a transformation of social power through three simultaneous dimensions. First, through the change of ideology that justifies social inequality; second, through the transformation of the pattern of access and control over economic, natural, and intellectual resources; and third, through the change in institutions and structures that reinforces and reproduces the existing structural power. From these three dimensions we can comprehend if and how the participation of women in Brazilian Ladles Worker’s Movement have contributed to changes in oppressive patriarchal ideology, in access and control of resources, and significant changes in institutions.

Women have always been present in the struggle for land in Brazil. They played an essential role in democracy movements during the oppressive years of the military regime, not only did opposing as armed guerrillas in violent resistance movements, but also as a great force opposing human rights abuses and against the development plan of the military regime that culminated in economic crisis. During the dictatorship, many members of the resistance were killed, imprisoned, and exiled. Curiously, it was through political exile that many women in the resistance learned about feminist ideas. This contact was essential for women's initial organization inside the land struggle. At the beginning of the Landless Worker's Movement, there was still an understanding that gender issues and women's participation would be solved through class struggle and the implementation of socialism. Therefore, it was thought that the struggle for social transformation, understood as a general phenomenon, should take precedence over specific struggles, such as gender equality. However, as soon as women started to realize that men had more opportunities to participate in training, and in political decision-making, and that this

16 difference in opportunity gave men further chances in taking leadership roles they began to organize themselves and question their political participation in the movement (Schwendler, 2013). In the same manner, women began to question their systematic exclusion from land reform proposals. Even though the 1988 Constitution guaranteed women's right to land, rural communities and government institutions ignored the application of the law. This exclusion of women from landownership was multifactorial. First, the agrarian reform programs were designed to benefit the peasant community through the head of the family. According to the Brazilian civil code, men were the representatives of the family, which entailed the control over property. Despite modifications to the law, this dynamic was still culturally perpetuated. Second, almost all agrarian reform policies were directed to the farmer. Within the logic of the sexual division of labor, men had been socially recognized to play this role, while, women’s work in agriculture has been conceived as supplemental, as an extension of women’s domestic labor. Rural dynamics, the government and the law saw women's land’s rights as incompatible with the goal of transforming the latifundium structure through the distribution of land and the formation of family production units (Schwendler, 2015a).

Due to this gender gap inside the MST, women realized that a class struggle would not automatically solve gender inequalities and that they needed to campaign for their rights. Miriam Nobre and Nalu Faria (cited by Schwendler, 2015a), explain that gender relations structure the whole of social relations and, therefore, there is no contradiction between gender issues (which would be specific) and social issues (which would be general) as claimed by the peasant resistance. The space of work, politics, and culture are also organized according to masculine and feminine roles. Therefore, there is no separation between a general and a specific struggle. In all the situations that we want to change, we must consider the existent inequalities between men and women and strive to overcome them. In that sense, women needed a space to question the submissive role imposed on them by the church, the union, and social movements; a place where they could develop their strategic interest. In the mid-1980s, women created he Rural Women Workers' Movement (MMTR) to fulfill this need for political space for them in the peasant struggle. This organization also brought attention to the invisibility of female agricultural workers in the countryside. The sexual division of labor that was still present in the Brazilian countryside was characterized by a clear hierarchy of power, that consolidated patriarchal control. It contributed and still contributes, to women staying inside the houses,

17 being responsible for the care of the home and children, working without pay to secure the basis for the productive work which until recently was mostly carried out by men. The MMTR had as an objective, the dismantling of this dynamic and appreciation of women's agrarian work (Marra, 2017).

By pressuring the Brazilian government, the MMTR guaranteed women's right to land in the 1988 Constitution. Equally important was the National Women's Commission of the MST that was created in the early 1980s. It came to fulfill a need for a female political space inside the movement. This commission advocated for the support of women's organization within the movement, by state and settlement leaders. As a result, in September 1989, a Chapter written by them was included in the first edition of the General Norms of the MST regarding women's rights. More specifically, it referred to women's organization within the movement, highlighting the importance of the struggle against all forms of discrimination and machismo. It also focused on organizing a national level commission of women, responsible for proposing policies with a gender perspective to the MST. Following this achievement, in 1996, at the National Meeting of Militant Women of the MST, the Collective of Women of the MST was created, and the outcome was the compilation of a booklet that discussed how gender domination was historically constructed, and how this discrimination manifests itself in society in general, and internally in the MST. More specifically, the booklet focused on the challenges faced by the MST's women. It outlined concerns regarding the reflection of women’s issues in MST’s political guideline. The booklet presented a practical plan of action to dismantle gender inequality inside the movement (Morais, 2018).

The awareness and agency that allowed these women to assert their ground in the peasant resistance movement area reflection of four elements of empowerment. First, the Green Revolution triggered by the transnational capitalism implemented by the military regime affected women at a deeper level than it affected men. Women’s work was undermined by mechanization and fertilization process of the Green Revolution. Inequality in the labor market was not created by agribusiness implementation, but it definitely enlarged the gap. As the commodification of food gained force in the Brazilian economy, women were excluded from agriculture or precariously included (Campos, 2011). According to Izabel Grein, a former member of the MST's national coordination (cited by Schwedler, 2013), the organization of women was born out of this expulsion of women from the agriculture sector and their campaign to be considered farmers.

18 Second, the contact with feminist movement during the exile period of the military regime and the participation in democracy movements in the same period contributed to women's awareness of their social condition. The first women to fight for participation in the MST were members of the leftist party resistance, union oppositions, and the Pastoral Land Commission. They already had some degree of political consciousness (Schwendler, 2015).

Third, the discourse of the Landless Worker's Movement where members identity was framed around the family of the countryside allowed women to participate in the movement. Challenging the idea promoted by the civil code, the MST saw family not as a unit. Thus, it allowed voice to women, children and the elderly within it. Unlike other political spaces that separated militancy from conjugal, and family relationships and conditions, the MST involved the entire family in its struggles and political manifestations, by placing in its discourse the economic, social and political concerns of the "rural working family" (Furlin, 2013. p.249). As women become participants in the land struggle they began to participate in marches and occupation; this participation blurred the limits between the domestic and the public spheres, providing them with an agency they did not have before. These new dynamics trigger new relationships within the family and the community. At the same time, women began to articulate different types of struggles in the context of the movement. As their attention shifted more to the public sphere, these women began to question their own conditions. In short, through the struggle for land, women rebuilt their consciousness, their culture, and become part of an effort to create a counter-hegemonic culture to the patriarchal society that limited their actions for so many years (Schwendler, 2015a).

Fourth, the involvement with transnational peasant organizations like Via Campesina and Latin American Coordination of Land Organizations (CLOC) helped women to achieve legislative equality inside the MST. Their participation in the Women's Assembly, which occurs prior to Via Campesina conferences, expanded their training and bargaining power to participate in the debate on agrarian issues and to set a gender agenda within the class struggle and the state’s policies (Schwendler, 2015b). It was the strength of these two organizations that contributed to the acceptance of gender agendas by the male participants in peasant movements. In the MST’s IV Congress in 2000, a norm

19 was established to guarantee that every base nuclei6 would be equally coordinated by one man and one woman (Tarrega and Schwendler, 2015). The historic exclusion of women from agriculture, the contact with other resistance movements (feminism and democracy), the militant status extension to all members of the family and the achievement of gender parity through transnational organizations; all supported women’s empowerment inside the MST.

2.3. Overlaps: ideological and pedagogical tenets

2.3.1. Ideological tenets overlap

The MST and Ecofeminism share similar perspectives regarding social justice, development and epistemology. This section explores how these two frameworks converge on these three topics. However, before going into the overlaps, it seems relevant to explain why they matter. One may state that the intersectional aspect of social justice is an element present in many other movements like the feminist movement, for example. In the same manner, it is possible to state that the critique of the hegemonic concept of development is something already argued by the dependency theory and by many leftist movements. One might also say that the interdependence between human and more than human nature is an argument from the ecology movement. Nonetheless, the way Ecofeminism articulates these elements is what matters here. That is, Ecofeminism understands that we, as individuals, are composed of multiples facets and that we cannot be constraint by a binary system. Moreover, it argues that the continued ignorance of the complexity of human and more-than-human nature; and appreciation of sameness instead of diversity through a binary and hierarchical system, creates a dysfunctional idea of development that has led us to inequality and environmental destruction. Ultimately, Ecofeminism argues that this scenario can only be repaired by a change in our way of thinking.

Intersectional aspect of social justice

6 In the encampment, families are organized through base nuclei, with a division of labor, such as food, hygiene, health, education, leisure, finances and so on. There is a general coordination of the encampment, and the main decisions are made in the general assembly of the encamped families” (Caldart, cited by Schwendler, 2013.p.82)

20 Ecofeminism and the MST both understand oppression as a multilayered system of domination in which social justice can only be achieved if all these layers of domination are dismantled. More precisely, the same system that oppresses class, also oppresses gender, race, sexuality, physical ability and age. So, to defeat one you must defeat all. To comprehend the intersectional aspect of social justice articulated by Ecofeminism, we must understand the concept of Otherness, and how this concept relates to oppression.

Simone de Beauvoir (2006) explains the connection of Otherness with oppression in the context of gender subjugation. De Beauvoir rejects the idea that gender is defined by biology; instead she argues that gender is socially constructed. She states that patriarchy, a system of hierarchy and domination, dominates society and that subordinates everything that is outside the realm of male experience. In that sense, everything that is male becomes both neutral and masculine and everything that is not, becomes the “Other”, feminine, and as such rejected. A binary logic is central to this idea in which women are defined not by what they are, but what they are not. Women becomes the strange, the alien, what masculinity does not want or does not have. This duality is not equal, not just two different sides, but hierarchical, one superior and one inferior. Everything considered good, becomes neutral/human, attached to masculinity; while all that is unwanted is associated with the Other. It is not possible to talk about one binary without evoking the other as preferred or inferior: self/other, men/women, culture/nature, human/animal, mind/body.

In the realm of ecofeminism, Colleen Mack-Canty (2004) extended this logic of non-male-experience category to nature to explain the connections between women, environment and domination. Nature and culture are a dualism in which men are the representative of culture and as such cannot be constrained by nature; they must have supremacy over natural process. That way “men were identified with disembodied characteristics such as order, freedom, light, and reason, which were seen as better than, and in opposition to, women's allegedly more ‘natural’ and/or embodied characteristics such as disorder, physical necessity, darkness, and passion” (Brown cited by Mack-Canty, 2004, p.155). This process creates a division where the ones identified as privileged (white male) take a central position and all the other groups become marginalized, disempowered and subordinated to this center; they become inferior and powerless. By isolating nature (or any “Other” category like people of color, women, children, poor people, rural workers), this dynamic render these groups as unnecessary, depriving this

21 group of agency, and as result, erasing them from the decision-making process. This framing ignores the interdependence between humans and nature, it reinforces a vision of nature as a “resource” with no limits (Harvester & Blenkinsop, 2011). In summary, the oppressive patriarchal system that we live in supports the behaviour that preserves the subjection of all Other categories.

Human beings do not conform neatly to established identity categories; they are a result of a complex interaction of factors and as such experience oppression in different ways. They are intersectional (Matsuda, 2006). Both Ecofeminism and the MST consider the understanding of these intersections as a fundamental step towards the construction of an egalitarian society. Moreover, both ideologies recognize the need to address the overlapping systems of oppression in the search for social justice. This system subjugates everything and everyone that does not match the white male category; and deconstructing/liberating these systems is the only way to empower marginalized humans and more-than-human nature. Initially the MST was strictly a response to high levels of concentration of land ownership in Brazil; but over time, the movement broadened its concerns with regards to establishing the long-term goal of social justice (MST, 2014).

This broader objective relates to the MST’s perception of social disparity as an intricate circumstance, composed of multiple factors. In other words, inequality in Brazil is perceived by the movement as a result of constant domination and exploitation from colonial times, of generations being diminished by a hierarchical system that embodies and enacts the core ideals of capitalism. Contrary to the intersectional perception of humanity, capitalism strives for sameness, it reinforces the system of Otherness (Nossa História, 2014)7. In contradiction to the hegemonic capitalist view, MST’s main premises and vision, recognizes and reinforces the importance of intersectionality. Premise four of MST’s objectives reinforces the search for social justice that entails equal economic, political, social and cultural rights. Premise six envisions the struggle against all forms of discrimination and the fostering of women’s participation in the movement. In all, MST’s manifesto is clear regarding its intensions to create a just and solidary society through the dismantling of structural inequalities in multiple aspects of life: class, race, gender,

7 These connections will be further explored in the overlap regarding development

22 geography, age, etc.: in sum, a rejection of status quo and the pursuit of solidarity and autonomy.

This rejection of status quo pertains more specifically to both MST and Ecofeminism ’s understanding of the role played by women in the struggle for social justice. As demonstrated in the section 2.2.3, the MST frame membership around a horizontal concept of family. That is, in the struggle for land all members of the family have agency. This consideration of all the voices within the family, especially women’s – a voice that has been historically silenced – demonstrates an acknowledgement of the unique perspective brought by women to land struggle. In addition, the participation dynamic of the MST contributes to agency and rejection of status quo. Participation has four phases: encampment, settlement, education and activism. In the confrontational phase of the encampments, peasant workers come out of a passive position to empowerment. A recognition of women’s value to the struggle, especially in this phase is what propelled the empowerment of MST’s women. In short, the Occupation strategies of the confrontational phase allow workers to pull themselves out of the margins and into the center of political participation; they reject the status of victimization and strive for agency (Martins, 2006).

Similarly, the non-confrontational phase carries on the importance of inclusive participation through collective work and settlement living. Mônica Martins (2006) emphasizes that this second phase is a way to build “sustainable actions of resistance” (p.271). After receiving land, the settlers engage in a democratic decision-making process in all aspects of community living. So, production, housing, marketing, health care, politics, culture, education, etc., are all decided collectively. Everyone has a voice in this process, including women and teenagers, groups that are usually marginalized form decision- making process (Martins, 2006).

Unachievable, Undesirable and Unsustainable aspect of catching-up development strategy

In addition to intersectionality, Ecofeminism and the MST recognize the short comings of the dominant concept of economic development. Both ideologies acknowledge that a catching-up strategy of development is undesirable, unachievable and unsustainable (Martins, 2006; Mies & Shiva, 2014). According to Ecofeminism and the MST, society needs to reject a capitalist, commodity culture, along with its catching-up

23 strategy. Both ideologies propose the adoption of an alternative, sustainable/regenerative economic system based on environmental justice (Martins, 2006; Mies & Shiva, 2014). The MST and Ecofeminism recognize an interdependence among humans and more- than-human nature and for that reason, they both encourage local agricultural production rooted in traditional knowledges of how to work the land, instead of mono-crop industrial production for exports.

As described in the previous section, each person has a different experience and the combination of these experiences dictates how they will experience oppression. According to Ecofeminism Global-South women are normally the ones mostly affected by environmental problems since they are normally the ones managing domestic chores, gathering of food, fuel and collection and distribution of water. In other words, they are the ones walking longer distances to find firewood because forests are being devastated to fulfill the never-ending necessity of “development.” Forest are vanishing to give place to livestock grazing, or to feed a lumber market. Women are the ones suffering from water contamination and scarcity, since they are responsible for gathering the water, yet thier labor is not recognized in development strategies. This means that “development policies and practices do not recognize the distinct gendered division of labor experienced by third world women, or gender, race, and class factors that contribute, even if unconsciously and unintentionally, to the subordination of women and people of color cross-culturally” (Warren, 2014, p. 1014). Catherine V. Gardner and Jeannette E. Riley (2007), the theory of Ecofeminism understand oppression as a result of multiple systems of domination, and it acknowledge that these systems are ecologically destructive.

Capitalism, imperialism (colonization), and patriarchy are the main systems that have contributed to the domination of women and nature according to Ecofeminism. The sexual division of labor approached by Charlotte Perkins Gilman is a key element of the endurance of capitalism. Gilman (1997) argues that capitalist economies can only prosper because patriarchy guaranteed a clear division between private and public sphere. Men are only able to show up for work with no concerns about meeting the necessities of life, because someone else (women) already fulfilled those needs. They can live in public sphere and focus only on economic activities because women are taking care of household activities; however, this female contribution has been overlooked and undervalued. In Gilman’s (1997) words:

24 “The labor of women in the house, certainly, enables men to produce more wealth that they otherwise could; and in this way women are economic factors in society. But so are horses. The labor of horses enables men to produce more wealth than they otherwise could. The horse is an economic factor in society. But the horse is not economically independent, nor is the woman” (p.7).

In the rendered separation of public and private, women’s work becomes invisible. The separation between private and public sphere subjugates women by associating them with the domestic, the household where labor is unpaid and informal, while economic growth is defined by and valued for occurring in the exact opposite sphere. Conventional feminism assume that this duality will be solved once women had access to the public sphere. However, Vandana Shiva (1997) argues that shifting spheres does not solve the problem. All work done in the household will continue to be seen as non-creative activity, non-productive, as nonwork. Ecofeminism affirms that household activities are productive and need to be recognized as such. The same logic is valid for sustainable activities. Which brings us to the question, what is productive work? Vandana Shiva (2014), explains that:

According to patriarchal economic models, production for sustenance is counted as ‘non-production’…GDP are based on the assumption that if producers consume what they produce, they do not in fact produce at all, because they fall outside the production boundary. The production boundary is a political creation that, in its workings, excludes regenerative and renewable production cycles from the area of production. Hence all women who produce for their families, children, community and society are treated as ‘non-productive’ and ‘economically inactive.’ When economies are confined to the marketplace, economic self-sufficiency is perceived as economic deficiency. The devaluation of women’s work, and of work done in subsistence economies of the South, is the natural outcome of a production boundary constructed by capitalist patriarchy (location 211- 226).

In the country side, this logic devalues women’s work even more, since the patriarchy of nuclear family not only forces women to be in the domestic sphere erasing the value of their work inside the house; it also devalues the work women do outside the home since subsistence agriculture is not considered work. Ecofeminism argues that capitalist economics does not see the intrinsic value of life; instead it reinforces the commodification of life. Furthermore, ecofeminists link diversity with social justice through an appreciation of the intrinsic value of life. That is, if nature and women are defined by not being part of the male experience, then we can say that both are defined by being diverse. To

25 Ecofeminism this diversity is what brings significance to nature and humanity. Following this logic, women, person of color, the poor and all “other” categorized humans should be acknowledged for their own intrinsic value (Howell, 1997).

In addition, the logic of productivity extends to the national level, resulting in a scenario where a country is not considered productive if its production is consumed only by its own people; that is, a national production will only have value, if traded with other countries of the international system. Maria Mies (2014) expand this logic of productivity to tackle development strategies and how undesirable, unachievable, and unsustainable they can be. The recent model of development is based on the idea that the preferred scenario for the entire planet is the one experienced by wealthy societies of the Global North, like Europe, Japan and Unites States. It is through a “catching-up development” strategy that the “Others” (poor in North, South, peasants, women) will achieve the “good life” led by the wealthy North. However, the history of underdeveloped countries, regions of the South, East Europe and East Germany tell us otherwise. The myth of catching-up development is how Mies refers to this gap, since this strategy is impossible to be achieved by previously colonized territories. That is, as one developing country achieve what was considered the peak of development, the industrial centers will have reached a higher stage of development (technological progress). Considering that colonization is based on exploitation of the colonized, the catching-up for the colonized will always be a losing game. In addition, along with being unachievable, this strategy is ecologically unsustainable. The planet cannot stand the destruction produced if all countries had similar production and life-style as the affluent North. We live in a limited world and the only way the wealthy North can keep producing as if the world had infinite natural resources, is by transferring the consequences of this behaviour to the Global South:

The economic, social and ecological costs of constant growth in the industrialized countries have been and are shifted to the colonized countries of the South, to those countries’ environment and their peoples. Only by dividing the international workforce into workers in the colonized peripheries and workers in the industrialized centers and by maintaining these relations of dominance even after formal decolonization, is it possible for industrial countries’ workers to be paid wages ten times and more higher than those paid to workers in the South (Mies & Shiva, 2014, p.58).

The catching-up strategy imposes a capitalist industrial food model onto the South. This model has its roots on mass scale production, an activity that requires high intensity industrial farming. Intensive use of capital is necessary, and only big corporations can

26 fulfill this necessity, leaving small producers with only two options: abandon their local production to work in corporate plantations or move to the city. The constant exploitation of the soil and water, and usage of chemicals in mono crop fields results in a devastating disruption of the ecosystem. This type of production results in contamination of soil and water, culminating in health problems for the workers, the populations and ecosystems around the plantation area. As an alternative, many peasants leave for the city, but without capital to live in urban areas, those workers end up living in poverty, while in the countryside, the spread of industrialized-chemical based mono crops plantation, transforms food production into a market-oriented system. Agriculture has been turned into an agro-business and instead of producing a variety of food to feed the population, it provides the cash crops the market values most, even if that means various plantations of grains that are used to feed livestock, or used in highly ultra-processed food, such as soy. This food production system ignores the delicate and finite aspect of nature, the use of chemicals in the major mono-crops plantations, generates displacement of workers to the cities, affects the safety and health of the population and the environment, and ultimately triggers food insecurity (Mittal & Rosset, 2001).

Colonization thus contributed to environmental destruction and women’s subjugation. It created a dynamic of savior and victim between colonizers and the local population as a way to create a logical reason for the new system. In this process, Indigenous knowledge was replaced by colonizer’s knowledge and the result was the erasure of sustainable agriculture and local knowledges of how to work the land and an introduction of an industrialized, monoculture model that resulted in land concentration and environmental destruction. This new economic system imposed by colonization erased the intrinsic value of life, replacing it by the commodification of life (Shiva, 2006). The disruption of the connection between land and men was another effect of colonization. Indigenous men were enculturated and indoctrinated while working on big industrialized mono crops outside their household, exposed to different ways of thinking and lifestyles. At the same time, colonization introduced patriarchy to the Indigenous way of life, stripping away women’s role from society and secluding them in the private sphere. Colonization took away women’s self-sufficiency due to the transformation of food production, so they became dependent on men’s acquisition of wage labor on the mono-crop plantations. In summary, the foundations of modern inequality were created through colonial domination/exploitation and a fundamental system of hierarchy reinforced by patriarchy.

27 That is, the excuse of exploitation was introduced by the idea of an inferior human present not only on the dynamics of colonialism but also through the dynamics of patriarchy (Shiva, 2006).

MST’s views on development reinforce this rejection of catching-up strategy expressed in Ecofeminism. Premise one of MST’s objectives proposes a society without exploiters in which work has supremacy over capital. Premise two invokes a redefinition of land as something to be shared with all members of society. Furthermore, premise three advocates for work for all, with fair distribution of land, income and wealth. More specifically, MST rejects the idea of land distribution as a strategy for capitalist development based on industrialization. It promotes a broader process of development that connects ideological conditions with economic, social, political and cultural ones. MST’s core ideological tenets contradict the Green Revolution perspective that accelerated the process of commercial agriculture, displacement, unemployment, deforestation, environment problems, loss of biodiversity and food insecurity. The MST advocates production practices that reject the mass scale, industrialized, single-crop production promoted by neoliberalism. Furthermore, the MST argues that an economic system based on exportation, comparative advantage, and an industrialized economy of scale, is not the best path towards development. The movement supports the argument that this model is inappropriate for Brazil's reality, since comparative advantages strategies produce a gap between Global North and Global South, creating a dynamic of inequality, dependency and environmental damages in the South (Roberts & Thanos, 2003, p1-27). The collective organization of the encampments in the first phase of land struggle is a direct challenge to private property and the neoliberal framework. The MST’s base action is centered in land occupation, a strategy that is endorsed by the 1988 constitutional land law, that allows expropriation of private property in cases where the land is not being cultivated, and the expropriation would fulfill a social purpose, in this case, land reform (Souza, 2018). By challenging private property, MST participants are challenging the core element of capitalism and neoliberal ideology. At the same time, the MST challenges the state’s political efficiency and its pledge to structural modifications demanded by international development institutions like the IMF and the World Bank (Martins, 2006).

