Intercultural Education in Brazil

Abstract

Brazil is a country of continental dimensions making up half of South America, both in its surface area and in its population. Its history and ethno-cultural diversity have converted this vast space into a unique place for the application of intercultural approaches in education. In this chapter, we will examine the reasons inciting public educational policies to pay attention to this theme, but we will also describe the resulting tensions.

1 Introduction

Brazil is a country of continental dimensions making up half of South America, both in its surface area and in its population. Its history and ethno-cultural diversity have converted this vast space into a unique place for the application of intercultural approaches in education. In this chapter, we will examine the reasons inciting public educational policies to pay attention to this theme, but we will also describe the resulting tensions.

The idea of considering cultural diversity in the Brazilian education system is relatively new. In fact, despite the multitude of races and ethnicities making up the country’s society, intercultural approaches only date from the last twenty years. It is possible that this delayed development is in part due to the country’s complicated history, having experienced successively slavery, an official policy of “whitening” the population, dictatorships and long-term social and racial inequalities (endured mainly by the Afro-Brazilians). This chapter intends to outline intercultural approaches to education in Brazil and to show the principal ways in which they have developed. We will analyse the strong resistance that these changes have encountered in the school. This illustrates the difficult linkages that intercultural approaches must achieve between “the right to be different” and the “necessity of equality”, but also between “the equitable treatment of all ethnic groups” and “the unified education system of a Nation-State”. We will see that this can lead to long-term paradoxes. People have been speaking of intercultural approaches in Brazil for several years and some legislative initiatives had the clear intention of promoting them in the education system. Unfortunately, it is still an exception to see them in daily operation in schools, since they reopen historical wounds, ethnocultural antagonisms and conflicts believed to impair national cohesion.

2 Inter-Ethnic Relationships in Brazil: The Historical Heritage and Present Situation

The history of Brazil is closely associated with the population’s ethnic complexity. Indeed, the original Amerindian population came into contact with Portuguese conquerors, African slaves and later significant flows of immigrants who were mainly European. This ethnic plurality, structural at the demographic level, is marked on a historic scale by the marginalization of and domination over the Amerindian and African ethnic groups (Moritz Schwarcz, 2001).

The Amerindians were the victims of an attempt at colonization and “civilization”, which has finally resulted, between the conquest’s beginnings and today, in a dramatic decline in their population. The steady advance of the frontier of agricultural colonization from the Atlantic coast towards the interior, particularly the Amazon basin, has progressively restricted their territory. They find themselves today in a survival situation, struggling to preserve what remains of their cultural heritage and their territory—the object of numerous covetous ambitions.

Despite the abolition of slavery in 1888, the Afro-Brazilians have suffered from the systematic denigration of their history and their culture. They represent the country’s ethnic group most subject to poverty, urban violence and social exclusion (D’Adesky and Minces, 2001). This inferior status is due to the fact that the Afro-Brazilians, as ex-slaves, were not equipped to seek their own liberty. Since they had no qualifications and only limited economic and social resources, they automatically became part of the marginalized population.¹ This exclusion has been perpetuated from generation to generation until the present day (Telles, 2014).

Based on an analysis of the way relationships between Blacks and Whites are conducted, Bastide and Fernandes (1955) drew attention to the inequalities between these two groups in Brazilian society. The White ideology seems to consider the Blacks as primitive, dirty, ugly, superstitious, financially irresponsible, immoral, aggressive, erratic in the workplace, sexually perverted and exhibitionist. Moreover, in the multicultural and mixed-race Brazilian society, the education system has always favoured the White culture with the intention of endorsing the deculturation of minority populations and promoting White supremacy (Da Silva, 1987). Deculturation is the process of bringing about a group’s cultural breakdown with the objective of exploiting it (colonial and neo-colonial exploitation) (Da Silva, 1987). White supremacy assumes that its values, history and culture are the exclusive references and the only ones that have any worth in enhancing society. White supremacy also finds expression by considering the values of dominated groups as inferior.

This description of the situation is a perfect example of racialization²: the Other (in this case the Black person) displays genetic biological characteristics justifying an unequal and unjust social order. A strongly hierarchical group structure ensues from this process. Widespread ethnic hybridization in Brazil brings prejudice to any individuals who have the slightest trace of African blood.

As stated by Carvalho De Chargas (1989), European immigration encouraged by the Brazilian State foresaw not only replacing Black with White in the principal economic sectors, but also of implementing a campaign for the regeneration and training for work of which the mechanism would be interethnic mixing with the desired outcome being the Black population gradually becoming more White. “Republican” political campaigns, like that of Caetano de Campos, proposed a significant cultural transplantation from Europe and the United States of the methods, teaching materials and even of the teachers themselves so as to transform the Brazilian race.

