O MOVIMENTO DE EDUCAÇÃO DE BASE EM GOIÁS E O PAPEL DOS INTELECTUAIS-MONITORES (1961-1966)

Abstract

This research set out to identify, understand and interpret the political and educational role of the intellectual monitors who worked in the Grassroots Education Movement (Goiás MEB) on the Serrinha farm in Itauçu, Goiás, from 1961 to 1966, and assemble contributions for the debate on the Education of Youth and Adults (EJA) occurring in Brazil and Goiás. It is based on data from: a) interviews given by three of the main intellectual monitors who participated in the Movement, two of which were given to the author of this thesis and the third to another researcher; b) reports of the Movement itself; c) the existing literature on the subject. As a theoretical framework it uses the writings of Paulo Sérgio Rouanet (interpreter of Gramsci), Gramsci and Paulo Freire. It is based on the theme discussed by Fávero, Peixoto Filho and Rodrigues, especially, and is divided into five parts. The Introduction presents the goals, object of the study, and the theoretical and analytical references for the survey data, and also the methodological and technical procedures for the production of the targeted knowledge. Chapter I presents the political and social context of Goiás and Brazil during the first six years of the 1960s; Chapter II broadly reclaims the history of MEB at national and Goiás levels; Chapter III presents the general historical-geographical, economic, political and social context of the municipality in which Goiás MEB was set up, while Chapter IV explains the political and educational role played by the intellectual monitors of the Movement, in an effort to collate contributions from the experience in order to enrich participation in the discussions taking place on EJA in Brazil today. It could be seen that the methodological process used by the Movement for the formation of its intellectual monitors was that of ongoing dialogue between themselves, the Central Team (CT) and the leaders who worked daily with the community. This dialogue, conscientization and politicization sought by Goiás MEB were carried out through various activities: lectures on the radio, theater, festivals, prayer meetings, theoretical reflections on topics of interest to the community and the study of texts. This occurred through meetings and encounters previously organized by the Movement s CT with the participation of community leaders. According to the interviewees, through the use of a methodological teaching process which created tensions but at the same time shed inhibitions, the Movement led to the acquisition of knowledge while politicizing and valorizing the participants, and contributed towards enhancing the work potential of the leaders in terms of the community. From the data produced by the study, this qualitative research showed that the role played by the intellectual monitor was that of monitoring, explaining, solving the problems of students on the school broadcast; bringing people together in the community to address the problems which arose during debates and contributing towards finding solutions to these problems, by interacting with the community and with the CT, discussing and participating in the planning of the educational process of the school radio, the students and the community, and also mediating the relationship between community and the CT. In summary, the role of the intellectual monitor went beyond that of mere transmitter of the knowledge drawn up by the CT and passed on by the teacher-broadcaster to the school radio students. The data collected would imply that, although the CT passed on the contents to the intellectual monitors who, in turn, passed them on to the students, that the CT knew the theory and not the monitors, in practice (the interviewees themselves acknowledged this) the methodological procedures of the activities proposed by the Movement (dialogue, discussions, meetings and encounters) ended up making for the effective participation of the intellectual monitors and, consequently, the other participants in the construction of the experience.