Ecofeminism states that women have been connected with nature through multiple frameworks, and even if these connections are not intrinsic, they are socially constructed,

28 and it has generated a different experience of knowledge for them. Women and the environment have been historically subordinated, this subordination has created a sexual division of labour that puts women in a closer proximity with nature. This proximity provided women with a unique understanding of the interdependence between humans and the natural world, and more specifically it has given them a particular knowledge of how to work the land. It is this exact knowledge that can contribute to environmental ethics. Emma Siliprandi connects sustainable agriculture with women’s traditional knowledge by highlighting the advantages of agroecology8. Siliprandi (2009) emphasizes that agroecology values activities that were traditionally performed by women; it changes the way humans interact with nature and other humans; it assumes the participation of the entire family, breaking with male monopoly of labor; exposes women to the public sphere giving them more agency; creates pressure for women’s participation in decision-making processes; and increases women’s bargaining power inside the family due to the economic independence it promotes. Similarly, the MST proposes a food model based on sovereignty instead of security9. Agroecology emphasizes local production and consumption and it questions the type, the location, the method and the scale of food production. Agroecology is a mixture of traditional knowledge with agroecological science formulated jointly by farmers, government, NGOs and academic institutions. Furthermore, MST considers agroecology as a resistance to neoliberal model of production since is able to advance food security while preserving nature and biodiversity (Schwendler & Thompson, 2017).

The need for a new epistemology

According to Ecofeminism and the MST, to achieve social and environmental justice we, as a society, need to adopt a new epistemology that supports sustainable/regenerative development instead of an economy of scale, that values life

8 Agroecology presents itself as a scientific approach that provides the conceptual and methodological guidelines for the orientation of processes aimed at the reformulation of agriculture in nature through the construction of structural and functional analogies between natural ecosystems and agroecosystems. The agroecological approach aims at the productive intensification of agriculture on a sustainable basis through the integration between scientific knowledge and local wisdom of popular domain (Peterson, 2009) 9 Food security is concern with food availability, the amount of food that we are producing. Meanwhile food sovereignty is concerned on how foods is produced. It relates to bigger questions of “social justice and the rights of farmers and indigenous communities to control their own futures and make their own decisions” (Global Food Politics, 2012).

29 instead of the commodification of it, that appreciate the rural way of living and traditional knowledge instead of the dominant, colonial way of thinking proposed by the free-market ideology. In other words, there is a need for a new way of thinking that is holistic and non- reductionist.

Ecofeminism offers a reconceptualization of knowledge. It assumes that knowledge is not neutral, on the contrary, it serves a political purpose. Power is what dictates what is legitimate knowledge and what is not. However, knowledge comes in different forms, and it should not be understood solely as an intellectual exercise, but as a unification of body and mind. Experiences shape our identities and consequently our thoughts. So, if society divides itself into a powerful centre and a subjugated periphery, reality is shaped according to the centre’s necessity. In the same manner, knowledge is constructed in a way that reflects the privileged group’s way of thinking and for that reason cannot be considered neutral (Matsuda, 2006). Consequently, the peripheral group begins to accept that its their own experience cannot be considered knowledge (Kadi, 2006). Ecofeminism advocates for a share of power regarding knowledge conceptualization. Moreover, Ecofeminism argues that a non-reductionist epistemology must be created. Vandana Shiva and Maria Mies (2014) emphasize that the neutrality of modern science, and its promise to achieve objectivity, is not really as universal as it claims to be. In fact, it seems to be a liberation force only for a specific group Western, male-oriented, patriarchal. This reductionist logic of modern science splits the concept of knowledge and values specialist knowledge. More specifically, modern science is reductionist in that “ 1) it reduced the capacity of humans to know nature both by excluding other knowers and other ways of knowing; and 2) by manipulating it as inert and fragmented matter, nature’s capacity for creative regeneration and renewal was reduced” (Mies & Shiva, 2014, p.23). So, if our experiences shape our thoughts, and if the capitalist logic marginalizes some experiences, it also marginalizes and discredits the knowledge resulting from these experiences. If the system marginalizes the female experiences, it also marginalizes women’s unique knowledges. Vandana Shiva, explains that to achieve social and environmental justice a new way of thinking must replace the reductionist logic of capitalism and promote new intellectual ecological paradigms that gives voice to marginalized groups in society (cited by Li, 2007).

Along with a reductionist world view, the industrial revolution and capitalist economies undermine a complex understanding of knowledge. In order to fulfill the needs

30 of commercial capitalism, uniformity/sameness must be maintained in specialized commodity production. This sameness can only be guaranteed if a single function of natural resources can be maximized. The reduction of a forest into a simple cellulose source is an illustration of this logic. All the diversity and complexity of the ecosystem is disregarded to exploit one function of the forest to the fullest. This approach towards knowledge built the foundations of the ecological crisis we live today, since it has destroyed nature’s regenerative powers. In essence, the reductionist perspective supported by commercial capitalism, perceives women, nature, non-whites as merely raw material for production, with no intrinsic value. The scientific and industrial revolution carry the idea that nature’s finite characteristics must be overcome if we want to expend capitalist production. The combination of scientific reductionism with food security concerns triggered the Green Revolution, accelerating the expansion of industrial agriculture, resulting in the addition of chemical fertilizers, high yield variety seeds and pesticides to the equation of ecological destruction (Mies & Shiva, 2014).

The capitalist goal to manage and commodify life is manifested in its most extreme form in GMOs (genetically modified organisms) and especially the creation of “suicide seeds” – seed that been engineered to eliminate self-germination. These GMOs force farmers to buy seeds year-to-year, further destroying traditional farming methods such as over winter. The creation of GMOs was a solution to the biological obstacle inherent to seed market, resulting in the control of the inherent ability of nature to reproduce itself (Mies & Shiva, 2014). Ecofeminism understands knowledge not as a fragmented element, but as a inclusive concept shaped by different experiences. It rejects the idea of specialist knowledge and it embraces the idea of “traditional knowledge.”

Overall, Ecofeminism argues that different ways of knowing should be valued and encouraged. Women have been connected with nature through multiple frameworks, and even if these connections are not intrinsic, they are socially constructed, and have generated a different experience of knowledge for them. Women and the environment have been historically subordinated; this subordination has created a sexual division of labour that puts women in a closer proximity with nature. This proximity provided women with a unique understanding of the interdependence between human and nature, and more specifically it has given them a specific knowledge and kept them in touch with traditional ancestral methods of how to work the land. It is this knowledge that can contribute to environmental ethics.

31 As can be seen, Ecofeminism explains the connection between women, nature and domination from multiple perspectives, since it understands oppression as the consequence of multiple systems of domination. In summary, the oppression of nature and women is a result of a combination of colonialism, commercial capitalism, patriarchy, and Western science. Colonialism undermines people so they can make sense of their own exploitation through the rhetoric of good intentions, casting the colonizers as the savior, the enlightened. It replaces traditional knowledge with colonizers’ knowledge, resulting in the shift from sustainable production to monoculture, industrialized, environmentally degrading production. Similarly, commercial capitalism creates the necessity of mass scale production culminating in the destruction of the connection between human and land. A mass scale production needs capital and machines, and small producers cannot keep up with this necessity. Their only option is to either work on corporation plantation or move to the city. Once that happens those workers are enculturated and indoctrinated into the new order severing their ties to traditional world views and practices. Likewise, patriarchy separate men and women in different spaces, secluding women in the domestic sphere. It creates a logic of Otherness that demands that all beings that do not relate to the male experience must be dominated. This division ignores the fact that all humans are interdependent with nature and each other. Lastly, Western science and its reductionist approach towards knowledge contributes to the subordination of women and nature. Not only it does not value different experiences, it disregards the intrinsic value of life. Modern agricultural technologies are not concerned with biodiversity, sustainability and traditional knowledges, instead its main concern is to promote sameness, maximize exploitation of natural resources and sustain knowledge as a single perspective model that serves the political purpose of the existing elites.

Like Ecofeminism, MST proposes not only a new vision of production but also a new way of thinking, and education plays a big part in this vision. MST’s fifth premise invokes the necessity to disseminate humanistic and socialist knowledge, to change people’s way of thinking. The MST encourages the construction of a new epistemology through its different levels of participation. As earlier described, the MST has four levels of participation (camps, settlement, education, activism). A unique educational model that understands learning as more than just literacy, is MST’s third method of participation. The MST’s vision of education embraces the counteraction of political misinformation and the end of technological disparities between the elite and the impoverished. It strives to

32 create a “new man and a new woman for a new society” (Martins, 2006, p.272). It is through education that the MST fosters and strengthens critical thinking among its members. An alternative model of education rejects the hierarchical and patriarchal way of thinking. Through this alternative model of education, the MST is changing the way rural dynamics relates to women as well as challenges the neoliberal economic paradigm that dominates mainstream society. Women of the MST are using their formal empowerment within the movement, to question the sexual division of labor still present in the core of Brazilian society (Martins, 2006).

Furthermore, the fourth method of participation, a collective project that proposes an alternative society for all Brazilians, is a fundamental basis for the construction of a new epistemology. The MST advocates for a Popular Project that entails a bottom-up approach through meetings within the community to find ways to expand its vision beyond the members of the movement (Martins, 2006). This project understands that an agrarian reform can only be fully implemented in a Brazil with an alternative economic and power framework. However, these structural changes will only happen if all Brazilians understand the consequences of neoliberal policies and advocate collectively for a new model of development (Martins, 2006).

Included in this new epistemology is the implementation of Agroecology not just as a counterhegemonic model of production but also a new way of life. Not only does agroecology present a more sustainable approach towards production, it understands oppression as a multiple sourced system of domination, which means that we can’t achieve gender equality unless all other types of oppression are eliminated. In Sônia Schwendler and Luciana Thompson’s (2017) words: “agroecology is about more than the production of food. It is a way of life and it is why the issue of gender has everything to do with agroecology, as well as social justice and socialism” (p.106).

Overall, Ecofeminism and the MST advocate for a new framework of education that questions the status quo and is particularly critical of the hierarchical, universalist, reductionist model of knowledge typically associated with mainstream Western-centered societies. This new vision on education challenges patriarchy, hierarchy, commercial capitalism, and modern science. In short, it is a system of education based on a horizontal learning, favouring practical skills embedded in everyday life, with dialogue as its central element, guided by an interdisciplinary approach. Providing learners with agency to

33 understand their oppression and construct their own way of fighting for social justice and environmental sustainability is the main goal of the Ecofeminist and MST’s educational framework.

2.3.2. Pedagogical tenets overlap

As has been elaborated through the preceding sections, the MST and Ecofeminism strive for social justice, a goal that entails structural change within society. Education is a vital tool for social transformation. However, not everybody has access to education and those who do acquire knowledge, normally acquire it through a traditional school program that contradicts liberation ideology, since conventional education preserves hegemonic ideas of capitalism, hierarchy, and competition. For that reason, both Ecofeminism and the MST created an alternative system of education that confronts hegemonic ideas of imperialistic, free-market capitalism through a new way of thinking.

Education is one of the strategies of participation envisioned by the MST. Since the foundation of the movement education has been one of their top priorities. However, the MST has only recently focused on the institutionalization of their educational framework. In the early years, the Landless Worker's Movement had focused on informal teaching parallel to the public-school realm. Overtime, this strategy threatened the movement's unity and coherence inside rural communities. Outside actors started to compete with the MST for rural community’s attention like the Church, INCRA, and the market. Different ideologies began to influence peasant worker’s production and culture. To defuse this threat, the MST initiated a project to create a pedagogy that would expand their ideology to public schools. The result was the design of a hybrid pedagogy based on Paulo Freire's Pedagogy of the Oppressed; Moisey Pistrak's school of work; Anton Makarenko's collective self-governance; and the unique incorporation of the movement's culture and political practices through Mística (Tarlau, 2014).

Similarly, Ecofeminism has not always pursued an alternative model of education; its initial concerns focused on the practical side of the social struggle; activism. However, as Ecofeminism expanded its concerns from the double domination of women and nature to include an intricate understanding of oppression as a correlation of social, economic and ecological problems resulting from globalized capitalism, it also expanded its methods of participation. Ecofeminist activist realized that a project that included not only political

34 activities but also educational ones was necessary to create agency in oppressive contexts. Thus, like MST’s educational project, an ecofeminist pedagogical approach combines practical and theoretical activities and includes acceptance of a variety of different ways of knowing.

These commonalities over pedagogical tenets of the MST and Ecofeminism is the focus of this section. More specifically, it approaches the overlaps regarding power relationship in education, construction of knowledge and practical education.

Power relationship between educator and learner

Considering that Ecofeminism strives for a counter-hegemonic pedagogy, and hierarchy is the foundation of globalized capitalism, the power relationship between educator and learners is the first thing that the pedagogy tackles. According to Lara Harvester (2009), Ecofeminism proposes a replacement of the relationship dynamics of power-over for power-with. However, for this to happen, educators must first understand their part in the reproduction of the logic of domination and then reform their behavior to confront this logic. More specifically, the educator needs to break with the idea that s/he is the moral and intellectual authority in class and dismantle the concept of the educator as the "benevolent dictator" (p.50). An ecofeminist pedagogy supports marginalized discourses by engaging in power-with relationships. That is, the connection between learners and educator needs to be democratic. That entails a need to recognize learner's knowledge as valuable and the fact that educators are also learners in this relationship. This dynamic inherently decentralizes power. (Harvester, 2009).

Likewise, the MST’s pedagogy incorporates Paulo Freire’s idea of horizontal learning. Paulo Freire was a Brazilian philosopher and educator whose main goal was the end of illiteracy among citizens of formerly colonized territories. His life work served the primary purpose of alleviating the lives of oppressed people. Freire worked for many years with poverty alleviation institutions in Brazil (Díaz n.d.). Through this experience, he realized that instead of inspiring critical thinking in their learners, public schools were teaching them to be passive citizens and as such, to readily accept inequality. Through his work Pedagogy of the Oppressed, published originally in Portuguese in 1968, and translated to English in 1970, Freire highlights how oppressive a capitalist educational system can be, and how an educational system that encourages people to reflect on the

35 elements of their poverty and think collectively about a way out of that situation would be a better alternative. Considering that Freire’s work was formulated to educate rural adults, an organic confluence was created between Freire's ideas and the MST project to create a unique pedagogy for their educational strategy (Tarlau, 2014).

Similar to power-with relationships, Freire explores the idea of the banking model of traditional education. In this logic, the “narrator relations” is the foundation of the traditional model of education. That means that there is a need for a subject – the one that narrates- and an object – the one who receives the information. It transforms learners into mere vessels ready to be filled with information. This educational model embodies a deposit action that takes away learner's agency. In the banking model of education, "knowing" is a gift from those, who consider themselves wiser (teachers) than who are empty of knowledge (students). The ‘donation’ has its roots in the ideology of oppression that believes in the concept of absolute ignorance, where assumptions of ignorance are always directed towards the other. In the traditional model of education, the teacher/professor is the only one who educates. The teacher/professor is defined by what they know; they are the ones that propose the words, the ones that discipline, the ones that have options, the ones that choose the course content, the authority of knowledge; the teacher/professor is in sum the subject of the process. Meanwhile, the learners are defined by what they do not know; they obediently receive the words, they are the ones who are disciplined, those who follow the prescriptions, the ones cut off from curriculum decision-making and expected to only adapt to what is set by others; in general, the learners are the objects of the process. Freire (2013) emphasizes that all types of education have a narrative; they are not neutral. The baking model of education has its own narrative that strives to change people's minds about reality rather than transforming realty itself. For that reason, he proposes a liberating education that breaks with the idea of the educator as the owner of the truth. As Freire recognizes that knowledge is not central to the educator, but collectively built, he pushes back the narrative that justifies the banking model of education. By doing so, the proposed liberating educational model dismantles a traditional tool of hegemonic thought: hierarchy.

Collective construction of knowledge

Ecofeminist's pedagogy also recognizes that unequal power relationships are a key cause of eco-social injustice. Ergo, modifying these relationships is a central goal for

36 Ecofeminism, and dialogue is the key to this transformation. Similar to Paulo Freire's idea of dialogue, Ecofeminism sees dialogue not just as speech, but as an acknowledgment of the Other, of the interdependence between both sides. It entails respect, humility, inclusion, the recognition of the intrinsic value of life and has as its primary goal understanding of the Other (Harvester, 2009; Harvester & Blenkinsop, 2010). According to Martin Buber (cited by Harvester, 2009), authentic dialogue needs to be inclusive, which implies the presence of the following elements: "a relation of some kind between two beings, shared experiences in which at least one participates, and being able to enter the standpoint of the other being without losing oneself" (p.61). One might say that dialogue between professor and learners is limited since dialogue is made through inclusion. While the teacher's life experience enables them to understand what it means to be a learner, the contrary is not true. However, learners can be included in the experience once they are allowed to participate in the decision-making process of education (Harvester, 2009). Dialogue allows for a "mosaic perspective" within education, a perception that we all have different experiences, and the compilation of these experiences is responsible for building a learning process. The education process for Ecofeminism is multifaceted and non-linear, where meaning is formed continuously as we question and reflect upon our ideas, it is a collective construction of knowledge (Gardner & Riley, 2007).

Equivalent to Ecofeminism, the MST argues that to humanize the oppressed and the oppressor, we must pronounce the world, modify it. The only way to accomplish this task collectively is through dialogue. In Freire’s (2013) words “ninguém liberta ninguém, ninguém se liberta sozinho. Os homens se libertam em comunhão” (location 829). That dialogue would entail mutual respect, a consideration that the other side is worthy of being heard. For that reason, Freire (2013) states that dialogue is an act of love, humility, trust, and hope. Dialogue cannot happen if ignorance is alienated, that is, if we see it always in the Other, never in ourselves. It is not possible to maintain a horizontal educational system if the educator feels they are a participant in a group of pure individuals, owners of truth and knowledge, to whom all who are outside are inferior. Additionally, there is no dialogue if there is not a strong faith in human beings; faith in our power to do and to redo, to create and recreate; faith in our vocation to be more, which it is not the privilege of some, but the right of all humans. Ultimately, dialogue´s obvious consequence is trust and hope, as we have the humility to acknowledge that no one is the sole owner of the truth, and we have faith that humans can be more and recreate themselves, we are trusting others, and we

37 have hope that liberation will be acquired. Thus, dialogue is the encounter of individuals to be more, and it cannot be done without hope (Freire, 2013).

MST’s rejection of hierarchy in education is a recognition of the worth of all participants in the construction of knowledge. Once we level the field between educator and learner, and foster dialogue among them, we create an environment that allows for the recognition of learner's marginalized position. This collective notion of knowledge relates to the perception that humans are not independent from the world they live in. Our experiences shape the way we think. Thus, while the model of education creates a kind of anesthesia, inhibiting the creative power of the learners, liberating education implies a constant act of unveiling reality, and promoting the agency of learners to intercede, interrupt and transform that reality. The liberating model seeks the emergence of consciousness, resulting in participant’s critical insertion in reality. This refusal to maintain the learner in a relation of oppression relates to the unfinished character of human beings. Freire states that human beings have an unfinished nature; that is, they are always changing, “always being” (Freire, 2013, location1341). People exist according to their relationship with the world, how they perceive themselves in it. For that reason, the liberating model of education does not accept the future as something pre-established and static, but as a situation that can be overcome. In other words, it strives for the humanization of all people, for the understanding that we are all subjects and not objects in life, and as such liberation can only be achieved collaboratively (Freire, 2013).

In a more practical level, in the liberating model course content must also be a result of dialogue. It cannot be imposed, ‘donated’ from educators to learners. It has to be an organized return of what was previously discussed among all participants in the process. It is a bottom-up approach in which the content of the curriculum reflects the reality of all members involved. In other words, liberation can only come when educators and learners fight to recover their stolen humanity and not as an isolated action from educators to conquer the learners. The role of the educator is not to impose their world vision, but to discuss the connections of their views with the learners, since our actions are a reflection of our different experiences. This model highlights that nothing is isolated, that dialogue exists between all elements of reality. To understand that nothing exists in isolation means that different social forces shape oppression, and these forces are constantly changing. In that sense, the methodology understands that the investigation of the thinking of the people cannot be done without the people. Education needs to be an

38 organic process in which the more we investigate the way of thinking with the people and not of the people; the more all parts educate themselves. The more they all educate themselves, the more they tend to keep on investigating. In that sense, all course content needs to be continuously renovated (Freire, 2013).

Both Ecofeminism and the MST extend dialogue to a connection with more-than- human nature. Ecofeminism focuses on how the concept of dialogue goes beyond speech. This perspective gives voice to nature and questions the idea of language. It is through this dialogue that we are be able to understand the finite aspect of nature and how to respect it. This different approach to dialogue help learners that do not communicate well in writing. Using speech and not just written words allows learners to engage more productively, and it preserves Indigenous ways of passing down knowledge. Once the dialogue has been established, educators and learners can engage in questioning the origin, histories, and current impact of the logic of domination through consciousness- raising and embodied knowledge (Harvester, 2009). Meanwhile, the MST makes this connection through by acknowledging that nothing exists in isolation. The investigation of the thinking of the people cannot be done without the people being agents in this investigation, but also the investigation of the more-than-human nature cannot be done without nature being an agent in the process.

Ecofeminist pedagogy embraces Paulo Freire's call for a cognitive reflection of one's position as an oppressed individual. Conscious-raising goes beyond pure cognitive reflection by adding the necessity of emotionally based reflections. Ecofeminist pedagogy values emotions and personal experiences since dialogue with more-than-human nature presupposes engagement in a language that incorporates our senses. Taking this into account makes it easy to understand the concept of embodied knowledge. Gardner and Riley (2007) emphasize that Ecofeminism sees knowledge as a community-based experience, "one of personal interactions between embodied and embedded knowers" (p.26). As all participants discuss a specific topic, they reflect upon their unique cultural involvement with that topic. This involvement is known as embodied knowledge, it goes beyond rational thoughts, and it unifies body and mind, something that modern Western science always has divided. It is an experiential knowledge that also considers our senses. It is an appreciation of subjugated knowledge, a recognition of cultural diversity. Ecofeminism sees biological and social diversity as central elements for eco-social justice and a new sustainable norm. Therefore, ecofeminist educators focus on empowering

39 marginalized learners to find principles within their culture that support an economically viable life within the limits of ecological sustainability. Educators attempt to bring attention to other cultures that have a relationship with nature that is not based on domination. Learners are encouraged to look at their cultures to identify what types of relationships with Others it promotes. Concretely, educators can break traditions of domination by bringing attention to Indigenous world-views and how they were affected by colonialism and immigration. More specifically, ecofeminist educators explore with their learners the connections between racism, sexism, and naturism when trying to understand the process of colonialism. That is, they highlight how racism was legitimated in the same fashion as sexism and naturism (Harvester, 2009).

Practical education

Both the Ecofeminist and the MST pedagogy embrace the idea of authentic dialogue and collective constructions of knowledge and the interdependence between human and more-than-human nature. Both understand education in its broader sense. Ecofeminism sees political militancy as the key factor of practical education. To illustrate this position, I will introduce the contributions of the organization Honor the Earth to ecofeminist pedagogy. Even though this movement do not explicitly frame itself as ecofeminist, it is clear to me that its practices are connected to Ecofeminist pedagogy. In the MST, political militancy is expressed in the form of Mística, Pistrak’s school of work, and Makarenko’s holistic education.

Honor the Earth (HTE) is a non-profit organization created to raise awareness and support for Indigenous Environmental Issues, and to enhance financial and political resources to support and foster sustainable Indigenous groups. HTE develops these resources through music, arts, media and Indigenous knowledge, by encouraging people to recognize our interdependence with nature, and by giving voice to those who have been silenced. Honor the Earth was founded in 1993 by Winona LaDuke, an Anishinaabe activist, and two names of the music group Indigo Girls. The organization strives for a graceful transition out of the fossil-fuel era, focuses on issues like climate change, food system, renewable energy, sustainable development, environmental justice and others.

