Popular knowledge as popular power: struggle and strategy of the Emancipa popular education movement in Brazil

ABSTRACT

This paper is a written dialogue among four activists from the Emancipa Popular Education Movement in Brazil, following the principles of Freirean pedagogy as a ‘circle of culture’. It delves into how popular knowledge can be experienced as popular power, narrating the history, struggles, and strategies employed by the Emancipa movement in their pursuit of democratizing Brazilian universities. The discussion is set within the context of Latin American structural inequalities and the issue of educational exclusion in Brazil. It emphasizes the vital role of contesting culture and knowledge as part of the movement’s fight against social injustices perpetuated by peripheral capitalism, including racist violence and gender oppression. The paper adopts emancipatory pedagogy as the method to empower and mobilize grassroots efforts in this transformative endeavour.

KEYWORDS:

• Brazil
• popular education
• Paulo Freire
• Rede Emancipa
• social movement
• antiracism

Disclosure statement

No potential conflict of interest was reported by the author(s).

Notes

1 The term ‘marco temporal’ lacks a direct translation into English. It refers to a contentious and anti-indigenous thesis that claims indigenous land rights can only be legally established if the indigenous communities can prove their continuous occupation of each territory on October 5th, 1988, the date when the Brazilian Constitution was approved. This argument is flawed as it disregards the deep-rooted ancestral ties of indigenous peoples to their lands and ignores the historical injustices of state-sanctioned violence and forced land expropriation, particularly during the Military Dictatorship era (1964 to 1988).

2 Emancipa University, a project of Emancipa Movement that aims to connect peripheral territories, popular educators, and academic researchers in militant education activities, had organized in May, 2023 a special Seminar on the ‘new high school system’ in a partnership with Bahia State University (Universidade do Estado da Bahia – UNEB), that can be seen here: https://www.youtube.com/redeemancipa

3 Coronelismo is a Brazilian historical and social-political phenomenon which origins refers to the XIX Century. It expresses the absolute power of landowners in the countryside and local municipalities from North to South. These landowners usually control the police authorities and have their families merged with military and colonels (which explains the term). Their power manipulates elections, interferes in land conflicts, and even commands marriages dynamics within the elites (for more see Leal 2012).