Cited by 15Rural and Ethnic EducationCritical and Liberation PedagogyAgriculture, Land Use, Rural Development

The DOI matches its Crossref record; 34 of the 42 references it cites were found in a registry or an index; none of the 18 sources its claims cite is checked for support yet.

The Social(ist) Pedagogies of the MST: Towards New Relations of Production in the Brazilian Countryside

Open access
Tarlau, Rebecca Senn·2013·Education Policy Analysis Archives

Abstract

This article explores the social(ist) pedagogies of the Brazilian Landless Workers Movement (MST), a large agrarian social movement that fights for socialism in the Brazilian countryside, meaning that workers own their own means of production and collectively produce the food and other products necessary for their communities’ survival. Over the past three decades, activists in the movement have developed an alternative educational proposal for rural schooling that supports these new social relations of production. Drawing on major theories of reproduction, cultural production, and resistance in the field of education, I argue that three theorists—Paul Willis, Paulo Freire, and Antonio Gramsci—are critical in assessing the role of schools in processes of social reproduction. I examine four components of the MST’s social(ist) pedagogy: the incorporation of manual labor into public schools; the promotion of collective learning; counter-cultural production; and linking schools to concrete political struggles. Drawing on Willis, Freire, and Gramsci, I argue that the MST’s educational proposal is a limited but real attempt to interrupt dominant social relations of production in the Brazilian countryside, thus representing a unique example of social pedagogy in the 21 century.

Overview

AI snapshot

Written from the paper’s full text.

TL;DR

This article analyzes the Brazilian Landless Workers Movement’s (MST) educational proposal as a “social(ist) pedagogy” aimed at interrupting capitalist social relations in the countryside. Drawing on Willis, Freire, and Gramsci, it argues the MST’s schools represent a limited but real attempt to link rural schooling to socialist relations of production.

Key findings

  • The MST’s educational proposal has four central components: incorporating manual labor into public schools, promoting collective learning, producing counter-culture, and linking schools to concrete political struggles.
  • The movement’s pedagogy rejects the separation between intellectual and manual labor, organizes students into collective “base nucleuses” (núcleos de base), uses mística as counter-cultural production, and frames schools as part of a Gramscian/Freirean political strategy.
  • The article argues that schools have only limited potential to disrupt social reproduction, but the MST’s proposal “pushes the limits of this limited potential” and is a “limited but real attempt” to interrupt dominant social relations of production.
  • The MST is described as a national movement of over one million women, men, and children, and as having forced government redistribution of land to over 350,000 families across Brazil (Wright & Wolford 2003). The 1997 National Encounter of Educators for Agrarian Reform had 700 participants and delegations from 19 states.

Methods

  • Theoretical analysis of education’s role in reproduction, cultural production, and resistance, focusing on Paul Willis, Paulo Freire, and Antonio Gramsci.
  • Draws on secondary sources, primary literature produced by the MST, and the author’s nine weeks of field work in the summer of 2009.
  • Includes participant observation in MST settlement schools, including the Educar Institute and a university-level geography course organized through PRONERA in partnership with UNESP.

Limitations

  • The paper states that it only draws from data collected in summer 2009, despite the author later spending 17 additional months in Brazil during 2010 and 2011.
  • The paper states that the MST’s educational proposal is “only ever partially implemented in practice,” is incomplete, and its concrete effects are “still unknown.”
  • The text makes evident that the analysis is qualitative and focused on selected schools and documents, including an “ideal” MST school where students still drop out; it does not provide systematic outcome measures across MST schools.

Model-written summary. Check it against the paper before relying on it.

Integrity signals

Registry

Crossref · 10.14507/epaa.v21n41.2013

Cites

34 of 34 references verified0 citation errors · 0 not checkable

Statistics

Nothing to recompute.

Figures

Image 1
CC-BY-NC-SA · From the PDF

Verification

Claims the paper makes

29 Own interpretation · 18 Sources not found · 18 No basis given · 11 Own result · 6 Not checked yet

Show all 28 claims

  • Probably not a substantial claim. 43
  • It may state two separate claims as one. 17
  • The quote only partly states this claim. 1
54 of 54
  • The paper relies on this without support.

    Brazil is characterized by historical inequalities in land ownership, wherein a small elite owns the majority of land and millions of poor rural workers are landless.

    “Brazil is a country characterized by historical inequalities in land ownership, wherein a small elite owns the majority of land and millions of poor rural workers are landless.”
  • The paper relies on this without support.

    Since the early 1980s the MST has contested these inequities in land ownership through occupations of large unproductive land estates, in which hundreds of landless families enter privately owned lands, set up makeshift camps, and refuse to leave, seeking from the government legal rights to live on the land.