HTE puts in practice ecofeminist tenets of multiple system of oppressions; a critique of neoliberal development models; interdependence of human and more-than-

40 human nature; and the critique of the reductionist hegemonic way of thinking. Winona LaDuke (2016) argues about the necessity of social transformation through what the Anishinaabe people call the “Green Path”. HTE understands that we need a different way of seeing the world to be able to walk through this Green Path. This new epistemology already exists and it is embodied within the Indigenous movement; the problem is that this world-view is marginalized by hegemonic thinking. If humanity intends to achieve social change and environmental justice, it need to incorporate Indigenous world-views. LaDuke (2016) points out that the dominant economic, political and social systems we have in place are unsustainable and responsible for deep social and environmental damage. Insisting in this type of world-view will not solve our problems with social inequality and environmental destruction.

The Green Path entails a concern with renewable energy, since our economy uses oil very inefficiently and the last sources of fossil fuels are disappearing. Likewise, the industrial food system is completely dependent on oil, so the less oil we have the more expensive the food gets. Therefore, a green path would entail renewable energy systems (solar) and a pursuit of food sovereignty (LaDuke, 2008). The HTE organization has a project that tackles fuel poverty in a regenerative way. The 8th Fire Solar project is an initiative that is training women to install solar panels in their community. HTE partnered with colleges, the Rural Renewable Energy Alliance (RREAL) and the Minnesota Department of Employment and Economic Development (MN DEED) and trained over 30 women from nearby communities (8th Fire Solar, n.d.). This project not only gave the community a new energy system but is also empowers women in the process. A new epistemology would unfold in a new food system that would concentrate production to a local sphere, giving priority to traditional products that are healthier, more resistant to climate change and don’t erode the environment. In simpler terms, there has to be an effort to re-localize food and energy (LaDuke, 2008). In addition, a new way of thinking would entail the decolonization of language. Dominant power is reflected in how we talk, and in turn how we create meaning. That is, every time a mountain, or a river, or a forest is named after a human (Queen Charlotte Island instead of Haida Gwaii), that meaning of their particular place is transformed and lost. As it loses meaning we lose our connection with it (LaDuke, 2010). In parallel, Ecofeminism identifies this necessity for conservation of meaning through language as “feminist dialogics” (Houde & Bullis, 1999, p. 153). This philosophy proposes social transformation “by questioning established cultural identities,

41 discursive formations, and the obscuring and securing power relations” (Houde & Bullis, 1999, p. 153). The dialogic method proposed by Ecofeminism breaks the monopoly of the narrative of oppression and considers narrative as a conversation involving multiple partners.

The MST also incorporates the concept of practical education in this case from Moisey M. Pistrak, a Soviet educator. Pistrak participated in an extensive process of social transformation that envisioned the reconstruction of society and education based on economic, political, and social presuppositions of socialism. Similar to the MST, the Russian revolutionary process had vast peasant participation; it was accompanied by severe social problems like the absence of land for the rural community and the precariousness of working conditions (Lucena et al., 2012). The critique of capitalism meant that school should be the main tool for the formation of a worker's class consciousness. Pistrak practiced a new concept of education that strived for the development of a holistic individual and provided hope and social participation. In Pistrak's view, work inside the school needed to be connected with social work, with real production, to socially useful activity. This social model entails the end of the separation between intellectuals and workers since this separation prevents the worker from having access to knowledge and controlling the process of production and reproduction of scientific knowledge. Following Marx, for Pistrak, work has an educational character, essential to the trajectory of human beings towards their emancipation (Lucena et al., 2012).

Rebecca Tarlau (2014) emphasizes that for the MST "learners" to build a class identity is fundamental that they participate in manual labor during their education. The movement incorporates these ideas through organic gardening, mini-factories inside the schools, in which learners are required to cook, clean, cultivate, etc. In middle school, learners are required to clean up after themselves and engage in other types of work such as gardening, or projects of school improvement. From high school to university level, the types of strategies change, and there is a more significant concern with the development of technical skills of how to work the land sustainably. In technical courses, for example, there is a theoretical part of the program and a practical one, and both are mixed during the education period. However, regardless of the program learners are attending, practical work is a central part of the course content. This connection seems essential when considering the MST learner's demographic. Adult literacy is a big part of the MST

42 educational program, thus building identity through practical work seems essential to a peasant resistance social movement.

Alongside Pistrak, another Soviet theorist influenced the Landless Worker's Movement's education system. Anton Makrenko's theory had a significant influence on the MST's pedagogy since. For Makarenko, experiencing different types of relationships was vital to a good education because society is collective, and the earlier we start experiencing this, the better (Makarenko, 1964). Self-governance is a key element for the construction of the collective. Learners are encouraged to manage daily tasks in school and to produce their solutions to complete these tasks. Anton M. encourages this same logic to parents, in which all children must have responsibilities inside the home. Here the educator is not referring to simple chores in which parents tell their children what and how things need to be done, but the responsibility of real work. Children need to have a level of freedom that allows them to choose how they will accomplish a particular task and they also must have some responsibility regarding the quality of completed tasks (Makarenko, 1964). This concept is a strong presence in the MST's organization. Already in the encampment phase, activists organize themselves into small collectives – usually ten families – called base nuclei (described in Chapter 2). These base nuclei are extended to schools to change the way learners think. Instead of just concluding the activities given to them, learners are encouraged to have agency on the decision-making of their education. Self-governance involves tackling disciplinary problems, developing curriculum, assessing educators, developing extra-curricular projects, and dialoguing about the objectives of education (Tarlau, 2014).

We can see the role of self-governance in the MST pedagogy more specifically in Sônia Schwendler's records of Instituto Educar, a secondary agroecological technical school of the MST settlement in Rio Grande do Sul state. According to Schwendler (2016), "[base nuclei] are small learner collectives that are the organizational base of Educar. Through them, learners organize their activities, develop their tasks, and produce collective studies. All issues are discussed and resolved within them. Base nuclei contest individualism and creates a culture of cooperation" (p.108). It is through these collectives that learners comprehend the importance of collective decision-making. In the same manner, the construction of the collective is facilitated by a strategy named pedagogy of rotation (pedagogia da alternância). This strategy is typically used within technical High Schools and university programs. It consists of a division of three months of study time

43 and three months of community time. This process is used to apply the theory learned in class in a practical situation. As learners bring back their experience with implementing theoretical techniques in their community, they analyze what worked and what didn’t work; and they revise the theory. As a result, the learning process becomes more organic, an ever-evolving process. Besides, the rotation pedagogy allows learners to maintain their connection with the community, reinforcing the concept of the collective (Schwendler, 2014). Lastly, the idea of collective and cooperation through education has a broader application. Makarenko understood education as a complex amalgamation of various institutions: school, family, public organization, clubs, community, etc. (Filonov, 1995). The MST also adopts this broader approach towards education, as it included the community in the educational process. The learning process does not unfold only through formal education, but also through the collective decision-making in encampments, joint working in the settlements, small collective in education and specific groups in the settlements (Women's Collective), and a common plan for structural change of Brazilian society (Popular Project).

Alongside Pistrak, and Makarenko, Mística plays an essential role in the practical aspect of MST’s pedagogy. According to Claudemiro Nascimento and Leila Martins (2009), Mística is not only a practice, it is also an individual adherence to a life project developed to be lived in common by a social group. This project is divided into two dynamics: spiritual-mística and pedagogical-mística. The spiritual-mística includes our motivations, our ideals, utopias, the passion for which one lives and fights. The spiritual- mística is the birthright of all humanity, of all the peoples of the earth. It is what influences our journey, and it is not necessarily religious. Some journeys are affected by religion, others by the neoliberal free-market. This ideals and utopias can be experienced individually since each person has their own experience; but they can also be experienced collectively, connected to the history of the place I which you live. Similar to Ecofeminism’s conception of embodied knowledge, Mística addresses the link between land, geography, and values. So, if I am in Latin America, in Brazil, in a Christian community, inside a peasant struggle; my spiritual-mística will reflect those realities. That is, it will take on the pain and anguishes, joys, and achievements of the people to whom one belongs. Considering that the MST´s education is an effort to counteract practices of domination and encourage liberation, it can only be done through new ideals and utopias. Thus, Mística is an expression of the outrage with the inhuman reality promoted by the logic of

44 capital. Mística is a gesture of protest against the system, to the order grounded in economic globalization, individualism, competition, the minimization of the human being and its subjection and also, in bourgeois rationalism. It is a form of adherence to a life project. Mística presents itself in the form of pedagogical action that teaches the oppressed to organize themselves in the social struggle. Influenced by Liberation Theology10, Mística does not separate faith from reason (Nascimento & Martins, 2009).

The MST sees Mística as the collective manifestation of a feeling of identity, and for that reason, all the symbols of the MST converge towards the construction of a complex pedagogical vision that confronts the capitalist system and its ideological reproductions. Those symbols and rituals happens in many ways and can have various meanings. Its practice can occur in the camps, settlements, meetings, congresses, and the various manifestations that the MST undertakes. In general, it is practiced in theater form, containing songs, poetry, and diverse symbolic elements in its core (Coelho, 2010). It is a form of cultural production of the landless workers in Brazil, and as per Bradford and Rocha (cited in Tarlau, 2014) it can be understood along the following lines:

Music and song had been a part of the movement from the very beginning, when progressive Catholic priests had encouraged the families in the camp to reshape Catholic rites to make them relevant to their own struggle and culture. The leaders were already aware of the importance of these activities (which they were beginning to call Mística) in motivating the sem- terra and helping them forge a collective identity. The Mística expresses the optimism and determination that spring from our indignation against injustice and from our belief in the very possibility of building a new society. For this reason, it isn’t simply entertainment to help us escape from the disappointments and difficulties of everyday life. It is an injection of vitality, which gives us determination and daring so that we can overcome pessimism and push ahead with our project of including the excluded in the liberation of the Brazilian people (p.76).

Mística is based on the Brazilian playwright Augusto Boal's, concept of Theater of the Oppressed, "a form of popular community-based education that uses theater as a tool for social change." His technique was developed during his contact with the peasant movement in Latin America and is now comprehensively adopted throughout the world for "social and political activism, conflict resolution, community building, therapy, and

10 The Liberation Theory gave birth to a different understanding of poverty within Christianity. Poverty was no longer seen as an individual problem but a systemic one. That meant that the Catholic Church had an obligation to act against the hegemonic system that created social inequality, the capitalist system.

45 government legislation" (Theatre of the Oppressed, n.d., paragraph 1). The method seeks to democratize access to theatrical practice and to make it possible for the poor to discuss the possibilities of social transformation through this language (Pacheco, 2016). Through this technique, the audience is encouraged to participate in the performance, in any way they choose. In the process, the audience uncovers new forms of solving the dilemmas presented by the play and how to translate this vision into social action (Gewertz, 2003). In short, it is an alternative method of giving voice to marginalized communities.

In other words, the Landless Workers Movement uses Mística as a tool for building a collective identity. Within formal education, Mística is expressed through activities such as singing the movement's anthem, or the anthem of the state the school is in, or of transnational peasant movements like Via Campesina. It can also be a poem about the peasant struggle, or expressed in a song of rural popular culture, any form of art that embodies their culture. Mística has become a daily reality for learners of the MST settlement schools. Through these practices, people are reminded of the value of rural life and encouraged to remain in the countryside.

Overall, this section has demonstrated the ideological and pedagogical tenets overlap between Ecofeminism and MST. The next Chapter will analyze how these overlaps are enacted on the ground at Colégio Estadual do Campo Contestado.

46 Chapter 3. Case Study: Colégio Estadual do Campo Contestado

This section addresses how and whether the overlaps between Ecofeminism and the MST’s pedagogy are translated into realities on the ground at Colégio Estadual do Campo Contestado. To fulfill that task, this thesis focused on the case study of a public school at an MST settlement (Contestado) in the South of Brazil. This Chapter is divided in three sections. The first section addresses the transition of the MST’s education programs from the non-formal schools inside the camps to the public schools of the settlements. The second describes the structure of the public school inside Contestado’s settlement. The last section analyzes the ways in which the main overlapping elements between the movements – intersectional aspects of social justice, acknowledgment of the unachievable and unsustainable aspect of the “catching-up” economic development strategy and the need for a new epistemology – are translated into the daily lives of the educators and learners of the Colégio Estadual do Campo Contestado. This last section argues that – while core ideologies of the MST and Ecofeminist movements share certain qualities – the structure of Brazil’s public education system, patriarchal aspects of rural dynamics, contradictions within Contestado’s organic production regime, and the strength of Western scientific paradigms all undermine their practical realization within the CECC.

Figure 1 - Map of Contestado

47 3.1. The MST’s shift from informal to formal education and the structure of Colégio Estadual do Campo Contestado

Before we address the dynamics of the Contestado public school, it is important to discuss MST’s shift from Itinerant Schools inside the camps to formal public schools inside the settlements. In the context of the struggle for land reform, children and adults spent most of their time inside the camps with no access to education. One of MST’s unique characteristics is its decision to frame their membership around the family unit, and not just the head of the household. This inclusive framing makes all the members of the family equal participants in the MST, and equally valued citizens – subjects. A need for a space of formal education arose from this unique configuration of the MST camps, coupled with the usual long waiting period in these occupied areas to guarantee ownership of the land. It is evident that the concern with education begins in the encampments, but it remains a fundamental part of the struggle in the non-confrontational phase of the settlements (PPP, 2011, p.25). Therefore, the MST pressured the government for access to institutionalized education. However, the movement understood that the education provided to their children needed a certain flexibility to allow them to study and to participate in the occupation process. The answer was not to transport learners to the nearest school, but to install a public school inside the camps (Tarlau, 2015). In 2003, the first Escola Itinerante (Itinerant Schools) was established in Paraná state after many demands from the movement and extensive dialogue with the regional Department of Education (Andrade, 2015). After acquiring access to informal education, the MST initiated a process of engagement with state schools inside the settlements. The government allowed the community, teachers, and principals to come together and rearrange the constitutions of public schools to match the goals of the MST community. In this process, the volunteers responsible for educating the children in the Itinerant Schools had the opportunity to be certified by the state and consequently become an official teacher in the public schools within the settlement. This new vision of state schools would adapt the curriculum to match the values of peasant life as expressed by the MST by encouraging learners to engage in intellectual and manual labor. According to Rebecca Tarlau (2015), this partnership resulted from a common interest of the state and the MST to address the “low level of teacher’s education on settlements” (p.78). In the 1990s several public educators had only completed middle school. By law, educators were forbidden to teach without a secondary degree, and at that time, judicial bodies were severely reinforcing this law. The MST

48 already suffered with a reduced number of supportive teachers. If the ones they had were forbidden to teach, their pedagogical project would be endangered. Meanwhile, the state had a low capacity to train these educators, and the partnership with the MST would solve the problem of low capacity of educators. In this partnership, the MST would be responsible for training these educators. Therefore, the MST and the state had converging interests in the institutionalization of the movement’s education (Tarlau, 2015).

However, as I learned at the Colégio Estadual do Campo Contestado, there were many struggles involved in this new vision. My first encounter at Contestado was with the school secretary. Adriano is officially responsible administratively and legally for the school’s documentation; he is also the link between the administration and the pedagogical team. But the most interesting aspect about Adriano is that he seems to be a reference for all learners in Contestado. He is always addressing requests by learners, and parents, and even in the short time that I have been in the school, it was easy to perceive how deep his connections are with the community. On two occasions, I witnessed learners coming into his office looking for guidance, and the trust and respect in those learner’s eyes conveyed the significant role of Adriano in that school. Different from other faculties at the school, Adriano lives inside the settlement, in fact in very close proximity to the school. He holds a degree in Agronomy from the State University of Ponta Grossa (1998), a specialization in Cooperative Management from the University of Brasília (2001) and another specialization in Field Education and Peasant Family Agriculture from the Federal University of Paraná (2006). In our first conversation he described the struggles of guaranteeing the existence of a public school inside the Contestado settlement. Adriano highlighted that the beginning of Colégio Estadual do Campo Contestado overlapped with the beginning of the settlement since “education has always been an objective of agrarian reform, because, in addition to conquering the land, it is necessary to conquer this space of schooling, of education” (Adriano #1, personal interview, October 2, 2018)11. Since the transformation of Santa Amélia Farm into the Contestado settlement in 1999, education was a significant concern, and the MST managed to fulfill this need through volunteer educators. People that lived in the encampment phase and had teaching training, started

11 Adriano makes reference to a perspective of the stand point theory shared by Paulo Freire and Patricia Hill Collins. Freire’s teachings embody this perspective by proposing an education at and for the countryside; while Hill Collins emphasizes different people have different experiences and that needs to be recognized. In short, she states that intersectionality is the only way to access subjugated knowledge.

49 an initiative to guarantee child education. The first class offered to Contestado´s children was a mixed grade class. It was an extension of another school in a quilombola12 community nearby. Adriano describes the struggle the participants of the settlement went through to acquire the right to have a public school inside the settlement:

We always had this fight on the agenda... So it was a very big fight, we had to camp in the city hall, make claims, and in the process, the union gave a space for the children to be able to camp and study, and the parents took turns in the care of the children and in the kitchen, with the food. So, it was a lot of work, but there was always a fight to have a school in here…the school has already worked in several spaces, including in that house back there [he refers to a small brick house behind the school]. But later this building was inaugurated as a municipal school (Adriano #1, personal interview, October 2, 2018

More specifically, according to Contestado school’s Pedagogical Political Project (2011), on March 14, 2003, they were recognized as a Municipal School of Primary Education by the Municipal Education Office through ruling nº 403/03 (p.9). However, the school was considered an extension of a previous school, Escola Arthur de Costa e Silva. There was no dedicated building to it, but the municipal government provided funds for educators and all school’s materials. Nevertheless, the older children were still dependent on the public school of the Mariental Districted in the urban area of Lapa. Fortunately, families acquired the right of public transportation to take these learners to Lapa, but they still had to endure a sixty kilometers distance between the settlement and the city. After seven years, the Contestado settlement finally acquired the right and funds to have a building and educators for Elementary/Middle/High School in their territory. At that time, the Colégio Estadual do Campo Contestado was created, and Professor Samuel Antônio da Silva was appointed as the school’s principal (PPP, 2011). He remains a principal to this day. However, these are not the only particularities of the Contestado school. As per Adriano’s explanation, the educators have to deal with an administrative duality, since both the state and the municipality are involved in the project “We have the administration of the municipality that is the owner of the building, combined with the state that is the maintainer of the public school. Also, we fight and try to build and implement our political, pedagogical

12 Quilombola communities are ethnic groups - predominantly made up of the rural or urban black population - that define themselves based on their specific relationships with their own land, kinship, territory, ancestry, traditions and cultural practices” (INCRA | Quilombolas, 2018)

50 part with the education of the countryside” (Adriano #1, personal interview, October 2, 2018).

This duality is further explained by Jhoymar, Contestado’s History teacher. Jhoymar has been in the education sector for over ten years. In our first encounter he defined himself as a public-school teacher even though he had some experience with private education. Here it is important to mention that the scenario of public school in Brazil is very different when compared to North America, making his statement of great importance. According to Eduardo de Freitas (2019), the structure of public education in Brazil is deficient and unequal; schools are underfunded, and the quality varies from state to state. Due to the shortage in resources, low salaries and lack of infrastructure, public educators have great difficulty in executing their jobs. The reality of low participation of parent in child’s education is another element that harms teacher’s ability to fulfill their objectives. In a context where parents have extensive working hours, time to participate in their child’s education is drastically reduced. This reduction in participation shifts many of the responsibilities, regarding the development of the child, to the public-school teacher. All these elements overload teachers’ responsibility without properly compensating them (de Freitas, 2019). This is the recurrent scenario that Jhoymar faced through all his years in education. Also, he mentions coming across different realities within different public education districts. He has worked in the coast, in the city, in the border between Brazil and Argentina, and in the countryside. Jhoymar emphasizes that he has worked in most of the schools of Lapa, but he never had the opportunity to work at Contestado until 2017. This was his first year at CECC. He had heard from other professors of Lapa how different the methodology of Contestado was, and that always sparked interest in teaching at the school (Jhoymar #3, personal interview, October 10, 2018). Jhoymar explains the connections between the dynamics of the administrative duality with Paraná’s struggle to provide public education:

The state is still crawling in this issue, and to meet the need to serve a community 40 or 50km from the city, Paraná uses a structure that is already established by the municipality. That is why there is an agreement between state and municipality here in the Contestado. The municipality of Lapa constructed the CECC building, and they use it in the mornings and a group in the afternoon, while the Paraná state uses the rest of the afternoon night classes. (Jhoymar #3, personal interview, October 10, 2018)

51 Besides dealing with the administrative duality, CECC struggles with implementing an alternative pedagogy in a hegemonic institution (state and municipality). Professors at CECC described a real intent in adapting public education to the reality of the countryside and of the land reform. The school’s secretary emphasizes that the CECC is part of a network named REARA (Network of Agrarian Reform Settlement Schools) meaning that pedagogical proposals for education in the countryside are constantly discussed among this network that includes the complexity of the settlements/land reform reality. Adriano (2018) describes in more detail what being part of REARA means:

Even with all the bureaucracy demanded by the state, we are trying to work with current issues, with learners’ organization and our unique pedagogical principle. We understand that the settlement community has a responsibility to follow the educational process, and there is a network focused on that, which is composed of one representative from each group of the settlement. The settlement is composed of 108 families, organized in 10 base nuclei, and each of these base nuclei has a male and a female coordinator. The proposal is to meet monthly to discuss education, which involves the public school, and larger subjects such as training etc. (#1, personal interview, October 10, 2018).

Similarly, Andressa underlines the importance of recognizing Contestado’s settlement reality. Andressa is the Geography teacher of the sixth and seventh grade at CECC, and she has been working at the school for the past three years. The Geography teacher highlights that she was driven to CECC due to the MST’s presence in the school, and the fact that the movement prioritizes political and educational criteria that she considers important. In our conversation, Andressa (2018) informed me that she teaches in other countryside schools of Lapa and Contenda (a close by municipality); but the educational approach towards CECC has important differences. Andressa (2018) brings attention to the impacts of Contestado being a participant at REARA, as she states: “the process here is different. We plan specifically for a settlement school, which is different from a plan that I would do simply for a school in countryside” (#2, personal interview, November 2). And it is exactly this reality that enables more freedom regarding curriculum and methodology in the educational plans of CECC:

Developing the content at CECC is much easier, because being in a school with a Political Project within a social movement, makes teaching Political Geography much easier. You have no restriction. You can show all facets that exist within Political Geography without anyone rebuking you (Andressa #2, personal interview, November 2, 2018).

52 It is clear that the school has the liberty to implement its pedagogical vision without having to replicate the traditional model of public education that is rooted in the reductionist aspect of knowledge, a strong hierarchical relationship between learner and educator that reinforces a baking model of education. However, as described by Adriano, some bureaucratic obstacles make these implementations difficult. When asked if the state dictated guidelines that the school had to follow, Adriano’s answer was “yes and no,” “we have to follow the guidelines of the state, but there is freedom to implement our own Pedagogical Project that follows a more liberating and more emancipatory line. It depends a lot on who [which political party] is managing the school. Openness exists, for now” [referring to the election period at that time that had an extreme-right candidate leading the polls – this candidate, Jair Bolsonaro, was elected president] (#1, personal interview, October 2, 2018).

The CECC is a small school that has classes in the afternoons and evenings. It is composed of 73 learners, of whom 46 are in Middle School and 28 are in High School. They rely on one director, two child educator specialists, 18 teachers, an administrative team composed by one secretary, one administrative officer, and three general services assistants. The school has a physical structure composed of five classrooms, a small library, a computer lab, a kitchen, a cafeteria, two male restrooms, two female restrooms, an office that accommodates the school principal, the educator specialist and the secretary; a teacher’s room and stockroom. There is a deficiency in the physical structure regarding space for the Physical Education classes, and they are carried out on a field next to the school building. Also, the building does not have Physics, Chemistry or Biology labs (PPP, 2011).

Figure 2 - CECC's Central building

53

As can be seen, the CECC is a very particular school as it deals with the state, the municipality and the hybrid pedagogy of the MST. During my visits to the school, I was able to explore the connections between Ecofeminism and the MST ideas and if/how they are translated on the ground. This research strives to have a wider comprehension on how the CECC implements the three overlapping elements between the MST and Ecofeminism on their educators and learners. The next section will address this issue by analyzing the presence of these elements on two levels of the MST education: (1) national educational project - pedagogy guidelines, (2) local educational project - Contestado’s Pedagogical Political Project (PPP), and (3) implementation of local project – dynamics inside Contestado’s classroom.

