Contentious Cogovernance and Prefiguration: A Framework for Analyzing Social Movement–State Relations in Public Education

2021 ◽  
pp. 0013189X2110234
Author(s):  
Rebecca Tarlau

This article offers a framework for analyzing social movement participation in public education through a focus on universities in Brazil. It builds on the literature on social movement–state relations, participatory governance, and community organizing in schools, drawing on the case of the Brazilian Landless Workers Movement and the National Program for Education in Areas of Agrarian Reform (PRONERA) to illustrate the need to recenter the idea of conflict as a central and ongoing process of social movement participation in public schools and universities. The article also introduces the concept of prefiguration and highlights how students can prefigure in the formal public school system the types of social and economic practices they hope to build in the future. Contentious cogovernance and prefiguration are tools not only for improving educational equity but also for increasing the strength and internal capacity of social movements, paralleling the role Paulo Freire envisioned for nonformal popular education within grassroots organizations.

Author(s):  
Rebecca Tarlau

Contrary to the conventional belief that social movements cannot engage the state without becoming co-opted and demobilized, this study shows how movements can advance their struggles by strategically working with, in, through, and outside of state institutions. The success of Brazil’s Landless Workers Movement (MST) in occupying land, winning land rights, and developing alternative economic enterprises for over a million landless workers has made it an inspiration for progressive organizations globally. The MST’s educational initiatives, which are less well known but equally as important, teach students about participatory democracy, collective work, agroecological farming, and other practices that support its socialist vision. This study details how MST activists have pressured municipalities, states, and the federal government to implement their educational proposal in public schools and universities, affecting hundreds of thousands of students. Based on twenty months of ethnographic fieldwork, Occupying Schools, Occupying Land documents the potentials, constraints, failures, and contradictions of the MST’s educational struggle. A major lesson is that participating in the contentious co-governance of public education can help movements recruit new activists, diversify their membership, increase practical and technical knowledge, and garner political power. Activists are most effective when combining disruption, persuasion, negotiation, and co-governance into their tactical repertoires. Through expansive leadership development, the MST implemented its educational program in local schools, even under conservative governments. Such gains demonstrate the potential of schools as sites for activists to prefigure, enact, and develop the social and economic practices they hope to use in the future.


Author(s):  
Rebecca Tarlau

The Introduction presents the basic goals of the Brazilian Landless Workers Movement’s agrarian reform struggle and explains how its educational proposal is part and parcel of achieving those goals. Then it outlines the three arguments of this book: engaging formal institutions can contribute to the internal capacity of movements; combining contentious and institutional tactics is an effective movement strategy; and the government’s political orientation, the state’s capacity for educational governance, and a social movement’s own infrastructure condition the possibilities for institutional change. The chapter argues for a Gramscian perspective on social movement–state relations, which views public institutions as an ambiguous sphere that protects the state from attack and is also an arena for resistance. Through the contentious co-governance of public education, movements can integrate more youth and women into the movement, equip movement leaders with professional degrees, and allow activists to prefigure their social visions.


2016 ◽  
Vol 9 (1) ◽  
pp. 38
Author(s):  
Marinalva Sousa Macedo ◽  
Adelaide Ferreira Coutinho