    “Since the early 1980s the MST has contested these inequities in land ownership through occupations of large unproductive land estates, in which hundreds of landless families enter privately owned lands, set up makeshift camps, and refuse to leave, seeking from the government legal rights to live on the land.”
  • The paper relies on this without support.

    Less well known is the movement's simultaneous struggle for the right to free primary, secondary and tertiary education for all children, youth and adults living on MST settlements and camps.

    “Less well known, however, is the movement's simultaneous struggle for the right to free primary, secondary and tertiary education for all children, youth and adults living on MST settlements and camps.”
  • The paper relies on this without support.

    The MST's educational practices are diverse and locally situated in distinct regions of the country, with particular agrarian histories.

    “These educational practices are diverse and locally situated in distinct regions of the country, with particular agrarian histories.”
  • The paper relies on this without support.

    The MST's educational practices are interconnected and reflect three decades of national, regional and local collaborations between self-declared militantes da educação do MST (MST educational activists), who have created a set of philosophical and pedagogical principles for rural schools in their communities.

    “These educational practices are also interconnected and reflect three decades of national, regional and local collaborations between self-declared militantes da educação do MST (MST educational activists), who have created a set of philosophical and pedagogical principles for rural schools in their communities.”
  • The paper relies on this without support.

    The MST's educational proposal has been developed by collectives of MST activists throughout Brazil over the past thirty years.

    “In this article I outline the MST's educational proposal, which has been developed by collectives of MST activists throughout Brazil over the past thirty years.”
  • The paper relies on this without support.

    The MST's educational principles are contested, negotiated and only ever partially implemented in any school.

    “I argue that these educational principles-while at their best contested, negotiated and only ever partially implemented in any school-represent a concrete attempt to interrupt social reproduction.”
  • The paper relies on this without support.

    The MST's vision of socialism in the countryside is that workers own their own means of production and are able to collectively produce the food and other products necessary for their communities' survival.

    “In other words, the MST's educational proposal is linked to a vision of socialism in the countryside in which workers own their own means of production and are able to collectively produce the food and other products necessary for their communities' survival.”
8 of 8

Self-check

Percentages, sums and reported differences re-computed from the paper’s own numbers.

Each contradiction between two passages listed here was confirmed by an independent check.

2 of 2

Citations

Cites

Show all 42 references

Research works printed but not linked: 7

  1. Althusser, L. (1971). Ideology and Ideological State Apparatuses. Lenin and philosophy. (B. Brewster, Trans.). New York, NY: Monthly Review Press.
  2. Arroyo, M. G. (2004). A Educação Básica e o Movimento Social do Campo. In M. G. Arroyo, R. S. Caldart & M.C. Molina (Eds.), Por uma Educação do Campo. Petrópolis, RJ: Editor Vozes.
  3. Caldart, R. (2004b). Por uma Educação do Campo. In M. G. Arroyo, R. S. Caldart & M.C. Molina (Eds.), Por uma Educação do Campo. Petrópolis, RJ: Editor Vozes.
  4. Graciani, M. S. S. (2001). Pedagogia Social da Rua: Análise e Sistematização de uma Experiência de Vida. Fourth Edition. São Paulo: Cortez/Instituto Paulo Freire.
  5. Makarenko, A. (2004). Makarenko, his life and work: Articles, talks and reminiscences. Honolulu, HI: University Press of the Pacific.
  6. Petrus, A. (1997). Concepto de Educaión Social. In A. Petrus (Ed.), Pedagogía Social. España: Ariel.
  7. Willis, P. (1977). Learning to labor. New York, NY: Columbia University Press.

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Metadata

Authors
Tarlau, R. S.
Affiliations
University of California, Berkeley (US)
Corresponding author
Tarlau, Rebecca Senn
Venue
Education Policy Analysis Archives
Published
2013-04-30
Volume
21
Pages
41
ISSN
1068-2341 (ISSN-L)
OpenAlex
W1726055307
Cited by
15
References
42
Citations by year
2026: 1 · 2024: 2 · 2023: 3 · 2019: 2 · 2016: 4 · 2015: 1 · 2014: 2
FWCI
10.42
Type
journal article
Language
en
Open access
Licence
cc-by-nc-sa
Locations
  • Education Policy Analysis Archives (publishedVersion, cc-by-nc-sa)
  • DOAJ (DOAJ: Directory of Open Access Journals) (submittedVersion, cc-by-sa)
  • Redalyc (Universidad Autónoma del Estado de México) (submittedVersion)
Topics
  • Social Sciences › Education › Rural and Ethnic Education
  • Social Sciences › Education › Critical and Liberation Pedagogy
  • Social Sciences › Development › Agriculture, Land Use, Rural Development
Keywords
Landless Workers' Movement (MST), social pedagogy, socialist pedagogy, agrarian social movements, rural education, social reproduction, relations of production, Paulo Freire, Paul Willis, Antonio Gramsci, collective learning, Brazilian countryside, land reform

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