3.2. Intersectional aspect of social justice

The intersectional aspect of social justice in CECC’s pedagogy will be presented through three major concepts: horizontal education, collective thinking, and holistic development. Paulo Freire’s conception of horizontal learning adopted by the MST’s national pedagogy proposes that the first step towards empowerment is the recognition of oppression; since only the oppressed can “free themselves and the oppressors” (Freire, 2013, location 434). However, to accomplish this task, the oppressed need a tool, and the liberating model of education is that tool. As described in Chapter 2, Freire proposes the abandonment of the banking system of traditional education and the implementation of a horizontal system based on the collective construction of knowledge. Through the collective construction of knowledge of this horizontal system proposed by Freire, women and girls in particular gain space for equal voice, something that has been historically denied to them, and in the process, they create the ability to foster this space in other environments. By rejecting the passive position proposed by the banking system girls are also rejecting the duality between man and women in the division of public and private spaces. Once they are presented with an empowering environment, they tend to expand this reality to other aspects of their lives. In other words, a new reality that resists the hegemonic system is created through the fostering of critical thinking.

The concepts of holistic and collective education proposed by Moisey Pistrak and Anton Makarenko and adopted by the MST’s national pedagogy translates the

54 intersectionality of social justice to education. The holistic education proposed by Makarenko entails a connection with the practical world; an expansion outside formal education that connects learners with society. For that reason, the MST proposes an education that involves manual labor as a way to connect learners to their class identity, consequently maintaining their connection with their lived reality and their struggles. This characteristic of the MST’s national pedagogy puts practical and conceptual knowledge at the same level, defying the systemic assumption that practical knowledge is worth less than conceptual knowledge. Ensuring that learners have manual labor in their education, not only equalizes types of knowledge, it also challenges the sexual division of labor and the concept of masculinized productive work. When the MST implements Pistrak’s concept of socially useful activity in their pedagogy, they are leveling the types of manual labor in a way that recognizes women’s domestic work as productive (Lucena et al., 2102). Furthermore, Makarenko’s collective education entails a cooperative construction of education in which self-governance is the central element of this cooperation. By pushing learners to come up with a solution to their (individual/community) challenges, the MST is giving them space to acknowledge what that task/subject means to them and how they would solve it. This practice encourages learners to understand their position as unique individuals, a position that is shaped by many overlapping power systems (gender, sexuality, race, class, geography, etc.) and how, given these conditions, they can contribute to a solution to that specific task or challenge. This contextualized way of solving problems is a clear rejection of an imposed way of thinking that separates and ranks people’s voices. Moreover, the collective construction of education proposed here is expanded not only to practical knowledge linked to labor but to also to a broader sense of the collective. The connection with the community experienced through the pedagogy of rotation, and the base nuclei and specific groups of discussion like the Women’s collective; guarantee that learners will always have a contextualized way of thinking and acting.

Similarly, the concerns regarding horizontal, holistic and collective education of MST’s national pedagogy is also present at CECC’s Pedagogical Political Project (PPP). The PPP is a document developed by every school in Brazil, that explains what is the pedagogical project of that particular school and how they intend to apply this project. Right at the beginning of the document, we can distinguish these concerns in the General Objectives:

55 To contribute to the formation of full human beings, who are able and willing to become fighters… Develop the capacity for critical analysis in the interpretation of reality… Involve, permanently, the community and Social Movements in the decision-making and in the actions of the school that both promote… Promote democratic management in which learners, educators, and the whole community actively participate in the educational decisions and actions of the school (PPP, p.10).

It is clear by this paragraph that the pedagogical project of the school focuses on collective education that fosters consciousness-raising and a democratic learning process. However, in the section “Concepções de Escola” (School Design) we can see these ideas in more depth (as five pedagogical matrices are presented to the reader: social struggle, collective organization, land, culture, and history) (PPP, 2011, p.26). Three of these matrices are relevant to this discussion. First, the social struggle matrix highlights the effort of the MST in changing reality, and how education also comes from the world view of resistance and comprehension that everything can be different. By incorporating this idea into their project, CECC is fostering critical thinking and rejecting the status quo. Second, the collective organization matrix understands that the landless rural workers are educated through their organization, they collectively construct knowledge, and by doing so, they reject the passivity of the banking model of education. Third, the history matrix not only prioritize that the landless rural workers, educate themselves through the organization, but more specifically this organization objective is to think about their struggles and how they have been marginalized from history (PPP, 2011, p.26). As they revisit their past, they comprehend their role in history and their position in the present, allowing them to articulate a better future. In sum, as rural workers understand their position in the overlapping systems of domination, they are one step closer to disarticulating it, according to the PPP.

Moreover, the holistic aspect of the MST’s national education translates into the PPP through the section “Educational Principles.” Here the project conveys the idea that education goes beyond school since it comprehends the entirety of human development. That, is people are educated in the relationships they establish with the environment in which they live, linked to the social, cultural, religious, institutional, affective and economic dimensions, that are based on the mode of production; the social division of labor. That is why the educational process needs to incorporate all dimensions of life, because without it, the educational process is incomplete (PPP, 2011). Furthermore, if the overlapping systems of domination define our position in the world, we cannot assume that changing

56 only one aspect of human development will solve the situation. In that sense, a school that aspires social change needs to change not only what it teaches, but how it teaches, how it operates, and how it is structured (PPP, 2011).

For that reason, the PPP envisions two types of Educational Principles: philosophical and pedagogical. The philosophical principle of education focuses on a socially transformative education that assumes a political, pedagogical process linked with social processes that aim for a transformation of current reality and the construction of a new social order. The second aspect of the philosophical principles is an education intended for work and cooperation. It is an effort to connect education with the reality of agrarian reform, peasant struggle and the construction of alternatives ways to remain in the countryside. Education for the many dimensions of the individual and with/for humanistic values are the third and fourth aspects of CECC’s philosophical principles of education (PPP, 2011, p.29-31). In this topic, we can see a concern with an integral development of individuals through the incorporation of what is called humanistic and socialist values, which includes:

The feeling of indignation at injustice and loss of human dignity; Companionship and solidarity in the relationships between people and collectives; The pursuit of equality combined with respect for cultural differences, ethnicities, gender, personal styles, among others; The collective direction and the division of tasks; The planning; Discipline in study, work and militancy; Tenderness and respect in interpersonal relationships; The spirit of sacrifice before the works necessary for the cause of transformation and collective well-being; Creativity and initiative in the face of problems; The cultivation of affection between people; The permanent ability to dream and share the dream and the actions of accomplishing it (PPP, 2011. p.31).

Even though a lot of these values contribute to social justice, the pursuit of equality and respect for all differences is particularly relevant to this discussion, as it acknowledges the importance of gender equality in social justice education. Furthermore, the fourth philosophical aspect recognizes the need for an ever-changing education which evolves with the participants. That is, a transformative education should go beyond teaching about change by providing a space where critical conscience can flourish, and behavior can be changed. The PPP explains “What educates/transforms the person is not only the discourse, the word, the theory, however good they may be; it is rather the concrete experience of the new” (PPP, 2011, p.32).

57 It is through the pedagogical principles that the philosophical principles are implemented to create a horizontal and inclusive education. In the following section, there is a description of the pedagogical tools used to implement the principles outlined above. These tools are Tempos Educativos (Educative Periods), Complexos de Estudo (Study Complexes), Gestão Democrática (Democratic Management), and Ciclos de Formação Humana (Cycles of Human Development). The first three are relevant to this section; the fourth tool will be further explained in section 5.3.

3.2.1. Educative Periods

Tempos Educativos is the division of CECC’s day into six major periods to guarantee “learner’s omni lateral development” as it describes an intention to build a horizontal, collective and holistic education: Tempo formatura (development period); tempo trabalho (work period); tempo aula (class period); tempo oficina (workshop period); tempo Núcleos Setorias (sectorial nucleus period); tempo leitura (reading period) (PPP, 2011, p.15). Only four are relevant here. The tempo formatura occurs at the beginning of each day as all participants of the school gather to receive and transmit information and is a way to experience the MST´s Mística. It is how the school encourages the cultural production of peasant identity.

The tempo formatura is a way to celebrate the collective, to remind the educators, learners, and staff that they are part of a bigger struggle, a reminder that they are building a socially transformative education that strives for social and environmental justice. It is also a way, to democratize participation and empower learners to assume an active position in their education and their lives, as described by Adriano (2018) “it is a space that has the intentionality of collective participation” (#1, personal interview, October 2). Furthermore, the History teacher highlights that this is a period that is in constant transformation:

This moment is a moment always under construction. It is a moment that is open to them, [learners] however there are days that younger kids have no reports, or they do not participate as much as the older kids. But is their moment. This moment of formatura and all these ideas of democratization is a process in constant construction (Jhoymar #3, personal interview, October 10, 2018)

58 Through tempo formatura CECC maintains education as a living practice; that is, it is always changing according to participants reality. It is a reflection of the countryside reality, and it changes according to it. Moreover, this period is a practical way to reinforce gender equality as the learners are encouraged to work in duos – a boy and a girl (Jhoymar #3, personal interview, October 10, 2018).

The tempo trabalho promotes a holistic and collective learning as it proposes collective work in the school. More specifically, the period is a way to exercise a social division of labor in which an interdependence is established between each other’s work and the continuity of the life of the community. If someone does fulfill the job, it impacts the collectivity, since the products of the work are collectively appropriated (PPP, 2011)The interdependence between tasks encouraged in this period is an appreciation of all types of work, not deeming one more important than any other. This period relates to the Work matrix of the Study Complex, a pedagogical tool that will be further explained in section 5.1.2.

Another period relevant to this discussion is the tempo oficina (workshop period), where learners get in contact with cooperation, cognitive development, manual, and motor skills. These activities entail arts and craft, dance, sport, gymnastics, construction of music and materials (toys, educational material). These workshops are mediated in accordance with the availability and capacity of the person responsible for the activity; mediators can be learners, educators, community volunteers or guests (PPP, 2011). This tool as envisioned by the PPP creates a space for boys and girls to share spaces traditionally defined as masculine and feminine, as it encourages all learners to take part in all activities. It can also be a place for a deeper comprehension of gender struggles as it playfully approaches all topics, leaving kids more comfortable with the discussions. Sônia Fatima Schwendler13 explains the workshop period in more details. Schwendler is an

13 Sônia F.S. is a Child Education Specialist and a Master in Rural Extension by the Federal University of Santa Maria. Received her Ph.D. in Iberian and Latin American Studies from the University of London, Queen Mary College, and an Associate Professor II of the Federal University of Paraná, working in the Graduate Program in Education (master's and doctorate). Honorary Researcher at the University of London, Queen Mary College, where she served as an Advanced Research Fellow with Professor Else Vieira (University of London) with the Gender and Education in Rural Areas in Brazil project, approved by the British Academy / Newton Fund (2015-2017). Researcher and Project Coordinator with support from CNPq (2014-2018). Member of Articulação Paranaense for a Field Education and vice-leader of the Gender Studies Centre of UFPR. She served as a Member of the National Education Program for Agrarian Reform (PRONERA) of the National Institute of Colonization and Agrarian Reform - INCRA (1998-2000) and the State

59 associate professor at the Federal University of Paraná, and honorary researcher at the University of London, Queen Mary College, and she gives details regarding a gender workshop done in CECC in 2017 with funding from the British academy and the Newton Fund, and with the guidance of professor Else Vieira from the Queen Mary Latin American Studies program:

I have always worked with the participation of women in the struggle for land and the sexual division of labor. With this project we added the look of gender diversity in the education of the countryside in two schools and one of them was CECC. In this work we ended up training sixty teachers, in two stages. And we have done five workshops on feminist themes, to understand generational conflicts as well, and how the youth perceives this gender inequality. This includes their relationship with the family, therefore generational. This work comes from a previous partnership with this school, since it is not all the settlements that have this opening. I knew that CECC had the concern and openness to this kind of activities (Schwendler #10, personal interview, February 9, 2019)

More specifically, the workshop worked with elements from their daily lives so they could better understand issues regarding sexuality. The discussions were based on soap operas and songs. While the topics on the sexual division of labor were developed through documentaries, Schwendler (2019) explains that they decided to use these tools because it was through these vehicles that they had contact with different issues:

We wanted to debate this, the comments that comes out when watching the soap operas that approach these themes [sexual diversity]? And we started training people around the comments that came up. We also felt a certain resistance from younger boys, girls were much more empowered and worked much more than boys. (#10, personal interview, February 9).

As we can see, the workshop period provides further development of issues that don’t get explored in other periods, contributing to the integral development of the learner.

In a similar manner, the Núcleos Setorias period contributes to all three main concerns of the project: collective thinking, horizontal and holistic learning. This period functions as space for Núcleos Setorias meetings, a “form of vertical grouping between learners of different ages, articulated to manage the school as a space for self-regulation of learners aligned to the contents of the disciplines” (PPP, 2011, p. 53). These groups

Secretary of Education of Paraná as Coordinator of Field Education (2003-2004). Coordinated the Latu Sensu Postgraduate Course in Field Education (2005 to May / 2008). She acted as coordinator of the Center for Educational Studies and Research of the Education Sector of UFPR (2014-2016).

60 are composed of learners from all classes of each period, and an educator to accompany the collective. From these learners, a coordinator is chosen to participate in the Executive Committee of the school Assembly. The Núcleos Setorias proposes meetings once a week in the following grouping: 1. Communication; 2. Beautification; 3. Teaching Support; 4. Agricultural / Horticultural; 5. Health and Welfare; 6. Infrastructure; 7. Memory. It can, according to the needs of community, be in greater numbers or be extinguished when its function has been fulfilled. This period has a strong element of self-governance and self- regulation. Learners experience a combination of theory and practice through Núcleos Setorias. Both learners and educators develop a set of actions that include collective planning, the use of scientific knowledge and socio-economic foundations, along with technical skill (PPP, 2011). The Núcleos Setorias give meaning to the work period as it allows learners to connect with the practical world through self-governance. Unlike the work period, here the topics are discussed, and plans of action are created, while in the work period the plan is executed. By collectively solving problems that arise in the educational environment, learners foster cooperation, and through cooperation they recognize each other’s worth, reinforcing an egalitarian environment. Adriano (2018) further explains the dynamics of these groups and highlights that to ensure a horizontal learning process, the educator in the group is considered just one more participant:

The idea is to start helping with some things at school, how to put the books in the library, help the secretariat. They can propose something of their own. The Health and Well-being groups, for example, they work together with the kitchen staff, and the General Services group focuses on things like garbage separation, weekly menu, cleaning and organization. They [learners] were the ones that proposed the organization of the classroom. So even though they have someone to clean, every end of the school day they give a "sweep" and they organize their things as a way to take responsibility for their space. The proposal is that learners intentionally organize themselves and coexist with the teacher at the same decision level (#1, personal interview, October 10).

Jhoymar (2018) reinforces the importance of Núcleos Setoriais to the promotion of a horizontal relationship between teacher and learner:

Although some level of hierarchy in pedagogical decisions exists; the idea is to break as much as possible to horizontalize the school dynamics. That is why the Formatura and Núcleos Setorias are so important, because these tools promote a horizontal relationship between teacher and learner. The idea is to transform this traditional dynamic, but even for us teachers it is difficult to understand and apply this more horizontal reality, but it is a big step that we try to make it work (#3, personal interview, October 10).

61 Another aspect of this period is the inclusion of chores traditionally considered feminine, like beautification (the general aspect of the school) and welfare (cleaning and food preparation). This inclusion exposes children to all types of work with no hierarchy among them, once again creating the opportunity to break the socially imposed separation of masculine and feminine roles.

Although the six educative periods described above have great potential to provide inclusive education to CECC, professors face some obstacles on the ground that challenges the efficient implementation of the project. In a broader sense, this tool of horizontal learning is institutionally challenging since it was designed for a full-time school day and CECC has only a part-time school day, just like every other public school. As described in the document “the execution of the set of educational periods as it is proposed, will only be made possible by the guarantee of a more elongated time in school” (PPP, 2011, p. 15).

Similarly, the appropriation of the period formatura has different levels depending on the age of learner. Jhoymar (2018) explains that the concept of traditional school limits new leaners to take full advantages of these tools:

The passive spirit of the learner within the idea of traditional school (this culture that the learner should only attend and pay attention in class) that prevail in all schools including the ones of Lapa, is what makes it difficult for the learner to be a protagonist in school. Not demeaning other schools, because there are many things that work in the traditional model, but the idea of trying to construct these dynamics of the school in a more collective form is the proposal at Contestado (#3, personal interview, October 10)

For that reason, educators continually remind the learners of the importance of this tool. Along with maturity, this is one other reason High School learners are more comfortable with taking charge during this period. According to the History teacher “at night [high school period] things are much more dynamic, they take ownership and contribute to the construction of the collective space” (Jhoymar #3, personal interview, October 10, 2018). In my visits to the school, I only experienced the tempo formatura of elementary and middle school learners. But in fact, the meetings seemed to be highly informative, as the learners communicated birthdays, projects, questions and they experienced Mística (chanting anthems of the movement, of the municipality and the international peasant movement, Via Campesina).

62 The implementation of the Núcleos Setorias also faces challenges due to the high turnover of educators in the school. As described by Jhoymar (2018) “our work team system, hiring system, and function allocation, suffers from the rotation of educators. Which in turn ends up affecting the work of the Núcleos Setorias that needed to be constant to have more functionality” (#3, personal interview, October 10). The teacher highlighted the fact that the implementation problem relate to the overlap of both class and Núcleos Setorias periods. That is, the school is not separating a period to carry on with the Núcleos Setorias activities; they are using the time they have in class. Therefore, it is tough to accommodate their system, their time and the obligation with State Secretariat and the division of educative periods (Jhoymar #3, personal interview, October 10, 2018).

Likewise, the potential offered by the tempo oficina of exploring issues not developed in class, suffers influences from factors outside of the scope of the school. This influence can be either an obstacle or an aid to the workshop implementation, depending on the external actor that is influencing the workshops, as we can see by Selma’s comments regarding the gender workshop. Selma is a fifty-two-year-old Geography teacher and a child education specialist. Despite her background in Geography Selma acts only as a child education specialist, one of two in CECC. As a child education specialist her role is to mediate school routines, which presupposes knowledge necessary to conduct the preparation, execution, and evaluation of institutional projects and pedagogical proposals, the PPP. Furthermore, a child education specialist defines course content, educational objectives and decides on teaching methodologies (Pereira n.d.). According to Selma, the gender workshops implemented by professor Schwendler had some resistance from the community:

We had a two-year project with the Federal University of Paraná partnered with a University in London that worked hard on the gender issue with the learners. The man, the woman, the exploitation of women's work. It was a really cool project. However, there was resistance of some parents regarding content and about taking time out of traditional content… taking us back to the necessity of a longer school day to cover all the content we deem important (Selma #8, personal interview, October 10, 2018).

This statement brings attention to the influence of patriarchy in the culture of the countryside. Many parents considered this workshop a compromise of their child’s education since it took learners away from traditional classes (Math, Science, History and so on) and it was in disagreement with the religious principles of the Evangelical Church,

63 a powerful influence in the countryside. This resistance demonstrates the marginalized position gender struggles has in the conception of education of these parents.

More specifically, the lack of affirmative policies for gender equality in the countryside (rights to land); and the resilience of patriarchal ideology inside rural families, still limits women empowerment in the MST. As previously discussed, women attained the constitutional right to land in 1988. Nevertheless, only recently, February 2nd of 2003, INCRA has introduced the obligation, which is not necessarily enacted, to place the land in the name of the couple and not just the man. With this norm, the title of the land lies with the man or woman in cases of absence of a spouse, but, to both in case of marriage or stable union. However, to be eligible, both must have essential documents, such as identity cards, besides the marriage certificate, a significant barrier considering the large contingent of women who do not have essential documents (Furlin, 2013). In short, this barrier points to structural ways in which women are indirectly disenfranchised.

Another aspect of the limitation of women in the countryside is the different nature of the phases of land struggle. Once the confrontational phase (encampment) of the movement ends and people starts to settle in their newly acquired land, the participation of women in the struggle tends to regress. This change in participation is a result of a poor capability of the encampment phase to completely challenge gender norms. That is, the encampment phase only softens gender norms; it doesn’t break them. Activities of political socialization are carried out without gender or age differentiation. The relations are built around a common identity of landless workers. The communal structure seeks to break with the differentiation between feminine and masculine spaces, subverting the naturalization of the private space as intended for women and the public space for men. The relationships of solidarity established in this new configuration, in which the struggle of all members is the same, the struggle for land, weakens gender relations (Morais, 2018). Nevertheless, even though the MST promotes the politicization of life, and with it the feminine condition, this politicization does not necessarily change rural dynamics that pervades family and community dynamics. So once activists move to the settlements, the blurriness between public and domestic spaces diminishes, along with women’s participation in the political arena. The dynamics of the collective changes, and the daily meetings that would guarantee the participation of all members vanishes because the community’s primary concern is no longer land, but production. In the confrontational phase, women are crucial to goal achievement; the organization needed numbers, so

64 each person counts. However, when the focus changes towards production, women lose participation in the decision-making process. This loss in participation is a typical result of Marxists/socialist revolutionary movements, that argues that sexism will be automatically defeated once capitalism is abandoned. But more specifically, women’s decrease in political participation in the settlement, relates to the alignment of settlers with state institutions like INCRA (National Institute of Colonization and Agrarian Reform) that still see men as the head of the household, and for that reason, it directs policies that favor men and excludes women. Moreover, women’s work in agriculture is invisible, it is considered an extension of the housework, and as such a non-productive activity. Agricultural work still tends to be considered a male activity, and any work that women put in to this area is considered “help”; while any work that men put in to the domestic realm is also considered “help”, since there is still an inclination to understand it as female work (Schwendler, 2013).

It is valid to highlight that this regression in the post-confrontational phase of the movement is not universal. Depending on the circumstances experienced by these women on the previous phases of the land struggle, their participation in the settlement will be different. It will depend on how they experienced gender division prior to occupation; how they were able to integrate themselves in the encampment phase; and the kind of relationships these women established in their families, communities, social movement and agencies in the settlement phase (Schwendler, 2013). If in the period of the struggle for land the primary organizing agent and the discussion with the families was made through the MST, in the settlement phase, other actors start to share this space, such as the Evangelical Church, INCRA, market. This is the case of the resistance of a few of Contestado’s parents towards the gender workshops:

Many parents did not want their children to participate in some activities that went beyond the principles of the Church, so we had to present the activity in a different way to involve the children. Although the project activities were in accordance with the principles and pedagogical project of the school, the parents had to authorize in writing the participation of their children. We couldn’t force leaner’s participation, so we had to convince parents of the importance of these activities, that this debate had to be done for inclusion purposes (Sônia Schwendler #10, personal interview, February 9).

Even though the educators of CECC were able to convince most parents to authorize the participation of their kids in the workshop, it was not an easy task. Brazil has been going

65 through a conservative wave that has shifted the character of the country’s religious beliefes, increasing the number of Evangelical Churches around the nation. Moreover, the influence of the Evangelical Church has reached the government, which led to changes in social policies:

Many actors are entering the process, and we are in a moment that has been heating up since the increase of the conservative politicians in Congress, and this has taken away the force of the struggle in the area of education, social movements, and this whole debate of working the issues of sexual orientation, of the gender debate, of violence against women. The withdrawal of this concern of gender due to the lobby of the churches, end up interfering in the settlements. Even in Lapa, the more conservative Churches turn out to be a divergent force not only in relation to gender discussions, but also in relation to the struggle for land. So, before the gender workshop project started in Contestado there was already some limitation with this issue and the school needed to learn how to handle it (Schwendler #10, personal interview, February 9, 2019)

Despite the interests and efforts of the school to pursue gender equality and raise awareness regarding sexual orientation, the religious influence on the community proved to be a challenge in the implementation of the workshop period. However, there was a higher resistance towards the sexual orientation section of the workshop than the sexual division of labor section. Schwendler explains that topics related to sexual division of labor had more acceptance since the Women’s Collective of Contestado has been dealing with this issue for many years. But when it comes to the issue of gender diversity, Schwendler states that “it was as if we had to open a curtain that was never opened” (Schwendler #10, personal interview, February 9, 2019). The community was more familiarized, and consequently more open to this discussion. According to Larisa Morais (2018), a Masters student from the Geography department at Federal University of Paraná that conducted research with the Women´s Collective at the Contestado community, the collective has been working with the idea of shared power to break with the assumption that empowering women means taking all power away from men (p.124-131). Just as the CECC tries to break with the idea of hierarchy in education, the collective is trying to break with the idea of hierarchy in the community. However, this issue still needs to be discussed in places like the workshops because there is still a long way to go to guarantee the elimination of sexual division of labor since the collective also suffers from low participation of women and the community in general.