RESUMOPropõe-se nesse artigo discutir sobre o processo de elaboração/execução do Projeto Político Pedagógico para a educação básica do campo. Na tentativa de desvendar objeto de investigação nas suas determinações histórico-sociais, buscou-se como referência metodológica a perspectiva materialista histórico-dialética, por contemplar o desafiode captar o movimento/contradições da realidade estudada, cujo lócus são as escolas dos assentamentos conquistados pelo Movimento dos Trabalhadores Rurais Sem Terra – MST, este, que historicamente luta por escolas públicas para campo. Inicialmente, percebeu-se que a luta desse movimento foi por educação para educar os filhos dos que lutavam pela conquista da terra. Dessa forma, surgem as primeiras escolas nos assentamentos e tem início as discussões sobre a Educação no e do campo. Atualmente, o debate tem motivado a realização de pesquisas e uma produção significativa, além da conquista dos instrumentoslegais e da realização de importantes eventos visando assegurar a educação pública. Por outro lado, cresceu a necessidade de se elaborar um Projeto Político-Pedagógico para as escolas de educação básica do campo. Assim, estaca-se a importância de refletir sobre a educação e oprojeto educativo que se quer para o campo. Nesse intuito, sustenta-se essa análise numa concepção ampliada de educação, a qual deve ser fundamentada nos âmbitos político, técnico e ético para a formação humana, nos diferentes contextos da realidade do campo. Essa, portanto, é uma proposta contrária a atual lógica de formação, voltada, predominantemente, para o mercado. Com base nesse pressuposto, cabe contribuir criticamente para o elineamento do Projeto Político Pedagógico (PPP) das escolas do campo, pois o mesmo deve ser construído coletivamente, uma vez que este se constitui instrumento estruturante da identidade escolar, da gestão democrática e da ação docente.Palavras-chave: Projeto Político Pedagógico. Educação do Campo. Movimento dos Trabalhadores Rurais Sem Terra.ABSTRACTIt is proposed in this article a discussion on the process of developing / implementing the Political Pedagogical Project for rural basic education. As an attempt to unravel the subject of investigation in its historical and social determinations, it sought as a methodological reference to historical and dialectical materialism, to contemplate the challenge of capturing the movement / contradictions of reality studied, whose locus are schools of settlements won by Landless Workers’ movement - MST, this, that historically struggle for rural public schools to. Initially, it was realized that the struggle of this movement was for education to educate the children of those who fought for land. Thus, there are the first schools in the settlements and opened discussions on education in and the countryside. Currently, the debate has motivated the development of research and significantproduction in addition to the achievement of the legal instruments and as part of major events to ensure public education. On the other hand, it increased the need to develop a political-pedagogical project for rural basiceducation schools in the. Thus, there is the importance of thinking about education and educational project that wants to countryside. To that end, it is claimed that analysis in a broad view of education, which should be based on political, technical and ethical spheres to the human, in the different contexts of the reality of the countryside. This therefore is a proposal contrary to current lineup of logic, geared redominantly to market. On that basis, it is critically contribute to the design of the Political Pedagogical Project (PPP) of schools in the countryside, as it should be built collectively, since this constitutes a structural instrument of school identity, democratic management and teaching activities.Keywords: Pedagogical Political Project. Rural Education. Rural Workers Landless Movement.RESUMENSe propone en este artículo discutir el proceso de desarrollo / implementación del Proyecto Político Pedagógico para el campo de la educación básica. En un intento de desentrañar el tema de la investigación en sus determinaciones históricas y sociales, se buscó como referencia metodológica con elmaterialismo histórico y dialéctico, para contemplar el desafío de capturar el movimiento / contradicciones de la realidad estudiada, cuyo locus son las escuelas de los asentamientos ganados por movimiento de los Trabajadores Sin Tierra - MST, esto, que históricamente luchan por las escuelas públicas a campo. Inicialmente, se dio cuenta de que la lucha de este movimiento fue la educación para educar a los hijos de los que lucharon por la tierra. Por lo tanto, existen las primeras escuelas en los asentamientos y discusionesabiertas sobre educación en y del campo. En la actualidad, el debate ha motivado el desarrollo de la investigación y la producción significativa, además de la consecución de los instrumentos legales y como parte de importantes eventos para garantizar la educación pública. Por otro lado, aumentó la necesidad de desarrollar un proyecto político-pedagógicopara las escuelas de educación básica en el campo. Por lo tanto, existe la importancia de pensar la educación y el proyecto educativo que quiere a campo. A tal efecto, se afirma que el análisis de una visión amplia de la educación, que debe basarse en las esferas políticas, técnicas y éticas para el ser humano, en los diferentes contextos de la realidad del campo. Por lo tanto, esta es una propuesta contraria a la alineación actual de la lógica, orientada principalmente al mercado. Sobre esa base, se contribuye críticamente para el diseño del Proyecto Político Pedagógico (PPP) de las escuelas en el campo, ya que debe ser construida colectivamente, ya que esto constituye un instrumento estructural de la identidad de la escuela, la gestión democrática y actividades de enseñanza.Palabras clave: Proyecto Político Pedagógico. La educación rural. Movimiento de Trabajadores Rurales Sin Tierra.


Author(s):  
Rebecca Tarlau

The Conclusion reflects on the significance of the MST’s educational initiatives for understanding states, social movements, and education. The chapter revisits the theoretical claims in the Introduction and clarifies how activists’ long march through the institutions sustains their movements. It outlines the exact mechanisms that facilitated the MST’s ability to lead this massive process of institutional change. It also makes a case for why public education is a strategic sphere for social movement participation. Finally, the chapter describes the implications of this study for understanding the consequences of social movements’ contentious co-governance of state institutions in Latin America and globally.


Author(s):  
Donatella della Porta ◽  
Massimiliano Andretta ◽  
Tiago Fernandes ◽  
Eduardo Romanos ◽  
Markos Vogiatzoglou

The second chapter covers the main characteristics of transition time in the four countries: Italy, Greece, Spain, and Portugal. After developing the theoretical model on paths of transition, with a focus on social movement participation, the chapter looks at social movements and protest events as turning points during transition, covering in particular the specific movement actors, their organizational models, and their repertoires of action and frames. The chapter focuses on two dimensions: the role of mobilization in the transition period, which implies the analysis of how elites and masses interact, ally, or fight with each other in the process, and the outcome of transitions as continuity versus rupture of the democratic regime vis-à-vis the old one. It concludes by elaborating some hypotheses on how different modes of transition may produce different types and uses of (transition) memories.


Author(s):  
Abigail J. Stewart ◽  
Kay Deaux

This chapter provides a framework designed to address how individual persons respond to changes and continuities in social systems and historical circumstances at different life stages and in different generations. We include a focus on systematic differences among the people who experience these changes in the social environment—differences both in the particular situations they find themselves in and in their personalities. Using examples from research on divorce, immigration, social movement participation, and experiences of catastrophic events, we make a case for an integrated personality and social psychology that extends the analysis across time and works within socially and historically important contexts.


2006 ◽  
Vol 76 (4) ◽  
pp. 461-473 ◽  
Author(s):  
ROD PAIGE

In this essay, former secretary of education Rod Paige depicts the No Child Left Behind Act (NCLB) as the culmination of more than half a century of urgent but largely unheeded calls for reform of the nation's public education system. He explains the rationale for the design of NCLB and responds to several criticisms of the legislation, including the notion that it is a one-size-fits-all mandate and that its improvement targets are unrealistic. He further argues that the nation's public schools must become more responsive to the needs of students and their families in order to remain viable. Finally, he contends that subsequent reauthorizations should stay true to NCLB's original goal of holding school systems accountable for equipping all students with the academic skills on which America's future depends.


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