66 In sum, the educative period cannot be fully implemented since it was designed for a full-time school day, and, CECC only has a four hour school day. The combination of a short school day with the high turnover of teachers, ends up jeopardizing the implementation of the educative periods, in particular, the Núcleos Setorias period. Moreover, the influence of actors outside the scope of the school can have an ambiguous contribution to the implementation of this pedagogical tool as it was in the case of the gender workshops in which religion influenced parent’s resistance. But at the same time, this resistance was diminished by the influence of the Women´s Collective.

3.2.2. Study Complexes

The study complexes are an attempt to develop a focus through multiple perspectives in an interdisciplinary fashion. According to the PPP (2011), the complexes are connected to the different portions of reality of an individual’s life. It is more than a theme or an axis; it is a theoretical-practical exercise that demands from the learner the understanding of conceptual bases. Moreover, the study complexes are a theoretical- practical exercise that takes place in a reality regularly experienced by the learner and for that reason needs to be theoretically understood. The complexes preserve the multiplicity of methodologies of the various disciplines (in addition to preserving their curricular identities) and therefore does not constitute a unification of methodology. The complexes are not a teaching method, but a curricular unit that integrates the action of the various disciplines, and it takes on the challenge of understanding and transforming a particular portion of learner’s life (p.46-50).

The Study Complexes were designed to reflect the holistic aspect of life, and as such, are composed of multiple matrices: work, social struggle, collective organization, culture, and history. The work matrix focuses on labor in a general sense, “on the struggle to convert all human beings into workers, overcoming alienated forms of labor” (PPP, 2011, p.39). It reinforces the intent to form a free association of producers and to create in the countryside a complex peasant cooperation. The Pedagogical Political Project defines six ways to translate these intentions to the school’s daily routine, two of them seem relevant to this discussion:

(1) Insertion of learners into different forms of socially useful work, considering the characteristics of each age and the objective conditions of the school and its surroundings. They may be housework or self-service in

67 the school itself, they may be social work in the camp or settlement, they may become productive activities with the older learners (8th and 9th grade). (2) Human work, in general, the productive processes of the countryside in particular, and learner’s participation in the work must be the object of scientific study in the school, through the teaching disciplines or other curricular activities organized for this (PPP, 2011, p.40).

The first topic is an adaptation of Pistrak’s concept of socially useful work embedded in the MST’s national pedagogy. This interpretation is a positive contribution to the dismantling of the sexual division of labor. By recognizing domestic activity as work, the pedagogical project blurs the lines between public and private spheres, a division that for centuries has undermined women’s contribution to the work force. The logic of capital only considers activities that contribute to economic growth as productive work. Therefore, the separation between private and public sphere subjugates women by associating them with the domestic, the household; while economic growth is defined and valued for occurring in the exact opposite sphere. Thus, recognizing domestic work as legitimate productive work, especially in the early years of child education, is a crucial step towards the development of a society with no sexually differentiated roles. However, the second topic creates an ambiguity to this interpretation. It is not clear here if domestic activities, that are considered socially useful work, are also considered productive work. This is important because many women suffer invisibility in the agricultural field, since their participation is considered “help” and not a place of belonging. For that reason, defining domestic activity as productive work would contribute to this sense of belonging to the agricultural workforce.

Through the social struggle matrix, the pedagogical project is fostering critical thinking and rejecting the status quo as they recognize that education is also constructed by nonconformity, social defiance and concrete initiatives to fight for the transformation of reality. PPP clarifies that this is not precisely the school’s responsibility, but something they can contribute to nonetheless:

Forming oneself to be in a permanent state of struggle (characteristic of fighters and militants of social movements) is not something that is of the nature of the school to guarantee, but it can help to cultivate a worldview and an intentional daily posture provided by the performance in the different formative matrices and also by the link with other educational processes (PPP, 2011, p. 41).

68 The social struggle matrix proposes a rejection of the conditions that support social inequality and acknowledges that nothing is impossible to change. This vision is a fundamental step towards a new reality that does not subjugate class, gender, sex, race, etc.

The collective organization matrix of the complexes also contributes generally to the intersectional vision of social justice, specifically to women’s empowerment, since it fosters horizontal relations between participants:

Participation in a collective organization creates fundamental traits in the human profile that we need today: fighters and builders. People who know what needs to be built, who know how to fight for construction and can identify the best ways to build it. Who participates in an organization, is cultivating a collective way of life and learns habits and skills that allow it to work collectively and act in an organized way in the fulfillment of its tasks (PPP, 2011, p.42).

Thinking and acting collectively in this context requires mutual respect, dialogue and the rejection of passive education. More precisely, we can see here the translation of the horizontal and collective learning present in the national pedagogy of the MST as it encourages active participation in decision-making. Through the collective, learners get experience in creating a space of their own without disrespecting the space of others. The daily routine in this matrix is envisioned to create active participation of learners and community in the construction of school life. By involving learners, Contestado aims to reach increasingly collective forms of managing and executing school work. It strives to ensure that socially useful work practices, that are carried out at or through the school, are developed through a collective work organization. A central part of the collective organization matrix is the self-regulation processes. Learners may initiate their contact with self-regulation in specific activities until they expand it in a way that becomes the base of their participation as learners in the school. Ultimately, it proposes the involvement of learners in collective tasks for the MST or another form of collective organization with which they might be in contact. Lastly, the collective organization should be the object of the scientific study of the school but always based on practices in which they are inserted (PPP, 2011, p.42-43).

The two last complexes, culture and history, were designed to foster the sense of identity among learners and educators. It is clear to the organizers of Contestado’s

69 Political Pedagogical Project that culture influences behavior and this has to be taken into consideration when envisioning an educational project for this specific community: “in our current reality the pedagogical intentionality with this matrix should include the cultivation in our learners of the identity of workers, constituted from their closest specificity: we are Landless, we are peasant workers” (PPP, 2011,p.43). But what does it mean to be Landless? To be peasant workers for the Contestado community? This identity is further explained in the document:

In our project, this matrix implies a critique of hegemonic culture in a capitalist society (cultural industry) and in the cultivation / projection of parameters of social relations and daily habits that express and consolidate our social, political, and human objectives. It also implies the intention of specific processes of take-back knowledge produced by humanity throughout history (in the movement of its social contradictions) and of the production of new knowledge required by the current reality (PPP, 2011, p.43-44)

In theory, by identifying with a culture that opposes the hegemonic culture of capitalist societies, the school is rejecting all that comes with this hegemonic culture: neocolonialism, commercial capitalism, patriarchy, and the reductionist aspect of Western science. However, the scope of this rejection becomes less clear when analysing one of seven actions proposed by this matrix:

To help in the critical rooting and re-creation of the peasant way of life, which includes knowing the traits of the peasant way of farming, the knowledge that is produced and used in it, the cultural traditions, the typical social relations of the peasant family and communities, mainly due to the challenges of the MST's Popular Agrarian Reform project (PPP, 2011, p. 44).

It is unclear what exactly a typical social relationship of the peasant family and its community entails, and in what ways traditional culture of the countryside can contribute to the rejection of patriarchy. Marcia Mara Ramos, a child education professor and member of the MST’s National Collective of Education, acknowledges that rural dynamics can be very patriarchal and what the movement has achieved so far is a result of years of struggle; it wasn’t something that came naturally to the family dynamics of the countryside. The professor witnessed these struggles up close while growing up in the MST encampment.

70 Marcia is forty-five years old, mother of a twenty-five-year-old son, and soon to be a grandmother. She is originally from Itararé, a city in the countryside of São Paulo state, and she began her engagement with the movement when she was thirteen years old. Her parents dreamed of owning a piece of land and in 1986 this dream became a possibility though the encampment at the Pirituba farm. Marcia was part of one of the first MST occupations in the state of São Paulo and after ten years living in the confrontational phase, she and her family were able to settle. Due to the fact that she had a son when she was only nineteen, and she was constantly on the move, Marcia was forced to quit school. However, with the incentive of the opportunities provided by the MST and especially with the incentive and direction of the Women’s Collective she worked with (COPAVA), she was able to continue her studies. She finished middle school and a technical high school program for child education, and soon after she began to work in the educational sector of the MST, first regionally and then nationally. Marcia works with child and adult education. She organizes the Sem-Terrinha (landless kids) encounters, she is responsible for training educators and managing all regional activities related to education. After Marcia graduated high school, she pursued a Countryside Education degree at a program from the Federal University of Minas Gerais that had a partnership with the MST. She moved on to do a specialization on social movements in Rio at the Oswaldo Cruz Foundation; later she earned a master’s in education through the University of Campinas (UNICAMP) and she is now completing her Ph.D. program in education at the State University of Rio de Janeiro. Nevertheless, all Marcia’s achievements didn’t come without much struggle and sacrifice, as we can see in her story about how she returned to school:

If today, we can have a space of action it is because there was a lot of struggle. It's not like that, ‘oh, because everyone is cute, and we think it should be like this.’ It is a collective construction, of reflections from the problems that appear. For me internally, I would start with the family problem. Being a mother and going back to school. It was one of the first conflicts at home, with my parents. My parents thought I didn’t need to study anymore, for them I could just take care of the house, my son and get a husband. But for me it's always been a dream to go back to school (Ramos #11, personal interview, February 8, 2019).

Marcia has faced many obstacles in her pursuit of education, and the fact that she was a single parent at a young age was the biggest one. For Marcia to pursue her education, she had to move away from Itararé, but since she had a son, this decision was not easy, and she didn’t have a lot of support from her family and community. To complete her high school degree, she had to move to the south of Brazil (Rio Grande do Sul), since that was

71 the opportunity provided by the movement. Leaving her son with her parents to complete her education was not easy to do:

When I had to study in Rio Grande do Sul, I had to stay for a while, it was very difficult because my parents didn’t want me to, I had a child. And there were several comments, ‘how can she leave her child?’ In the end my parents stayed with my son during this period and I went to the South to study. Not that this made me an irresponsible person, I do not consider this because irresponsibility to me is in another perspective, I didn’t just leave him, it was not like that. Because in the same way we could look at the father of this child, who practically abandoned him. But in the concrete reality of society that is how I was seen (Ramos #11, personal interview, February 8, 2019).

It is clear here how Marcia was pressured to stay at home and take care of her son, even if that meant that she had to sacrifice her education and possibly accept limitations to her future; limits that could also interfere in her son’s future. It also shows the double standard reserved for her and the father of the child, who could go on to pursue what he thought was best for his life, with no real pressure from the community to stay and fulfill the responsibilities of being a father. It is through Marcia’s story that we can understand why “typical peasant family relations,” is an ambiguous term to use in a pedagogical project that is “seeking the rescue and cultivation of a culture of freedom” (PPP, 2011, p.10). Also, it brings attention to sexual policies inside the movement. It calls for a questioning of the status/culture of fatherhood in the MST regarding what it means to be a father in the context of the movement.

Furthermore, this reference to “typical peasant family relations” also doesn’t consider the role of Women’s Collective in the advancement of the gender agenda inside the movement. As described by Marcia, it was through the meetings with women in the encampment phase, that her mother understood that she wasn’t solely responsible for domestic activities.

[the consciousness] comes from the meetings, from the testimonies, the problems that people face daily. Because what is the MST? It is a movement that is formed by society. With people coming from the city, from the countryside. Extremely unstructured people, because they have no work, they do not have a minimum condition of survival. So, the MST is a space with all kinds of individuals. And it is in this space that we will try to give new meaning to people’s lives, men, women and children. So, trying to change things is not simple, it is very difficult, because you are trying to change what the person already conceives as natural, the naturalization of

72 things is very complicated, for them these dynamics is something given (Ramos #11, personal interview, February 8, 2019).

In general, the culture matrix can potentially contribute to gender equality as it rejects the framework that values neocolonialism, corporate capitalism, patriarchy, and the reductionist aspect of Western science, by reinforcing peasant identity. However, the document is ambiguous since it doesn’t exactly define what entails the family dynamics attached to peasant identity.

Despite the obstacle described above, the Study Complex has the potential to foster an inclusive, horizontal and collective education, but according to Contestado’s teachers the Study Complexes require time to implement; and this deficiency of time, along with the lack of guidelines and the structure of state education is an obstacle to an efficient implementation of the Study Complexes:

Here there is the concern and the attempt to implement the complexes correctly. But we only have four hours of class, in which the basic content needs to be passed on to the learner. We would need at least another two hours a day to be able to do an effective implementation of the complexes (Selma #8, personal interview, October 10, 2018).

Selma explains that this difficulty is connected with the institutionalization of the Itinerant Schools as there was a decentralization of the movement’s education which ended up interfering with the implementation of the complexes. There was an independent central institutional body managing the Itinerant Schools, but with the movement’s alignment with the state in the educational department, this independent body has disappeared. That is why inside the camps the Study Complexes are more efficient, since everyone is involved in the educational process and there is an integral commitment to apply the complexes (Selma #8, personal interview, October 10, 2018). Moreover, Selma highlights that the deficiency of implementation of this project is connected to the fact that it depends on the interpretation of each teacher:

Not to mention that it is already difficult to understand and know how to apply, because there is no theoretical basis, a guideline on how to approach these complexes. Although this year all the teachers already had contact with the proposals which makes its application a little easier. It takes a while for you to understand what the proposal is about and then you adapt it to your way to try to apply it in the best way possible. We also must take into account the time it takes to get to know the learners and their realities so that we can also insert this element in the planning (Selma #8, personal interview, October 10, 2018).

73 Despite the twelve pages of explanation on how the Study Complexes should work, the PPP is not very specific, leaving a lot of room for interpretation regarding its objectives and how its objectives should be achieved. The History teacher comments on the lack of guidelines and its harmful consequences to the interpretation of the complexes:

That intention of the learner being a protagonist and creating a sense of community and such, is totally at the mercy of each teacher's understanding of what that tool is all about, and how it should be conducted. I'm still trying to understand, and I do not know if my participation was the most productive, if I contributed or not. This would be easily adapted with time and knowledge of the dynamics of the school. But [teacher] turnovers also undermine teachers’ ability to learn [how to implement the Study Complex] and so a guideline would be of great help (Jhoymar #4, personal interview, November 7, 2018).

Similarly, Selma expands the explanation on how the state educational system can influence the implementation of the Study Complexes since it creates a high turnover among teachers.

The state's educational system forces the vast majority of teachers to take classes at different colleges, each with a different methodology. It would be a dream if all the teachers of this school only taught here, the application of the methodology would be much easier. But the reality is different, the vast majority here teach at two or three other schools, which makes everything much more difficult. Imagine the life of this person, wake up and think, today I will go to this school with methodology X so I will adapt my lesson for methodology X, tomorrow I will go to other school with methodology Y and I need to adapt everything again and so on. Thank goodness we have a good team that does their best to apply the methodology proposed in the Pedagogical Political Project. Of course, it's difficult at first, but they try hard. I personally was frank with you and said that I do not fully understand what it is, and I've been here for quite some time (Selma #8, personal interview, October 10, 2018).

The dynamics of public education is better explained by Jhoymar, as he mentions that the only teacher in Contestado that has enough to fill the time load prescribed by the state (20h) in one location is the Spanish teacher. Jhoymar explains that the current system of state selection is faulty since the regional government is using a process that was designed for emergency recruiting as the official hiring process. The “Processo de Seleção Simplificado” (PSS – Simplified Selection Process) of Paraná state is constantly changing the number of hours teachers are awarded and their salary, leading to a great impact on the teacher’s capacity to implement the school’s pedagogy. Jhoymar highlights that a

74 change of interpretation of an educator’s contract with the state redefined their work load, and this redefinition hampers the continuity of learner’s education:

The government changed the interpretation from 20 lessons to 20 hours. That meant that instead of 13 lectures and 7 activity hours [time to prepare lectures, correct papers, etc.], now we had 15 lectures and 5 activity hours. This change increased the number of classes each educator had to take upon in each school to be able to fulfill the 15 lectures standard. Often the same school does not have enough classes for this amount of hours, forcing the teacher to take classes from other schools, often in other municipalities, causing a major hassle. Resulting in the high turnover of the teachers of the state system of Paraná. (Jhoymar #4, personal interview, November 7, 2018).

However, this difficulty with teacher’s rotation is not just a problem in Paraná state; it is a problem with the Brazilian public system of education. Sônia Schwendler explains that this is a reality of almost every settlement school, and that in Contestado it is possible to see the difference of pedagogy implementation between Middle school and High school, since in Primary School there are more teachers from the settlement:

Within this work, in Middle and High school there are more outside teachers [not from the MST], who often do not continue in the school. So the educational process done in one year, must be restarted the next year all over again due to this rotation of educators. This difficulty is common to any other settlement that has Middle and High School, since it relates to the hiring system of the state. Today at Contestado there are 3 teachers in the initial series of early childhood education who are from the settlement. These teachers can maintain an enduring plan. For this reason, they are more engaged with the MST's proposals when compared to the Middle and High school (Schwendler #10, personal interview, February 9, 2019)

Overall, the implementation of the MST educational model at Contestado seems to suffer with a duality between contention and collaboration intrinsic to the process of social movement institutionalization; and with the patriarchal character of rural dynamics.

3.2.3. Democratic Management: Participatory Council, Evaluations, Self-regulation

In addition to the Educative Periods and Study Complexes, the Colégio Estadual do Campo Contestado proposes a Democratic Management of the school as a way to translate all four philosophical principles (social transformation, intension for work and cooperation, integral development, humanistic and socialist values, unfinishedness) into practice. Through this method of management Contestado reinforces the necessity of an

75 inclusive and collective construction of education, as it encourages all members of the community in school participation and therefore build a more horizontal educational system. As has been demonstrated in the previous section the more education breaks with hierarchical constructions of knowledge, the further it contributes to learners’ participation in the construction of knowledge. Consequently, they have higher chances of empowering themselves to create spaces for their voices in other environments. For that reason:

The CECC is governed by a democratic and participative management of both the school community and the settlement/camp community, where each member of these spaces is important, along with their necessary intervention according to their function for the success of the intended education. To do this, all segments, which are part of this school, need to be organized to participate (PPP, 2011, p.50)

Moreover, the Pedagogical Political Project highlights that complicity between school and the other spheres of life is the core principle of a settlement school, and ultimately the most important element in a struggle for social transformation. To alter social reality, we need fighters and people that take action to build a more democratic reality. The traditional model of education cannot meet these expectations. If there is a real intention of transformation, learners need to be in contact with an education connected to principles of democracy; otherwise, the school loses the opportunity to foster the will for social transformation in young minds (PPP, 2011, p.51). For that reason, Contestado proposes a system that empowers learners through democratic relations:

In this sense, the effective participation of learners in the school is essential, it does not mean that the educators give up their function by transferring to the learners the conduction of the pedagogical process from school. Certainly, the learners will be able to appreciate a competent educator and respect their scope of professional decisions. However, it is necessary that the learners can experience the school life, make decisions about the organization of the school life, give an opinion and decide when necessary (PPP, 2011, p.51).

It is clear from this passage, that the project does not entail a complete transference of responsibility to the learner, but a collective construction of what education means and how it should be carried out. This collective construction is especially relevant when concerning the evaluation process; since in the traditional model of education, evaluation is the ultimate symbol of power-over in school dynamics. As already explored, the traditional grading system concentrates a considerable amount of power in the hands of

76 few, giving the educator the status of a “benevolent dictator” (Harvester, 2009, p.50). Thus, Contestado’s evaluation process has great weight in its attempt to build a horizontal and collective education.

Considering that once the schools of the MST became institutionalized and the evaluation system had to change to match state rules, Contestado proposes some democratic tools to counterbalance this change. In the encampment phase all evaluation was done through a descriptive assessment of learner’s development, with no grades. However, when the educational system of the movement partnered with the government and public schools were built inside the settlement, the evaluation methods needed to be adapted to the public education system as Adriano explains:

There are some guidelines for doing various forms of assessment, but in the end, the teacher has autonomy. There is a proposal to make evaluations through descriptive assessments, but bureaucratic aspect of public system of education makes things difficult, because the system requires a grade, a number. But teachers have the orientation of doing various types of activity, individual hours, collective hours (#1, personal interview, October 2, 2018).

With that in mind, Contestado proposes three collegiate bodies that help maintain a democratic evaluation process: APMF (Associação de Pais, Mestres e Funcionários / Parent-Teacher-Staff Association); Conselho Escolar (School Board); and the Conselho de Classe Participativo (Participatory Class Council). The objective of the APMF is to support the management of the school, focusing on the relationship between parents, learners, teachers, employees and the whole community, with socio-educational, cultural and sports activities. The Parent-Teacher-Staff Association is governed by its own statute. The second collegiate body, the School Board, has the objective of deliberating, consulting, evaluating and auditing the pedagogical and administrative work of the school (PPP, 2011, p.35). It differentiates itself from a classical School Board by including members of local social movements. However, is through the Participatory Class Council that the project really differentiates itself from the traditional model of education, since here the learners have the opportunity to contribute to the evaluation process. More specifically the Participatory Class Council:

Is a space/time to implement what we call dialogic evaluation. It calls for commitment to study and training and not for grades. It is also a space of division of the power of the school institution, we evaluate ourselves in the instances of the school involvement in the educational process… we place

77 ourselves within this space-time, participatory and democratic function in order to evaluate and diagnose the process of teaching learning and human formation as a whole in the school (PPP, 2011, p. 55)

It is an effort to reflect what was done and how well all the participants were able to implement what was designed by the project, as we can see by the following passage of the PPP (2011): “to evaluate is to stop and look at what was done and how it was done” (p.55). To have a full comprehension of what and how things were implemented, it is essential that this evaluation comes from different perspectives. That is why this collegiate body include teachers, education specialist, management, administration, learners, parents, members of the APMF and of the School Board. The evaluation process carried out by the Participatory Class Council takes place every three months and it is divided in three moments. In the first moment, learners complete a self-evaluation descriptive report on his/her educational development. This report must take into consideration the learning development and participation of the collective (class). Meanwhile, the teacher also prepares a report of the entire class based on the follow-up file and the collective evaluation of all educators. In a second moment, the teachers, the learners and the class representative, along with the education specialist team, systematizes the self- assessments by producing a descriptive opinion of the class and the school as a whole, according to the criteria established in each period. Lastly, the result of the previous moment will be presented. All those involved in the evaluation process are heard and then the process is complemented with analyses, suggestions, questions, challenges and even alerts and what steps to take to tackle the obstacles found in the implementation process. These steps can include educator revision of strategic plan, talking to parents, and registration of what was settled among participants in the minutes (PPP, 2011, p. 56). Adriano further explains this inclusive characteristic of the Participatory Class Council:

In the classic model of class council, they evaluate separately the learner and speak whatever they want about them only between teachers; here however, the assessment is built between teachers, parents and learners. First, a pre-counsel is made, which evaluates the learning process within that semester, where everyone has the right to a voice, recorded in minutes, to evaluate how was the process, if it was good, if it was bad, and what can be improved. And then it ends with a council of educators raising what was said by parents and learners and proposing actions to improve the process (Adriano #1, personal interview, October 2, 2018).

According to the History teacher this is an attempt to implement a “Freirean pedagogy of democratization, of liberation and way of giving a little more autonomy in the decision and

78 to make the learners feel protagonists both as learners and citizens.” (Jhoymar #3, personal interview, October 10, 2018).

Aside from the collegiate bodies described above, the PPP proposes a diverse type of evaluation and learner’s self-regulation as an attempt to escape the constraints of the traditional model of education. During the three-month period educators must use at least three different forms of evaluation and all the activities must have grades that total ten points. These activities can be oral and written tests, individual and collective assignments, seminars; oral and written presentation; completion of lists of exercises; research and bibliographical work; field research; laboratory research; presentation of panels and murals; day of directed studies; day of individual studies; creation of folders; textual production, simulation of university entrance examination among other evaluations that must be foreseen in the work plans of the educators of each professional, with accompaniment of the Pedagogical Team (PPP, 2011, p. 54). By analysing the evaluation processes of a few teachers, it is evident that the Contestado makes a great effort to diversify the types of evaluation. Janaína, the science teacher, and Adriana, the Portuguese teacher, reported in their PTD (Plano de Trabalho Docente – Teaching Work Plan) five types of evaluation and a possibility of two re-evaluations as can be seen bellow:

Table 1- Evaluation Process Adriana Criteria Evaluation Instruments Resuming Content Produce texts in different genres, adapting them Two phases model of registration Resuming Studies to different interlocutors and purposes. Incorporate new vocabulary into your text. Research: 1.0 Resuming to topics already covered Use punctuation in a rich and varied way Written paper: 1.0 Revaluation offered at every 5.0 points evaluated. Does not use orality marks in written text. It uses Written Evaluation: 3.0 5.0+5.0 = 10 the digital language's resources to produce texts. Write your texts within standard norms. Writes, Re-evaluation: 5.0 Resuming to contents whenever revises, and rewrites texts with their publication there are doubts expressed by the in mind (in the sense of giving to the public) learners. Diversifying the evaluation instrument. Continuous, diagnostic and cumulative Evaluation (will be done through oral evaluation. Based on the teacher's observation questions; readings; activities; regarding the learner's participation, participation; complete exercise in resourcefulness and competence, in the oral notebook): 3.0 activities developed during the quarter. · Productions written by the learner in the Exercise notebook: 2.0 classroom and extra class, as well as the textual restructuring of the same. Re-evaluation: 5.0

79 Translated from original document (Plano de Trabalho Docente: Professor (a) Adriana da Silva_ Disciplina: Língua Portuguesa_ turma: 9º.Ano_Trimestre: 2º. Ano letivo: 2018)

Here it is possible to see how oral evaluations have equal value to written ones. By balancing the types of evaluation, learners gain the opportunity of participating in a more complex and inclusive educational process. Andressa, the Geography teacher, highlights that there is no need for every evaluation to be in the written form; and that in fact learner’s response towards oral activities in Contestado are more productive:

It depends a lot on how the class is absorbing, not necessarily you have to give a written exam, you can do a seminar, more interactive work but at least one written exam, that I think is important. We have the freedom to make up to four evaluations. I believe the written exams do not work very well here. I see it gives more result with conversations and debates, because at the time of the objective exam I see that they are nervous and have the so-called "blanc". I believe that conversation brings experience that they had at home for example, that contributes much more than the objective exam (Andressa #2, personal interview, November 2, 2018).

This preference for oral activities is in Andressa’s opinion a reflection of tools like the development period and Núcleos Setoriais, since learners are encouraged to voice their opinions through dialogue. By valuing activities that encourage conversation and exchange of information, Contestado is including the learner in the construction of knowledge, and not just asking them to memorize a given knowledge and transplant in a written exam like most traditional schools. In sum, the multiplicity of evaluation tools is a way to mitigate the grade system imposed by the state.

Likewise, learner’s self-regulation proposed by the Pedagogical Political Project is an attempt to break with the educator monopoly of knowledge. However, when it comes to self-regulation in the evaluation process a few teachers demonstrated some doubt regarding its effectiveness. Selma is very direct when analysing learner’s self-regulation at Contestado considering it “a lack of responsibility of the learner and not a self-regulation as it is proposed” (#8, personal interview, October 10, 2018). The education specialist highlighted that Contestado had no official exam period in their calendar and the absence of this planning harmed learner’s ability to be prepared. Luciana, the physical education teacher, who has worked with child education for the past fifteen years, states that “[learners] have to know that they have exams, only these days things are different. In my

80 time an exam was an exam, today they are not concerned with it, they just miss the exam” (#6, personal interview, October 10, 2018). More specifically Selma states:

There is a proposal that they have more autonomy and organize themselves, but they are not organized at all. Even if it was only in the classroom, take care of their school material, see all the contents, pay attention when the teachers establish the dates, some are not able to take note regarding the date of the exams. So, the learners never know when they have exams or activities they need to prepare. So, I don’t think self- regulation works very well. We humans need rules, imagine if I did not plan to pay my bills? (#8, personal interview, October 10, 2018).

It is not clear if self-regulation is not implemented correctly, or if the learners are not sufficiently mature to fully take advantage of this self-directed democratic approach. In a school that aspires to be an alternative to the traditional model of education, personal responsibility is a key element to participation and empowerment. But is not an easy process and considering the youth of the learners and the fact that implementing something as complex as democratic participation in education takes time and persistence, is not possible to dismiss the importance of self-regulation in Contestado. Considering all the elements of the democratic management proposed by the Pedagogical Political Project described above, is possible to state that despite the obstacles generated by the grading system of public education, the school was able to maintain a considerable level of participation and horizontality in its evaluation process, even if in lower levels than that experienced in the encampment phase.

3.2.4. Interdisciplinary Studies

In an attempt to provide a more complete and nuanced vision of history and bring attention to historically marginalized voices, the project proposes the creation of an Interdisciplinary Team. The team is composed of school, staff, teachers from different disciplines and is responsible for the coverage of discussions related to diversity, the respect of others and the specific needs of each culture (PPP, 2011, p.56). As reported by the Math teacher, Renata, working in an interdisciplinary fashion requires a lot of work, and it “cannot be a personal initiative of one teacher, it must be like in Contestado where there is a pedagogical concern to work on certain subjects. It has to be in the pedagogical project of the school” (#5, personal interview, November 7, 2018). Renata has been working with country side education since 2012 and is now developing a research project

81 for her master’s degree on how to make Agroecology more interdisciplinary, in particular on how to relate Math with Agroecology14.

The interdisciplinary team has the objective of covering the following contents: (1) Perform practical actions at school to discuss themes related to African, Afro-Brazilian and Indigenous History and Culture; (2) Enact laws 10.639 / 03 and 11.645 / 0815; (3) Discuss and try to minimize forms of discrimination; (4) Respect gender issues within the school space; (5) Know and respect the rights of people with special educational needs; (6) Recognize and respect the differences of race, color, gender, existing in the school; (7) Involve educators from all areas of knowledge with the subjects studied by the team; (8) Involve the learners in the study of controversial subjects; (9) Stimulate critical thinking, through the reading of several texts that address this theme; (10) Understand the afro- descendant reality throughout history comparing past and present; (11) Recognize the historical importance of the celebration of the National Black Consciousness Day as a result of the black movement in Brazil; (12) Produce texts and posters that address the theme in question; (13) Teach the influence of African and Indigenous culture: cuisine, rhythms, dances, myths, religion, etc.; (14) Reflect on racism and forms of discrimination in the school context; (15) Increase the self-esteem of learners by recognizing their ethnic identity; (16) To arouse curiosity, interest and admiration for Afro-Brazilian culture and arts; (17) Identify stories of African origin; (18) Highlight black beauty; (19) Discuss cultural, political and social aspects of the rural people, their problems, possible solutions (PPP, 2011, p. 57).

Content that focuses on the Afro-Brazilian and African history and culture (1, 2, 10, 11, 12, 13, 14, 16, 17, 18) are crucial when considering an intersectional education that brings marginalized voices to light. This focus is a way to bring a new meaning to the cultural formation of Brazilian society and to ensure a more intersectional approach to education. Intersectionality requires the acknowledgement that people have different experiences and that they need a space to share these experiences. By providing this space we are avoiding appropriation of someone else’s experience, but for this to be

14 Renata’s research will be further explained in topic 5.3. 15 Act that makes it mandatory the teaching of Afro-Brazilian and African history and culture in all schools (public/private) from Primary to High School. It entails a re-signification of the African- Brazilian culture. More specifically it requires a highlight of African culture as a culture that not only constitutes Brazilian society, but it also molded this society (Carvalho, 2019).

82 possible there is a need for decolonizing history and the mainstream way of thinking (hooks, 2006). As Contestado’s teachers acknowledge and value Afro-Brazilian and African history and culture they are acknowledging their role in history, and at the same time bringing their voices to light and recognizing their oppression as a group. It is a recognition of intersectionality and a recognition of what was lost through history by not recognizing this intersection. Moreover, the ones that have access to power are the ones dictating the standards, in this case history, so how can marginalized groups recover their agency if the hegemonic culture erases their cultural knowledge (Hills, 2006)? This initiative is a direct response to the historical suppression of black history in Brazil.

Extending this concern to the gender discussion, teacher Jhoymar comments on the fact that in resemblance to black culture, women have been erased from history and it is his job to highlight this fact and to make sure learners have a more nuanced perspective on how society was built:

In every class we have the opportunity to see this, it [history] was built from a patriarchal, macho and masculinized point of view. My way of fighting this is by making learners see it, the history has valued the man and so we try to look for diverse materials that try to give a different perspective. That the woman has always participated in history, but that at the time of writing the book, when it comes to leaving the historical source it was lost. In the eighth grade, for example, when we talk about Industrial Revolution, I highlight that women were always in the labor market. I approach the question of the type of work performed by woman and how she was devalued, always returning the answer to machismo, prejudice - and thus deconstructing it. I cover their effort in regaining their rights in the Industrial Revolution and how is a historical construction …and explain why the women went to the streets to ask for the vote. However, following this perspective implies that I will have the same learners during Middle School. But the turnover of teachers can end up jeopardizing continuity, because tomorrow I may not be there to teacher anymore. (Jhoymar #4, personal interview, November 7, 2018).

Similarly, topic 3, 4, 5, 6. 15 and 16 have a focus on minimizing discrimination in general. As it includes race, gender and ableness, it sends the message that individuals are complex and as such influenced by multiple systems of domination. Topics 15 and 16 in particular, encourages self-awareness in a way that not only recognizes marginalization, but also shows how marginalized identities are valuable and how they should be celebrated. Lastly, topic 18 not only contributes to decolonization of culture, but it also

83 brings attention to the standard of beauty that impose sameness on women and girls. Below we can see some of photos of the projects on Afro-Brazilian culture in Contestado:

Figure 4 - Activity of Interdisciplinary Team headed by Figure 3 -Activity of Interdisciplinary Team headed by Portuguese teacher Adriana on Black Consciousness Portuguese teacher Adriana on Black Consciousness Week Week

By talking about the reality of standards of beauty and reinforcing positive images of black women, Contestado’s teachers are recognizing that beauty comes in all colors, shapes and sizes, and in an all-embracing diversity. They are fighting against the reductionist aspect of the hegemonic culture that appreciates only what has monetary value, a reflection of the existing power dynamics, in this case that means sameness. However, as we saw with Jhoymar’s statement, implementation of the Interdisciplinary team suffers the same problems as the other tools designed in the PPP. It suffers with the lack of continuity due to a part-time school day, and from the nature of the public system of education in Brazil.

3.3. Unachievable, undesirable and unsustainable aspect of catching-up development strategy

3.3.1. Unachievable and undesirable aspect of the catching-up development strategy

Both the MST and Ecofeminism recognize that the catching-up strategy is unachievable, undesirable and unsustainable, highlighting that neoliberal theories of

84 development only sees nature as exportable commodities. And as a solution both ideologies propose a rejection of a capitalist, commodity-based economy. As it will be demonstrated this overlap is found on the MST’s ideals, national pedagogy, and on CECC’s educational project. However, just like the intersectional aspect of oppression, the recognition of the unachievable, undesirable and unsustainable aspect of the catching- up development strategy faces some obstacles when being implemented due to the contradiction Contestado’s settlement regarding organic production and the public education system in Brazil, in particular in Paraná.

The critique of the conventional model of development can be found in the MST’s premises of the construction of a society without exploitation, in which work has supremacy over capital, the assurance of work for all and fair distribution of land, income and wealth; and regarding the dissemination of humanistic and socialist values. In addition to these premises, the MST’s mission also shows an alternative concept of development as it mentions the importance of Agrarian Reform and the rejection of the status quo and the adoption of a more sustainable economic system socially and environmentally. In a more specific manner this overlap can be seen in the topics of construction of class identity through work and Mística, present in the MST’s national pedagogy. According to Rebecca Tarlau (2014), the educational character of work proposed by Pistrak is a crucial element in the construction of class identity inside the MST’s pedagogy. It is the context of manual labor that learners create a connection with land, with rural dynamics and history, hence the foregrounding of a pedagogy that is embedded and embodied. Furthermore, the national pedagogy envisions the reinforcement of this identity through Mística, a collective manifestation of the feeling of identity that undermines the capitalist system and its ideological productions, the concept of catching-up development being one of them. Through the cultural production of Mística learners connect with their history and the ideals of the peasant struggle.

Similarly, the CECC translates these two elements into their Pedagogical Political Project. The project highlights the importance of peasant identity and the rejection of the capitalist status quo in the three conceptual sections of the project (Countryside Conceptions, School Design and Educational Principles) and it envisions the implementation of these elements through two practical tools (Study Complexes and Content). According to the PPP (2011) the economic and social transformations that occurred in Brazil from the second half of the 20th century to the present day were guided

85 by the hegemony of an economic policy anchored in a conception of industrial urban development, resulting from a vision of progress where the countryside represented the backwardness, was treated as a space marked by traditional, which meant "archaic" structures. This way of representing the rural context influenced and determined the public policy stance that rarely served the countryside, and to a large extent ostracized and alienated the peasant population. Moreover, the pedagogical project states that peasant population's historical lack of access to fundamental rights, and experience with the consequences (economic and political) of the advance of capitalism in the countryside, with the so-called Green Revolution left them with very few alternatives, both problematic: the rural exodus and the emergence of forms of peasant longstanding resistance and reproduction. In addition, the project highlights that the emergence of the MST marked the peasantry's resistance to the advance of capitalism in the countryside, which increasingly concentrated and centralized land ownership, resources and technology, the resistance also sought access to basic subsistence structures, including agricultural production, health and education (p.20-22). For that reason, CECC’s educational project affirms that there is no point in having countryside education if the countryside generates no economic prospects and it pushes jobless people to the cities. The recognition of the unachievable and unsustainable aspect of the dominant concept of development is clearly articulated in the following passage of the Countryside Conceptions section:

If, on the one hand, we affirm the countryside as a place of life, of food production, of peasant territory; on the other hand, there is another project, at odds with it, agribusiness, a new expression of capitalist agriculture under the control of international financial capital, which establishes the Brazilian countryside as a place of profit production; monoculture for export; based on the use of high technology; of large areas of land; with reduced labor; excessive use of agrochemicals; that focus on genetic manipulation and privatization of seeds (transgenic); that standardize food. Thereby degrading natural and energy resources; increasing poverty in the countryside; and the degradation of the quality of life; and social inequalities, stirring up conflicts in the countryside and peasant resistance in its most varied contexts: in the field of the landless workers, small farmers, quilombolas, Indigenous people, fishermen, riverine people, rubber tappers and many others, who need the land, forests, water and nature, in general, to continue existing (PPP, 2011, p.24).

Considering this reality, the pedagogical project urges popular agrarian reform that promotes change in the technological matrix, replacing chemical agriculture with agroecology; that values the culture of the countryside and guarantees a communication system that disseminates its values and cultural manifestations.

86 In a similar manner, the School Design section also approaches the importance of identity building through the connection with land, empathizing with the concept of embodied knowledge that takes into consideration lived experiences of a specific land in the construction of world-views. As described in topic 5.1, this section is divided in five matrices, but only the Pedagogy of the Land matrix is relevant to this specific discussion. This matrix refers to the education of the Landless in their relationship with land, labor and production. It considers the cultivation of the human being alongside the cultivation of the earth, with work and production since both are essential to education (PPP, 2011, p. 26). The Educational Principles section also contribute to the idea of identity construction through work. The second philosophical principal of work and cooperation states:

In the case of educational practices occurring in the countryside this relationship [connection between education and work] cannot ignore the issue of the struggle for Agrarian Reform and the challenges that are posed for the implementation of new production relations in the countryside and in the city (PPP, 2011, p. 30)

With this in view, the MST’s pedagogical project highlights that an education focused on the reality of the rural environment is one that helps to solve the problems that appear in the day-to-day of the camp and the settlement, that encourages constructive individuals, the permanence in the countryside and a better quality of life for the rural population (PPP, 2011, p.30). This connection to the land is emphasized by the Geography teacher, Andressa, when comparing learners from other schools of the countryside:

In another school of the countryside that I work in Lapa we have a lot of learners and a large portion of them are from upper middle class, soybean producers who own great machinery. We easily realize that the value given to the land by these learners, the children of big monoculture producers, is lesser when compared to the learners here, who know how difficult it was to acquire it, that it was a land that had been conquered. Here they suffered to acquire this land and so they value and take better care of the land, the learners there have often acquired the land by inheritance and for that reason they use and abuse of the land without giving so much value to it. So much so that there is a certain prejudice of the learners of that other (#2, personal interview, November 2, 2018).

Is clear here that not only does the pedagogy of the school reinforce learner’s connection with the land, but the culture and history that they experience in their every-day in the settlement has a great impact on their identity construction.

87 According to the PPP all these elements should be implemented through the Study Complex; more specifically through the social struggle and cultural matrices of the Study Complexes. The social struggle matrix translates the concern with catching-up development strategy when it entails the rejection of the status quo through the statement that an educational environment should “pressure the circumstances so that they are different from what they are; build the conviction that nothing is impossible to change” (PPP, 2011, p.41). In the same matrix, there is a reference to participation of learners in activities of social struggle that are connected to the MST or any other peasant organization. Also, in this matrix there is a mention that the peasant struggle should be an object of scientific study in the school either in the course content or through other activities with this intent. Furthermore, the culture matrix of the Study Complex emphasizes the importance of taking culture into account when talking about education. That means embracing the rural dynamics and rejecting, or at least critically assessing, the catching- up development strategy of capitalism. In particular, this matrix focuses on:

Helping to keep the root of the Movement alive, helping in the cultivation of its collective memory and in the formation of its historical consciousness. It was learning from the past that the MST built itself as it is: learning from the fighters who came before, cultivating the memory of their own walk; working its Mística, symbology and traits of the Landless identity. These elements must compose the educational environment of our schools (PPP, 2011, p.44).

There is a great example of the practice of Mística as a way to foster and maintain class identity in school. In sum, the PPP (2011) reinforces that rural dynamics needs to be studied and supported by the school in all its dimensions, through the teaching disciplines or other curricular activities organized for this. These connections will be further developed in the next Chapter.

3.3.2. Unsustainable aspect of catching-up development strategy

By proposing the rejection of a capitalist, commodity-based economy in the Global South, both Ecofeminism and the MST recognize the intrinsic value of life beyond a capitalist commodity framing. In fact, Agroecology is regularly mentioned by the MST as a tool of liberation and as such is present in the movement’s national educational project and on CECC’s educational project.

88 Environmental justice can be seen in the MST’s national education project through Paulo Freire’s conception of dialogue and rejection of the banking system of education. The logic of capital present in the banking system of education commodifies life and rejects sustainable production as productive work. By rejecting the baking system Freire dismantles this logic. Moreover, the liberating model of education highlights that a horizontal educational project can only happen through dialogue. As Freire states that dialogue exists between all elements of reality, he is allowing space for more-than-human nature in this reality. Similarly, to Ecofeminism ’s conception of dialogue and embodied knowledge, Freire’s collective construction of knowledge supports the idea that not only all humans should be involved in the educational process, but also consideration must be made to non-human actors. That is, we can create knowledge not only by discussing collectively, but also by observing and dialoguing with nature. Agroecology is the embodiment of this collective construction of knowledge. According to Sônia Schwendler and Luciana Thompson (2017) agroecology is a mixture of traditional knowledge of female farmers with agricultural science. Its collective development (farmers, government, NGO and academia) is a reflection of its characteristic holistic view of the world. That is, agroecology is not only concerned with food security, but also with food sovereignty. It questions the type of food we are eating, where, how and in what scale are we producing it. In sum, agroecology is a way of life, not just a type of agricultural management.

In the same manner, agroecology is present in Contestado’s educational project. On its Pedagogical Political Project (2011) there is a description of what they envision for the school. Inside the section “The school we want”, the document makes reference to a desire to create an educational environment that promotes the holistic development of their learners, and agroecology is mentioned as an element of this holistic education:

[the school strives to] enhance access to research through on-site projects regarding agroecological practices developed in the community, which contribute not only to local research, but also to research from different provincial and national institutions, and even international institutions, that will be enriching our work and training our educators and learners on the path to autonomy (PPP, 2011, p.8)

Also, in the section Countryside Conceptions there is a reference to the implementation of an agrarian reform that values agroecology:

[the MST promotes] decentralize agro-industry facilities in the field in the form of cooperatives; which promotes a change in the technological matrix,

89 replacing chemical agriculture with agroecology; that values the culture of the countryside and guarantees a communication system that disseminates its values and cultural manifestations (PPP, 2011, p.24)

Lastly, Complexos de Estudos (Study Complex) present in the project recognizes human’s interdependence with nature and the importance of creating a link between learners and the land. Agroecology is mentioned in the connections between education and the work matrix. In this matrix, work is considered not only as “productive” activities, but also as “the struggle to convert all human beings into workers, overcoming alienated forms of work” (PPP, 2011, p.39). In that sense, the Study Complexes insist that “school knowledge is linked to the world of work and the culture that the work produces”. By work the MST means “the association of free producers and, in the case of the countryside, through ever more complex and comprehensive forms of cooperation among peasants” (PPP, 2011, p.39). The project envisions the translation of this symbiosis between theory and practices as an inclusion of agricultural activities in learner’s lives. More specifically:

We emphasize that for the specific formative potential of the relationship with the land we must ensure that learners have, in the final years of elementary school, some experience of agricultural work (in or outside school), in order to enhance foster a social use and not an exploitative use of nature. If there are possibilities at school or in their surroundings, learners should develop or engage in experiences that allow them to understand what are agroecological practices, being them simple or complex, according to the local reality and the links that the school can develop in this perspective (PPP, 2011, p.40).

In sum, the MST’s pedagogical tools as outlines here are a design of how to reject the catching-up strategy in education and how to connect learners with an alternative production model that is sustainable and regenerative; that is, agroecology.

3.3.3. Implementation of the ideals of regenerative economy

Despite the great potential of the initiative described above, the rejection of economy of scale and environmental justice are not implemented in the classroom as envisioned in the Pedagogical Political Project due to a short school day at Contestado, the structure of the public education in Brazil as it was described in topic 5.1.2, and due to the duality of the settlement in regards to organic vs. conventional production. In addition, the structural obstacles to the implementation of the Study Complexes, the science teacher, Janaína, brings attention to the dual reality of agroecology inside the

90 settlement and how this is reflected in the classroom. Janaína has been a teacher of environmental studies since 2008, and a member of the Contestado settlement since its inception. We can see her commitments to the MST by her very enthusiastic description on how her family has practiced agroecology in their lot for many years, and how this focus on organic production gives them a comprehensive vision of life or as she describes “uma visão do todo” (Janaína #9, personal interview, October 10, 2018). However not all farmers in the community follow organic practices. This reflects how the settlement was originated. At the beginning, the ones that were invited to participate in the settlement received a proposition to produce organically. Agroecology was the plan since the beginning; however, many did not know how to manage the soil with the organic techniques, and for that reason, the same farmers were permitted to maintain conventional production. Contestado is part of an Organic group that along with other groups composes the regional center of Maria Rosa, that along with other regional centers form the Ecovida network, a group of small farmers in the southern region of Brazil that practice agroecology (Janaína #9, personal interview, October 10, 2018). Janaína explains that the certification of agroecology acquired by the settlement is not taken lightly by the community. As we can see below in her description, agroecology is not just a type of production, is an embodiment of sustainability and equality that extend to every sphere of life. However, the reality of Contestado´s agriculture shows a duality inside the lots when it comes to fertilizer usage:

The groups come together and form a sort of quality control among them, to guarantee the certification of that center. Then a group visits a farmer's lot to find out how the organic part is going, how is the management [of the soil], how it is the breeding, if there is no maltreatment, if the children are going to school. It is a whole you see; it is not possible in agroecology to speak of isolated parts. For you to be certified as we are, there is a list of prerequisites that you must fulfill and is not only focused on production but everything that surrounds it. The producer cannot burn any kind of garbage because it would be harmful to the soil, so it can only burn toilet paper. You cannot have burnings in general, you must take care of the springs and animals. It is a general welfare of your lot, including the people who live there. Every month a visit is made so that there is not only a survey, but mainly a share of experiences. For example, you go in my lot and see that I can grow carrots bigger than yours, then we exchange compost recipe (I mixed chicken manure with the duck and it got super right). When your lot is entirely organic is very ease to manage, but there are several cases in which the group that a lot is half organic and half conventional (Janaína #9, personal interview, October 10, 2018).

91 Janaína (2018) explains that the organic group is against this duality inside the lots. However, the certification process and the MAPA (Ministry of Agriculture, Livestock, and Supply) do not prohibit the duality, they only require that barriers between the conventional and organic areas are established, that a distance between the two is maintained. It also requires that these lots have closed sewage, and it prohibits the plantation of the same type of produce in organic and conventional areas (Janaína #9, personal interview, October 10, 2018). Janaína further explains this requirement:

If I plant corn, I can only plant it on one side. Although there is not a total ban of conventional production by MAPA, there is a limitation to the time that you can continue to use conventional production, we call it the conversion period. The problem is that a conversion period is established and after that period there are new negotiations and the period gets increased, or renewed once again (Janaína #9, personal interview, October 10, 2018).

Considering this duality inside the lots, the science teacher informs that even though the school’s material is focused on agroecology, she needs to approach both ways of managing the soil. She states that “we cannot talk about one without talking about the other” (Janaína #9, personal interview, October 10, 2018). Moreover, Janaína (2018) comments on how this duality affects what is talked about inside the classroom:

You must be very careful how this issue is addressed; I cannot position myself completely against scale farming and agrochemical use because many of them [learners] are the children of conventional producers. I talk like this in class, ‘I do not want any war between you, I am explaining to you only two types of land management, each one has its own space.’ Because the MST does not prohibit conventional agricultural management, but this settlement has an agroecological focus since the beginning (#9, personal interview, October 10).

The initial decision to allow conventional production in the settlement may have damaged the implementation of the original ideas on the Pedagogical Political Project of the school. According to Janaína, this decision relates to the fact that agroecology requires dedication, some mistakes along the away, and collective construction of knowledge on how to work the land sustainably; something that people are not used to. So even though the pedagogy of the school envisions an education that rejects the dominant concept of development and embraces agroecology, the dual reality of the settlement, along with structural problems of the Brazilian public system of education and a part-time school day

92 at Contestado, creates an obstacle for the full implementation of the concept of environmental justice and sustainable development.

3.4. Need for a new epistemology

The final area of convergence between Ecofeminism and the MST that I will consider is the understanding that social and environmental justice can only be achieved if we adopt an epistemology that is non-reductionist, non-universal and embodied. This comprehension of the need for an alternative epistemology can be found in the MST’s ideals and pedagogy. However, as it will be demonstrated, the implementation on the ground is not so simple. That is, the lack of guidelines regarding crucial pedagogical tools, the nature of public education in Brazil and the strong and pervasive influence of the hegemonic epistemology of Brazilian society; jeopardizes the implementation of an alternative epistemology at CECC.

By rejecting the traditional model of education and fostering a collective construction of knowledge through a horizontal education based on dialogue, the MST rejects the reductionist aspect of dominant conceptions of knowledge and at the same time fosters critical thinking through a community-based, collective construction of knowledge. If sameness and uniformity reference commercial capitalism, a horizontal education that considers learner’s perspective on knowledge serves the purpose of an alternative epistemology that promoted and models social and environmental justice. Moreover, the practical aspect of Makarenko’s collective education adopted by the MST is also a contributor to a new way of thinking that is inclusive and diverse.

This new way of thinking is translated from the national pedagogy of the movement to the local pedagogical project of Contestado through conceptual ideas regarding education (Conceptions of the Countryside, School Design, Educational Principles) and through pedagogical tools that envision how these conceptual ideas will be implemented on the ground (Cycles of Human Development, Study Complexes). First, the Conception of the Countryside section of the PPP proposes an education that is directly connected to the peasant reality. It is described as an education in the countryside and for the countryside. That is, peasants have the right to be educated in their own environment without having to travel long distances to access education, and also, they have the right to an education that is conceived with their location in mind and with their participation. In

93 short, an education that is connected to rural dynamics and peasant’s social and human necessities. However, the MST’s model of pedagogy stipulates that the option of the participants cannot be limited. Education should not be thought as a way to prepare young people to stay or to leave the countryside. An education at and for the countryside, need to give young people the conditions to decide for themselves. This education needs to contribute in a way that, regardless of their choice, these learners can help in the construction of a social project that guarantees improved dignity and justice for all (PPP, 2011, p. 22-23). The School Design section mentions five formative matrices of the MST’s pedagogy in which the Cultural Pedagogy is a relevant matrix to this topic. It entails the education of the Landless people in cultivating the way of life produced by the Movement and since it involves culture, this matrix has a connection with all other pedagogical matrices (PPP, 2011, p. 26). Lastly, in the Principles of Education section, in particular in the emphasis on education as a permanent process of development, there is a passage that can be interpreted as a reference to embodied knowledge: “education is not only the work of intelligence and thought, but also of affection and feeling. And this is the combination that needs to be both in the act of educating and being educated” (PPP, 2011, p.32). Here there is a rejection of the division between body and mind, giving an inclusive aspect to knowledge. Moreover, the educational principles section, includes a necessity of research to education and its connection with practical life. It mentions the need to combine real issues with school knowledge as a way of appropriating the scientific basis and understanding how the phenomena of nature, social relations, relations between humanity and more-then-human nature is produced and transformed (PPP, 2011.p. 33).

All these concerns are supposed to be implemented though the Cycles of Human Development in conjunction with the Study Complex and the Núcleos Setorias. The idea of cycles of development is a rejection of the fragmented conception of knowledge replicated by the traditional model of education. It was designed as an initiative to guarantee horizontalized relations, to strengthen learners' self-regulation, to link the contents of science, philosophy, and art with life, and to have a future perspective, to form protestors and builders with a critical awareness of society, a school closely linked to the land struggle. This idea was developed by the Paraná state the MST educational branch with the Itinerant Schools in mind, and it originally proposed the adoption of a continuous curriculum, that rejected the idea of failing and for that reason the creation of intermediary grades between 5 cycles: (1) child education (four and five-year-old’s); (2) cycle I (six,

94 seven and eight-year-olds); cycle II (nine, ten and eleven-year-olds); (4) cycle III (twelve, thirteen and fourteen-year-olds); sole cycle (above fourteen). The creation of an intermediary grade between these cycles is a reflection of the understanding that each person has a different learning curve and this difference needs to be recognized and accommodated. In this proposal, the evaluation process should be registered in a follow- up file/notebook that later would be used to build a descriptive assessment. After each cycle a Participatory Council would take place to evaluate the learner’s development (Sapelli, 2017).

The Cycles of Human Development is an attempt to combine Paulo Freire’s concept of critical thinking and re-significance of reality with Pistrak’s concept of education through and for work. In sum, it is an attempt to connect education with real life, to foster learner’s self-regulation to create and preserve more horizontal relations in school, and to transform education in an instrument of social struggle. This concept of cycles of development was included in the Pedagogical Political Project of Contestado in the attempt to democratize the classic model of construction of knowledge inherent of public schools. However, Contestado’s vision of the cycles of development is not as specific as the original and is defined by the PPP as follows:

The Cycles of Human Development … not only mean a change in the structure of the school, even if this organization also interferes in teaching models, that is, even if the structure changes into Cycles is understood as more important, it is in educational practices that we can predict or interfere in the development of pedagogical work…thinking about cycles of human development in school is also thinking about how they are going to be related to a longer school period and how it is an attempt to break with the serial and fragmented model of school (PPP, 2011, p.18).

We can infer that “by breaking the serial and fragmented model of school” Contestado is proposing the adoption of the five cycles of education, even though they don’t explicitly say it. In conformity with the original project, Contestado recognizes the multiple dimensions of education in the following statement:

Interventions based on human temporality and under the logic of Cycles are based on human experiences in the social environment, human being are a social being and learns in the relationships they establish with the environment in which they live (PPP, 2011, p.19).

95 Moreover, the concept of evaluation in Contestado’s project is very similar to the state project of Cycles of Development. The project entails a diagnostic evaluation instead of the classificatory one present in the traditional model of education:

The proposal of an organization in Cycles requires a new form of organization of the groups, of evaluation and of registration of the same, surpassing the grade and classifications, assuming as a central role the constant act of questioning and liberating of the collective of educators of the Cycle and the school as a whole… The evaluation becomes formative, summative and diagnostic; the error is considered a process and the educators must consider the attempt of their learners in learning (PPP, 2011, p. 19).

That is, it rejects the traditional grade systems of classic education in the attempt to democratize the construction of knowledge and promote a more inclusive ways of thinking.

The Cycles of Human Development were designed to be implemented in conjunction with the Study Complexes. In the original project each complex included the following elements: portion of reality / category of practice; disciplines involved; justification; teaching objectives; prerequisites and expected successes (Sapelli, 2017). However, on Contestado’s description of the Study Complex, these elements are not easily distinguishable and sometimes missing. However, it is relevant that we analyze how Contestado’s vision of the Study Complex can contribute to the creation of an alternative epistemology. Hence, it is important to highlight the contribution of the collective organization matrix to this topic. Here, the project entails a collective education that considers the active participation of learners and community in the construction of school life, with the intent to create a more collective management and organization of education (PPP, 2011, p.43). Additionally, the Study Complexes cultural matrix highlights the importance of recognizing different types of knowledge:

To guarantee the appropriation of the bases of the sciences and arts produced historically by humanity, working contents with an approach that has systematicity, rigor and respecting its specific methods or didactics. And the selection of the content must consider the social need for appropriation and production of knowledge directly related to confrontation of the issues and contradictions of the current reality is the specific task of the school (PPP, 2011, p. 44)

This passage can be interpreted as an intention to create a new way of thinking that values different types of knowledge, especially those that can contribute to or reflect the peasant

96 struggle. And that can be interpreted as non-reductionist knowledge that rejects the hegemonic thought.

Nevertheless, the implementation of the Cycles of Human Development has turned out to be a complex process. Even though the initiative has obtained some success in providing an alternative educational content, it faces structural obstacles that make its implementation complex. Some teachers at Contestado stress that despite the existence of National Curricular Parameters, their ability to build an alternative teaching plan are not complicated by it. More specifically, Andressa (Geography teacher) explains the level of liberty she has on course content:

There is always a planning and it may occur that you slip away from your planning. In urban schools you need to justify why you deviated. Here you don’t have to bring exactly the material the state sends you; I can bring current themes for them to use within the settlement and the movement. For example, instead of me talking about the American continent geography, and the rivers of the US, here we will focus on the rivers that drain the Contestado area, I will map the Contestado region and not necessarily Paraná’s region as I do in the urban schools. To better contextualize them. In the sixth year in the urban schools I have to work more superficially drawing all of Brazil, here I also cover the whole country, but when it comes to specific activities, I focus on Contestado. They mapped Contestado’s cartography with a mock-up (#2, personal interview, November 2, 2018).

Similarly, Jhoymar (History teacher) explains that there are basic content requirements set by the state that they have to fulfill, but within them there is great freedom under the specific content to introduce critical thinking, other realities and the connection with the identity of land struggles. Jhoymar exemplifies the leeway experienced by teachers:

For example, we focus very much on the formation of society and economic exploitation of the country on the specific content when we are talking about the basic content of colonization. Because the objective of this pedagogy inserted in a school within a settlement of the MST is to explain that there was an intense class struggle in Brazil's social formation and that we continue in this class struggle. Knowing this, they build their behavior in society, their contribution as citizens. So, I can say that we have great freedom as teachers, but logically this freedom needs to be documented, supported by parameters, Pedagogical Political Project and Teaching Plan (#4, personal interview, November 7, 2018)

However, Jhoymar stresses that what distinguishes the Teaching Plan of Contestado’s educators is not its content, but its objective and methodology. That is, the difference won’t

97 be on what they learn but why and how. Yet, if we consider “why” and “how” a content is approached in class, this content may gain a different meaning. Using Jhoymar’s example, colonialism will have a different meaning depending on the objective and methodology that is given to it.

Apart from the liberty enjoyed regarding course content, successful implementation of the Cycle of Human Development can also be found in the ever- changing aspect of Teaching Plans and on the collective construction of knowledge and connection with the practical world of the agroecology certification process of Contestado. Jhoymar’s Teaching Plan is shaped year by year, depending on the experiences lived, the failures that occur that generate the necessity of adaptations. The History teacher comments on the ever-changing aspect of teaching plans and its connections with the state standardized test ENEM (National High School Examination):

The third year of high school for example needs to have a focus for the ENEM, something that we did not have in last quarter for example. Recently it was the first phase of the ENEM, and the second is in November and there is a reality of change of focus for this new quarter (Jhoymar #4, personal interview, November 7, 2018).

As with the Teaching Plans, the process of organic production certification present in Contestado is a way to build an epistemology that understand knowledge as a collective construction connected to practical life. The quality control process of the settlement is an attempt to build knowledge about organic agricultural management in a collective way. Janaína, the science teacher, explains that they have two options to acquire the organic production certification: a collective way and an audited certification. The first option requires multiple quality control visits to each other’s plot and an annual visit known as “Olhar Externo” (Outside Eye) in which another organic group outside of Contestado but part of the same regional center (Maria Rosa), visits the settlement to make sure all rules are being followed. However, the audit certification requires payment and is normally preferred when a plot has for some reason lost its certification. In this option there are no periodic visits, just two a year, where the auditor points what is wrong in the first visit and in the second checks if all the required changes were done. There is no exchange of knowledge, but an outsider imposition of how things must be done. In fact, Janaína emphasizes how the first option is more useful to the settlement:

98 I think participatory certification is much more efficient a bond between neighbors is built, it is an exchange of experience. How many plots have I visited? How much time I have spent in these visits? But when we come in a plot and exchange tips is great. My husband couldn’t produce carrot, it was in one of those visits that we saw how the person was producing and we took the tips on how to do it, with the broccoli it was the same thing. For me, those who produce organic have a vision of the whole, and the conventional one focuses only on producing as much as possible (#9, personal interview, October 10, 2018).

By exchanging recipes on how to grow organic produce, the Agroecology group contributes to the construction of a new way of thinking. And the inclusion of Agroecology knowledge and practices in the curriculum of Contestado is an attempt to build an alternative epistemology that values a community-based education.

Despite the success described above, Contestado faces structural problems that prevents the full implementation of the Cycles of Human Development. This difficulty on implementation can be easily seen in the evaluation process, Study Complexes, and logical reasoning of learners. First, the evaluation process is not as diagnostic as the PPP envisioned it to be due to the constrains of public education. Selma, the education specialist, stresses that Contestado couldn’t implement the cycles due to difficulties of translating a descriptive assessment to the grade system imposed by the state:

The final grade has to be given to the Secretary of State, but your class can have the format you want. What I understood when I entered was that we would have a normal college form. Before being a state college there was a greater autonomy, there was application of the complexes and such and the proposal was another, the evaluations had opinions, they called formation by cycle. It did not require a note. We are in state format, so it is very difficult to maintain the same pattern. Here we have four evaluation and one mandatory educational recovery (#8, personal interview, October 10, 2018).

As previously described the government requires that at the end of each quarter Contestado assess learner’s development though a grade and then pass this information to the state. This prevents the school from fully implementing the division in cycles and doing evaluations through descriptive assessments. Second, the Study Complexes have difficulties in its execution. As described in topic 5.1.2, the Study Complex has no specific guidelines of how it should be implemented, and Contestado’s part-time school day along with the high rotation of teachers consequent to the nature of hiring system of public school in Paraná, jeopardize its execution in the way it was intended. Third, Renata, CECC’s

99 Math teacher, the influence of the hegemonic epistemology of commercial capitalism harms the participatory construction of knowledge. Renata, holds a Bachelor's degree in Mathematics from Paranaense University (2002), an specialization in Mathematical Literacy from São Braz College (2017), and in Improvement in Mathematics Teaching Methodology by IBPEX – Brazilian Institution of Pos-Graduation and Extension (2005), and in Improvement in Mathematics Education by UEPG – State University of Ponta Grossa (2013).

Renata has recently started to teach at Contestado (October of 2018) but she has been teaching in countryside schools since 2012. One of the most interesting elements of our conversation was her description of her recent Master’s in education and how she was attempting to implement the principles of her project at Contestado. Her project focuses on how to connect Agroecology with the teachings of mathematics, but since it is very specific, she is considering broadening it to education as a whole. It intend to take the learners to the agroecological system to try to find the concepts that they work in the classroom that have no connection with the practical world, is an attempt to give meaning to what is discussed in the classroom, as if it were a living environment. Renata’s project is an effort to incorporate Paulo Freire’s concept of education, in particular the needs of education being something recognized by the learners and not strange to them, a simple education, but that offers plural possibilities of analysis in their decoding (Sapelli, 2017). More specifically, Renata’s project envisions Math as an investigative tool, critical mathematics that focuses on developing various types of learning. It has the objective of helping learners realize that mathematics has a difference in each type of environment and is through the transition between these environments that they will create critical thinking. In sum, is an attempt to teach learners how to learn (#5, personal interview, November 7, 2018). Renata explain how she tries to contribute to an alternative way of thinking through Math:

I work with my learners from the research point of view. I let them go after the knowledge, I give them open questions for them to go after, but they have difficulty because they are used to something more abstract, and to being told what to do. They have a resistance because this way requires more work, they say ‘I have to go after the answers? Tell me what I have to do?’ (#5, personal interview, November 7, 2018).

Renata adds that this methodology creates a pattern of going after solutions, taking learners out of a passive position before life, a position that would easily accept the given

100 information with no critical thought about it. She expands her logic by stressing that through this method she is able to give meaning to content, and how critical thinking is important when talking about an education inside group that strives for social and environmental justice. However, Renata points that this process is not easily implemented, since learners resist the process for not giving quick results as we can see in her statement bellow:

They do not want to think; most have difficulty getting out of the traditional learning pattern of math. Perhaps because for many years they always had the kind of reasoning that values quick and abstract results, and now they don’t have the patience to do the investigative work. That is why my project focus on the implementation of this program in the early years of education, so they learn how to learn in a critical way. Because this is what the system [hegemonic epistemology] wants, for them to expect quick result and have no critical thinking, and the proposal here is completely opposite ((#5, personal interview, November 7, 2018).

In short, Renata demonstrated that an initiative that intend to create a critical way of thinking is never a simple process, and it takes time and effort since we are surrounded by elements that reaffirm the dominant way of thinking and separating yourself from this logic is a complex process. Nevertheless, despite all the obstacles faced by Contestado, it is possible to state that some elements of the Cycle of Human Development were successfully implemented.

The analyses of all three overlapping elements between Ecofeminism and the MST has showed us that despite the great potential in fostering an alternative epistemology based on social and environmental justice, there are some elements – the lack of guidelines in crucial pedagogical tools, the patriarchal aspect of rural dynamics, the influence of hegemonic way of thinking, duality within Contestado settlement regarding agroecology, and Brazilian structure of public education – that limits its implementation at Colégio Estadual do Campo Contestado.

3.5. Conclusions

Overall, the main obstacles to the implementation of the intersectional aspect of social justice, sustainable development, and alternative epistemology into Colégio Estadual do Campo Contestado are: the nature of the Brazilian public system of education, the patriarchal aspect of rural dynamics, the contradictions of organic

101 production within Contestado settlement, the lack of guidelines regarding pedagogical tools and the strong and pervasive influence of Western scientific logic. The next section will further explain the reasons for these obstacles.

102 Chapter 4. Conclusion: threats to the MST’s educational model and future scenarios.

Having described the implementation of the MST’s educational model at Contestado, it is important to explore the reasons why these obstacles are so disruptive, and the limitations of the model in light of the new Brazilian political context. This section explores the connections between implementation of visions of social transformations and the difficulties and the intrinsic ambiguity of social movement institutionalization. It engages with the difficulties in fully implementing a sustainable form of production in the MST settlement and the importance of traditional knowledge of how to work the land. Moreover, the section addresses the importance of considering the influence of external actors on education, in particular, the contributions of Women’s Collective and Technical Courses on Agroecology to women’s empowerment. Second, this section investigates the implications of the new right-wing populist government of Jair Bolsonaro for the MST’s educational model, and possible reactions from the movement. Third, this section analyses the relevance of Ecofeminism to the MST’s educational model and points to the necessity of further research on the connections between Ecofeminism, the MST, and Indigenous movements.

As can be seen in Chapter 3, the implementation of the MST pedagogy in Contestado suffers from some shortcomings on the ground. However, these difficulties in implementation are not confined to Contestado. According to Sônia Schwendler, the difficulties of implementation connected to the structure of the Brazilian public system of education present at Contestado is a reality in all the MST settlement’s Middle Schools and High Schools (#10, personal interview, February 9, 2019). The hiring process of all public Middle Schools and High Schools is the same, as is the problem with teacher rotation. Nevertheless, this phenomenon has more significant impacts on the MST settlement schools since the implementation of a counterhegemonic pedagogy requires time and continuity, two elements that are jeopardized by the frequency of rotation among teachers and the structure of the settlement. As demonstrated in Chapter 3, once the movement moves to a non-confrontational phase of the land struggle, community participation, particularly for women, tends to decline. The influence of external actors (Church, INCRA, Agencies of Agricultural Extension Services, the neoliberal market), and

103 a new concern with production changes the dynamics of participation in the settlement. One of these dynamics is the participation of the community in the educational process.

In consideration of these difficulties, the MST decided to institutionalize their education in an attempt to fill this gap and provide more teachers to carry on the pedagogy. However, as seen in CECC, the institutionalization of MST’s model of education can have an ambiguous effect on the implementation of their pedagogy. Sônia Schwendler further explains this ambiguity:

In theory, with the institutionalization of the school and the increase of teachers you should have more conditions to implement the pedagogy, but the reality is that we need people trained in countryside education, hence the need for Escola Latino Americana and Countryside Education Degrees…But the fact that the state teachers do not have decent work conditions, having to be in several schools at the same time, and in the following year not to continue in that same school, makes it very difficult to have an organic framework that can work this proposals [alternative pedagogy] (#10, personal interview, February 9, 2019).

Schwendler highlights the challenges involved in the educational partnership between the MST and the state, raising the question of the effectiveness of social movement institutionalization. Is it possible to say that the institutionalization of the MST’s educational project is a form of cooptation?

Rebecca Tarlau addresses this dynamic between mobilization and demobilization of the MST’s educational project and provides a new perspective on this discussion that considers simultaneous dynamics of contention and collaboration of the institutionalization process (Tarlau, 2017). Initially, the MST did not have the means to access all rural communities that lacked access to education. A partnership with the state was chosen to provide not only access to education for the countryside, but the implementation of a contextualized education. This institutionalization sparked positive and negative results for the MST regarding the maintenance of their original goals. On the positive side, the partnership between movement and state changed the framework of rural education in keeping with the MST´s hybrid pedagogical vision. On the other hand, it may have contributed to some form of demobilization. From 1995 to 2005 the MST´s hybrid pedagogy was widely diffused throughout the Brazilian countryside and became known as Educação do Campo – Education of the Countryside. The institutionalization of Educação do Campo entails the interaction of two different discourses, one of resistance

104 (the MST) and one of status quo maintenance (the state). However, even though these actors do not have similar goals, they are still able to collaborate. In that sense, public schools are at the same time part of the oppressive regime and a place of a movement opposing and challenging it. Overall, the articulation of the movement through the state creates an opportunity to engage in resistance and risk cooptation at the same time. Therefore, although the institutionalization of the MST´s education might have created some demobilization, it also provided the space to shift the national discourse and policies regarding public education in the countryside, something the movement might not have achieved without this partnership (Tarlau, 2017).

Similarly, the contradiction between conventional and organic producers inside Contestado’s settlement raises doubts regarding the commitment of the MST to sustainable development. MST’s refusal to prohibit conventional soil management along with MAPA’s lenience on a conversion period between both types of production has been an obstacle to the full implementation of sustainable production and environmental justice ideas at Contestado. However, the MST is still the biggest producer of organic produce in the country, and the biggest producer of organic rice in Latin America (Silva, 2018). As demonstrated in Chapter 3 by Janaína’s statement, the main reason why Contestado allowed conventional soil management in the settlement was that there was not enough knowledge on how to practice Agroecology. This shift to a new way of thinking and sustainable way of living comes with its own challenges: changing the logic and the practical knowledge of how to work the land. For that reason, the MST has increased the number of technical courses and workshops on Agroecology, and this is why the method of collective construction of knowledge has been encouraged in all settlements. Through initiatives like Contestado’s collective quality control of organic production, peasants can collectively build knowledge on Agroecology, but it is a process that requires a lot of effort and time. Moreover, to simply prohibit conventional production would be to support a hierarchical imposition of knowledge, and this imposition would be a contradiction to the MST’s ideology.

The patriarchal aspect of rural dynamics has been shown to be a real obstacle to a critical model of education proposed by the MST, and for that reason needs to be faced head-on. As demonstrated in Chapter 3, there has been some resistance from parents and community members regarding working on school themes like sexual orientation, gender norms, and the sexual division of labor. In light of this resistance, it seems

105 reasonable to question how the movement can represent and value rural dynamics without contradicting its commitment to fundamental values of social justice, and rights in particular. The movement recognizes this constraint, and as described by Marcia M. Ramos, there has been a great effort within the MST to address these problems. That is why the Women's Collective inside the settlements and Agroecology training is so essential. It is a way to counter the limitations presented by rural dynamics in the educational model. The Women’s Collective focuses on four main topics to empower women: economic independence, participation on the collective, education as liberation and agroecology. The Women's Collective of Contestado also highlights the importance of moving forward with power-with relations, a shared construction of power. Shared experiences build awareness and self-esteem for women. Moreover, the Women's Collective of Contestado not only considered power-with as a construction that involves shared experience among women, but it understands that to achieve social justice, men need to be included in the conversation in such a way that they comprehend that women's empowerment does not have to be zero-sum. The collective tries to bring awareness to the idea that women empowerment is not a competition that strives for the reversal of gender norms in favor of women, but instead an attempt to create equal opportunities for all genders. (Morais, 2018).

In a similar manner, the agroecology post-secondary technical school of Contestado ELAA (Escola Latino Americana de Agroecologia/ Latin-American Agroecology School) empowers men and women to break with the sexual division of labor in the countryside. This institution receives learners who are connected to the Via Campesina movement from all over Brazil, Latin America, and the Caribbean. In courses like the ones offered by ELAA (Technology in Agroecology, Countryside Education, and Countryside, Nature Sciences, and Agroecology) there is an intentional introduction in the curriculum to the historical reproduction of gender asymmetries in society and rural dynamics specifically. Furthermore, all activities that involve manual labor are equally divided between men and women, with no sexual division of labor. The implementation of an intersectional aspect of social change at Contestado cannot be analyzed only through formal education, but also through other institutions present in the settlement that collaborate to support women’s empowerment.

Even though the MST still has obstacles to overcome regarding improving gender equality, slow steps are being taken in the right direction, and it is already possible to see

106 some changes. Sônia Schwendler, Catarina Vieira and Mariana do Amaral’s research at Contestado have demonstrated that even though the hierarchy of gender and generational power dynamics (where youth are silenced and sidelined) are still present in peasant family organization, these are being questioned and often subverted by a new generation that has had greater access to education, gender training, and has experienced more collaborative realities. Through the training received at school (secondary and technical), young people are empowering themselves as political, social, and productive individuals. These training spaces contribute to the dismantling of gender asymmetries as they qualify women in areas of knowledge usually dominated by men (Schwendler, Vieira, and Amaral, 2017). According to a CECC leaner interviewed by Schwendler, “the formation that we had in school was essential for us to start changing things at home. Because before I had this training inside the school, I did not understand gender relations” (Schwendler, Vieira, and Amaral, 2017, p.270).

However, the advancements of the movement despite the shortcomings described above, along with MST’s entire model of education are under threat by the new ultra- conservative Brazilian government. The platform of president Jair Bolsonaro, the new Brazilian president, directly opposes the ideals of the MST regarding development, education, and human rights. Bolsonaro, a retired military officer, won the 2018 election with 46% of Brazilian votes using a right-wing populist discourse shaped by misogyny, authoritarianism, and xenophobia (Kaltwasser 2018). Thus, it seems relevant to present the main ideas of the new government regarding the economy, land reform, education, and human rights; and to consider how these ideas might interact with the MST educational model.

First, Paulo Guedes, an economist who built his work experience in the field of investment funds, heads the Economy Ministry. Guedes is the creator of the Millennium Institute, which defends values such as the sanctity of private property, a market economy, representative democracy, Rule of Law, and constitutional limitations to governmental action. Paulo G. defends a neoliberal agenda supporting privatization and radical tax and pension reforms. The Minister is striving to restructure the Brazilian economy with a formal and independent Central Bank and Economy Ministry (Oliveira, 2018). Regardless of the viability of Guedes’s projects (which have been questioned by various economists), his development views go against the development proposals of the MST educational model that defends sustainable production and an abandonment of a capitalist economy.

107 Second, Bolsonaro has repeatedly directly undermined the MST by accusing the movement of terrorism, as the following statement demonstrates: "we have to typify their actions as terrorism. Invading rural or urban property is unacceptable, and one of the pillars of democracy is private property" (Saballa Jr., 2018, paragraph 3). Similarly, Bolsonaro has encouraged landowners to violently resist any attempt of the MST to enter private property, as demonstrated by the following statement: "In the case of an individual committing an illegal act. In case he is to be slaughtered, the one that struck him cannot be sued, he cannot go to jury court. After all, we defend the legitimate defense of one's life and others. And we defend ones and third party's right to property" (Saballa Jr., 2018, paragraph 6). In describing a non-violent movement as a violent threat to be stopped, Bolsonaro is sending the message that attacks on the movement's camps are legitimate. By defending a position of no repercussions to the owner of the land in an attack against the MST members, the president is prioritizing private property instead of human lives and throwing the constitutional right of land expropriation out the window.

Unfortunately, these threats of violence have turned into reality in both direct and indirect ways. Bolsonaro's nomination of Coronel Luiz Antônio Nabhan Garcia as Secretary of Agrarian Matters of the Agriculture Ministry can be considered an act of indirect violence against the movement. Not only is Nabhan president of the Democratic Union of Rural People, a right-wing association of agrobusiness farmers and activists, he is also an avid defender of the criminalization of land struggle social movements like the MST. In practice, the new Agriculture Ministry has already paralyzed land reform, and there hasn't been any discussion of expropriation of land that does not fulfill a social purpose regarding the environment, work, and well-being issues. Similarly, there have been no conversations regarding expropriation of land that employs workers in semi- slavery situations; nor the distribution of the lands expropriated by the Car Wash Operation, lands that were acquired through a corruption scheme. Furthermore, the reform of social welfare recently approved by the government will have significant impacts on the rural population. This reform sets the same age of retirement for men and women in the countryside, extends from 15 years to 20 years of contribution to INSS (Instituto Nacional do Seguro Social/ National Institution of Social Security), and instead of the minimum of contribution to the retirement fund of 2,1% of production, now the minimum contribution for rural workers will be R$ 600,00 (Sanson, 2019). These changes place an enormous burden on rural workers, and it disregard financial and climate compromises.

108 However, these changes are not as threatening as the direct violence perpetrated by Bolsonaro's supporters. According to Marcia M. Ramos, the threat of violence is already a reality:

When Bolsonaro won the elections, several of our camps were burned, it is an ancient practice, a colonial practice, to set fire to the communities of the countryside, it became a practice of the latifundia. To set fire to the MST's camps, to spray [with agrotoxic] camps while spraying a nearby soybean crop. This happened late last year (#11, personal interview, February 8, 2019).

This violence was not confined to burning camps. During my stay at Curitiba for the field research a student was beaten inside the Federal University of Paraná for wearing a red cap with the symbol of the MST. The four aggressors kept shouting “here is Bolsonaro” during the assault (Azevedo, 2018). Marcia further illustrates this climate of fear by stating “At the end of 2018 it was very difficult, it was very stressful, I was very depressed. Because it's a scary situation, there was a fear to go out on the street with the T-shirt of the movement” (#11, personal interview, February 8, 2019).

Third, the platform of the new government proposes radical cuts in higher education, and the implementation of a system of education completely disconnected from the horizontal learning system proposed by the movement. It intends to purge Paulo Freire’s teachings from Brazilian Education, and its recent project, School Without Party, has been shown to be a threat to free speech. Jhoymar, the history teacher of Contestado, further explains what an elimination of Paulo Freire’s ideas could mean to the school:

We are very insecure because an expurgation of Freirean pedagogy will not only reach the School of the Contestado, it will reach Paraná as a whole. It's the great guideline in education here, and so we do not know what to expect. We also do not know if the [the MST] movement is in danger of being criminalized and we do not know what can happen (#4, personal interview, November 7, 2018).

Similarly, Marcia M. Ramos explained that the movement is already expecting a lot of harassment in their education sector:

we will have many problems related to education, regarding the schools of the countryside; because it is a campaign promise [eliminate the MST schools], just as it was the release of weapons. The closure of our schools is not only a threat, because it is public; it depends on our political strength in the states, because the municipality cannot simply close school by itself,

109 but it can feel motivated by Bolsonaro (#11, personal interview, February 8, 2019).

The new Education Ministry has already been through a considerable change: the first Minister appointed by the president, Abraham Weintraub replaced Ricardo Vélez Rodríguez, which in turn created an Education Ministry composed almost entirely of economists. The new Mininister of Education is an economist with no experience or qualification in education or public administration, and he is known for his experience with banking and his pro-market perspective (Alexandre Putti, 2019). Bolsonaro’s government has already made some structural changes in education by diminishing and extinguishing some Secretariats and creating new Sub-Secretariats. One of the most relevant changes seems to be the extinction of SECADI (Secretaria de Educação Continuada, Alfabetização, Diversidade e Inclusão / Secretariat for Continuing Education, Literacy, Diversity and Inclusion) and its substitution by the Secretariat of Literacy and the Secretariat for Specialized Modalities of Education. SECADI was responsible for projects regarding Special Education, Indigenous and Quilombola Education, Ethnic-Racial relations Education, Human Rights Education, Youth and Adult Education, and Countryside Education. So far, there has been no information if the two new Secretariats will carry on SECADI’s projects, especially the projects that are crucial to the maintenance of the educational model of the MST, Countryside Education and Youth and Adult Education. In addition, Bolsonaro created, through a decree, the new Sub-Secretariat of Promotion of Civic-Military Schools. Its purpose is to promote, follow-up and evaluate the expansion of schools and management models shared between the Education Secretariat, the Army, the Military Police and the Fire Department (Educação em disputa: 100 dias de Bolsonaro, 2019). As has been declared by the president, it is an attempt to expand the military model of education throughout the country.

The new project School Without Party and the recent budget cuts to Social Sciences are a reflection of the president’s attack on Paulo Freire’s ideas, and an apparent attempt to suffocate political thinking that is contrary to that of the president. Bolsonaro and his Education Minister have blamed Freire’s teaching for the poor performance of Brazilian education in international tests. However, this accusation disregards the precarious structure of public and private education in Brazil and its connection with the commodification of education. Bolsonaro’s administration decreed in March of this year (2019) a contingency of R$5.8 billion in education, from this amount R$ 1.704 billion falls

110 on federal higher education. In May, the Coordination for the Improvement of Higher Education Personnel (Capes) reported on the suspension of the granting of masters and doctoral scholarships (Cidades brasileiras registram atos em defesa da educação, 2019). Furthermore, the recent budget cuts to Social Sciences were accompanied by the explanation by the president that the government needs to invest in “areas that have immediate return to taxpayers” like Medicine, Veterinary and Engineering. Together these actions demonstrate the commodification of education, a disregard for high education and an apparent attempt to undermine critical thinking. Ironically, the president has not considered that Social Scientists are the ones responsible for studying fundamental issues like poverty, inequality, employment, violence, public health, and demography (Saudaña & Gamba, 2019). Likewise, the School Without Party initiative, an extreme right initiative founded in 2004 that has influence with the new government platform, has contributed to an environment of fear among educators. The project accuses the education system of being dominated by the left-wing in engaging in the indoctrination of students in order to raise the left-party voting base (Kaiser, 2019). This project would allegedly avoid indoctrination in class by constraining what the professor/teacher can say. It is a clear attempt to censor freedom of speech and discourage critical thinking in learners. Bolsonaro’s call for students to film their educators if they suspect these educators are inciting leftist ideals indicates a dangerous flirtation with authoritarianism if not totalitarianism and represents a threat to democracy.

Fourth, the sexist declarations from the government, along with the changes in the Human Rights Ministry, have been a setback to marginalized population rights, especially regarding race, gender, and sexual orientation. The new administration has extinguished the previous Human Rights Ministry, and in its place, created the Women, Family, and Human Rights Ministry. Damares Alves, a lawyer, and evangelical pastor, was nominated to head the new Ministry. Alves is a co-founder of an organization that recovers and evangelizes Indigenous children already in endangered family situations. This nomination represents a threat to what has been accomplished so far by Brazil on the Human Rights front. Damares’ ultra-conservative views include anti-feminists and religious perspectives as demonstrated by her declarations against abortion, in which she emphasizes that it is not the role of the Ministry to advocate for or against this issue since Brazil already had some exception in the law that allowed for abortion. Moreover, the Minister has publicly stated her belief that women were born for motherhood, and she has been very clear on

111 the intentions of the Ministry not only to maintain to also encourage binary gender norms. It seems questionable to nominate to a Ministry that has the purpose of defending the identity rights of the Indigenous community, a co-founder of an organization that has dedicated it’s efforts to eradicate ancestral beliefs.

This change in perspective was a definite setback for women’s rights and for the conception of a secular state, as can be seen by Damares’ statement, “it is time for the church to tell the nation that we have come … It is time for the church to govern” (Phillips, 2018, paragraph 5). In a similar fashion, a Provisional Measure was signed by the president excluding the LGBTQ+2 community from the policies destined to promote human rights. In response to the questioning of this Provisional Measure, Damares replied, “Girls will be princesses and boys will be princes… There will be no more ideological indoctrination of children and teenagers in Brazil” (Gstalter, 2019, paragraph 6). Overall, the new Ministry of Women, Family, and Human Rights has been shown to be a danger to human rights with no real concrete project to reduce violence against marginalized communities and so guarantee the welfare of these communities, in particular women and the LGBTQ+2 community. Considering the influence of the new government on gender norms, the obstacles to implement the critical model of education of the MST regarding patriarchal beliefs in the countryside are likely to increase. That is, the current religious influence in the government and the influence of external actors, like the Evangelical Church, on the MST settlement communities is a further threat to the implementation of an educational model that strives for gender equality.

These recent changes in Brazilian politics are a reflection of the international expansion of right-wing populism. Even though there are many definitions of populism, it usually can be identified as a leader alleging to be the hero of the people against an elite that is corrupted and unrepresentative. However, the definition of “the people” usually excludes marginalized societal groups (Anderson, 2018). Right-wing populism can be understood as a combination of populism discourse with right-wing political priorities. In practice, it means:

value of tradition, often through socially conservative views; a specific group identity that tends to exclude minorities and oppose demographic change, sometimes harking back to an idealized past in which life was supposedly better; and strength, often through a preference for using harsher measures against law-breakers or opponents. Right-wing populists have more diverse views on capitalism and economic policy, with some

112 supporting deregulation and classically liberal economic policies, while others are deeply skeptical of capitalism and want more government spending on their priority areas (Anderson, 2018, paragraph 5).

These political characteristics have been on the rise in the U.S. with Donald Trump’s administration and throughout Europe (Hungary, Serbia, Austria, Germany, Poland, the Czech Republic, Greece, Italy, Spain, France, the U.K., the Netherlands, and Sweden) and it seems to have taken hold of Latin America, and Brazil in particular. These governments have in common an opposition to immigration and changes in demographics; a will to shelter social power structures and traditional identities; antipathy for international institutions; disbelief in traditional political parties; use of xenophobic, racist and misogynistic language. Considering these factors, it is fair to state that Jair Bolsonaro’s administration is part of the right-wing populism wave. Brazil has gone through many political scandals, and the population lost faith in traditional political parties like the PSDB (Social Democracy Party) and PT (Worker’s Party). Bolsonaro has portrayed himself as an outsider and a noncompliant politician, despite negligible legislative contribution through his seven terms in the Congress (Anderson, 2018; Pompeu, 2018). The new president is known for his misogynistic and racist comments; for his nostalgia for Brazil’s military dictatorship and incitement of torture techniques used in that period. Moreover, Bolsonaro defends the application of harsher measures to tackle criminality in Brazil, and the reduction in civil rights to people accused of crimes is one of them. Furthermore, the elected president supports “traditional” family and religious values, even though his personal life brings doubts about his own commitment to these values. Overall, just like the right-wing populist governments of the U.S and Europe, Bolsonaro portrays himself as a hero with real solutions to real problems; however, his solutions are simplistic solutions for complex problems (Anderson, 2018).

Taking Bolsonaro’s electoral success and all that it entails into consideration, it is reasonable to assume that the MST will face a steep decrease in popular support in the new regime. It is therefore relevant to consider how the movement is likely to react to this new reality. More specifically, the alignment between the MST and the Worker’s Party, in a moment where the Worker’s Party has been facing recurrent corruption accusations, seems to have undermined the movement’s legitimacy with the general population. In a scenario of demonization of the Worker’s Party by the new administration, and in light of the open support from the MST for Luiz Inácio Lula da Silva, a key member of the Worker’s Party who has been recently indicted for corruption, it seems fair to assume that there will

113 be further resistance to the movement’s activities. It is also fair to state that are possibilities for increased provocations from the government and government supporters to incite a violent response from the movement to undermine the movement even further. Marcia M. Ramos explains that in the face of such a scenario the movement does not plan to assume a passive position, that they intend to keep pushing back against the recent policies of the new government, but in a strategic way:

Now from the perspective of the movement we will continue to fight. The difference is that we have a political organization that will continue. Will continue the struggle from the perspective of the women, now on March 8 our struggle is "for the life of women, we are all Marielle16". We will continue mobilizing and we will join in collective struggles. Because this is our job, to help in the ideological political struggle against this racist government so that we can build a base of support. Quests of land struggle will happen, occupations will not stop, but certainly it will not be easy. But we will not stop. If we look at Brazilian history, since it was recognized as Brazil, we had a struggle for land. Be it indigenous, of the black community who were enslaved here, the struggle has always existed. And to say that now they will end us? Let's keep fighting. The big issue is international solidarity. It is something very important for us, in the sense of mobilizing more organization and countries so that we can make the defense of the agrarian reform, because in Brazil this never really happened (#12, personal interview, February 8, 2019).

Considering Marcia’s statement and that the MST’s success has strongly been connected to their ability to resist through multiple pacifist types of resistance, through the various dimensions of life (education, political alliances, civil disobedience, alternative ways of production); it is fair to assess that the movement has no intentions to shift to violent strategies. The movement seems very aware of the implications of this shift to their legitimacy. For that reason, the movement has in its structure a sector of International Relations and International Finance, in which committees outside Brazil are formed to support political and financially the MST. According to Marcia “occasionally, they carry activities to sell the MST products to keep the cost of the committee, but usually, these

16 Marielle Franco was a black, openly gay councilor murdered in the street of Rio. She was an avid defender of the marginalized population, and openly against historical racial violence in the country, in particular in Rio’s favelas. Marielle fought from women’s rights, gay people, favela residents, and single mothers like herself. Franco was considered a breath of fresh air, with honest intentions to change the system, and her death was taken harshly by the groups that fight for social justice, in particular by the politically engaged younger generation. Marielle was precisely everything that the new right-wing populist wave despise and considering the circumstances of her death and the recurrent death threats suffered by the councilor her death has been considered an attempt to silence the opposition.

114 committees carry activities of political formation, information about what is the movement, and what is happening in Brazil” (#12, personal interview, February 8, 2019). The MST’s coalition-building capabilities, along with its flexibility, creativity, resilience, and longevity, is what makes them so relevant to the construction of an alternative to Brazil’s new government.

Coalition building in this moment seems fundamental to the survival of the movement. According to Bernice Johnson Reagon (2015), staying isolated within a group will not guarantee your survival, since the group running society makes decisions as if they were living in a small village where the unwanted, the ones that think differently, can be killed or expelled with no further consequences. Consequently, it is impossible to live in isolation as if your “village” is the one making all the decisions. It is necessary to step out of our own “village” and make coalitions with members of other “villages.” However, this is an uncomfortable process, that requires effort, and it is not meant to be a welcoming and safe space; it is a space where you need to give, to make compromises. Coalition- building is a way to support intersectionality within social movements. It is a way to understand differences and work through them, by raising consciousness on the existence and systemic nature of the problems. However, for that to happen, it is necessary to step out of one’s comfort zone. Coalition entails empathy and recognizing common goals despite other differences. Therefore, if the MST intends to build a society that supports sustainable development and gives voice to marginalized groups, these groups need to be included not only as participants but also as designers of the new reality; and a coalition with Ecofeminism will help them achieve this goal.

By recognizing the similarities with Ecofeminism, the MST and Indigenous movements will be able to lean on Ecofeminism ’s framework to understand the reasons behind their struggles to achieve gender equality and how to make sustainable changes in this arena. Ecofeminism can help the MST to redefine the culture of the countryside by dismantling patriarchy from peasant identity. It can assist the movement in understanding that women and more-than-human nature have been historically subordinated, and this subordination has created a sexual division of labor that usually places women in closer proximity to nature. This proximity has provided women with a unique understanding of the interdependence between humans and nature, and more specifically, it has kept them form losing specific knowledge of how to work the land. So, if the movement is committed to building a new reality that strives for social and environmental justice, women need to

115 be further included in their decision-making process. Similarly, movements like Honor the Earth can offer some insight on how to maintain a pacifist strategy of resistance towards an authoritarian regime, and more specifically; how to carry forward a horizontal educational model, made for the community, in an extremally hostile environment.

Considering the connections between the MST and Ecofeminism described above it is relevant to highlight the influence of Indigenous movements on Ecofeminism and how this influence is present in the MST concerns with food sovereignty and concepts of power. The MST has great proximity with the Indigenous cause since both are in the same side of the struggle against the devastation of the environment by agribusiness. Peasant, Indigenous and quilombola communities are all influenced by INCRA (National Institute of Colonization and Agrarian Reform) since the institute in partnership with FUNAI (National Indian Foundation) handles the demarcation of Indigenous land. The MST openly recognizes the struggles of the Indigenous and quilombola communities as central elements to the construction of a more egalitarian and just society. Moreover, they have declared their commitment to being side by side in defense of their rights and territories.

Along with this natural connection between communities in Brazil, it is relevant to connect this discussion to the conceptions of food production of Indigenous movements. Furthermore, there seem to be commonalities between the concept of power of both movements. Both the peasant and the Indigenous movement understands that power is not limited to formal institutions; it can also come from informal institutions and popular culture. Similarly, both movements understand the importance of recognizing experienced knowledge, a union of body, and mind as a source of knowledge. Further research is required to understand if and how the model of education described here has been/could be influenced by Indigenous knowledge, and if these connections are intentional and if so, how might it be carried forward.

The transformational value of Ecofeminism, Indigenous perspectives and movements like MST cannot be understated in this historical comment. These three social movements offer a world view that is not only different from but is explicitly critical of neoliberalism. These movements configure human relationships that are not transactional and maintain a belief in intrinsic value - of community, nature, tradition – against neoliberal commodification. The core way this conviction is communicated is through a pedagogy

116 that is collaborative, engaged and dynamic. Individuals that experience this pedagogy become resilient and empowered, an ideal citizen for a complex world.

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