Considered as inferior, but impossible to eradicate because of their demographic mass, these two ethnic groups (Afro-Brazilian and Amerindian) became the subjects of an official assimilation/civilization policy designed to found the country exclusively on a European cultural heritage. It was furthermore slightly before and following the end of slavery that the campaign of “White domination” (mentioned previously) began. The objective was to transform Brazil into a White nation through a series of concrete measures, particularly the exclusive encouragement of European immigration (Saillant and Araujo, 2007). This also corresponded to significant economic changes in the country (post-slavery). Once the slaves had been liberated (1888, the Aurea Law), “the Brazilian State preferred to let European immigrants enter to create an excess of labour [rather than] having to rely on the former slaves to work in the coffee plantations and subsequently in industry” (Saillant and Araujo, 2007, p. 462). This transformation was perceived as absolutely essential if modernity was to be achieved or for access to what in Brazil is still called the “first world” (o premeiro mundo).

Alongside the ideology and implementation of assimilation, there also developed a powerful myth in the country of a successful Brazilian “racial democracy” (ethnic mixed race) consisting of an amalgamation of the three ethnic groups making up the country (Amerindian, African and European). For Freyre (1933, 1952), the cantor of Brazilian racial democracy, the principal of harmonious conviviality between these three groups would enable the three “races” to fuse despite the violent experiences of colonization and slavery. Brazil would be the only place in the world where varied races, peoples and cultures cohabited and interbred harmoniously. It is true that Freyre’s study period in the United States, where he met Boas, the founder of cultural anthropology, enabled him to compare the strict racial segregation in the United States with the apparent racial coexistence typical of Brazil.

The study carried out by Coelho and Costa (2009) in the State of Pará has demonstrated the persistence, among the educational community, of the racial democracy myth in the school. Observations carried out in the classroom and the analysis of interviews with teachers and pupils showed that they accepted the idea of a well-mixed Brazilian society resulting from the three races interbreeding, and representing a source of national wealth and pride.

However, the work should be recalled carried out by the School of Sociology in São Paulo and supported by UNESCO, which demonstrated the significance of racial inequality in Brazil (Bastide and Fernades, 1955; Ianni, 1966; Maio, 1999). As stated by Fernandes (1960), racial democracy is a façade hiding an unequal social and racial order:

There is no racial democracy in Brazil, where exchanges between individuals belonging to distinct “races” begin and end at the level of conventional tolerance. This may satisfy the demands of the questionable “Christian spirit” and the practical necessity of “each maintaining their place”. However, this does not truly bring men together, but creates the basis, within the same social space, of a simple coexistence governed by a code which sanctifies inequality by hiding it behind the principles of a democratic social order (Fernandes, 1960, p. xiv).

During the period of military dictatorship in Brazil (1964–1985), educational policies did not pay any attention to questions of interethnic relationships and cultural diversity.

After the gradual return of democracy in the middle of the 1980s, the problem of inequality associated with racial affiliation took on a new form under the pressure of movements of associations, as well as that of a few intellectuals. In 1995, the Black Brazilian Movement organized in Brasilia the “Zumbi dos Palmares” March against Racism, for Citizenship and Life. In the wake of this important demonstration, a document demanding not only the end of racial discrimination but also concrete measures for the promotion of equality was passed to the Brazilian president at that time.

Racial and ethnic relations in Brazil are extremely complicated. Even if the myth of racial democracy is increasingly disputed and the struggle against racial discrimination is more than ever present, intercultural approaches encounter strong resistance, as is illustrated by the current debate about positive discrimination (the policy of quotas) in public universities. Some of this resistance is connected with the role played by international governmental and non-governmental organizations (such as UNESCO and the Ford Foundation) in raising awareness about intercultural approaches. This role is viewed by some Brazilians as interference in the country’s internal affairs or as the importation of a problematic not corresponding to the Brazilian situation.

The question of positive discrimination is not only a technical discussion concerning the colour of people’s skin. It is above all a political and social matter which has for a long time prevented the Black minority from agreeing on a positive and comprehensible ethnic identity. As Sansone (2003) has clearly shown, the Afro-Brazilians have not only failed to organize themselves as an ethnic entity seeking equal opportunities, but they have also had difficulty in viewing themselves as a distinct ethnic group, since several aspects of their Afro-Brazilian culture have been absorbed into the mainstream Brazilian culture. One only has to consider Brazilian music or dance to understand the situation. For a long time, the actual ethnic interbreeding of the Brazilian population cancelled any specific demand by the Black and mixed-race community. The interest in an analysis of intercultural approaches in Brazil arises precisely from the paradox of having a multi-ethnic and mixed-race society which is incapable of recognizing its true diversity, yet at the same time is very far from the bipolar and dual historic situation existing between “Blacks and Whites” in the United States and in South Africa, or between “nationals” and “immigrants” in Europe. Hence the interest of international researchers on intercultural approaches, who have turned their attention to the present situation existing in Brazil.

It was only recently that the theme of multiculturalism became a part of the research about ethnic and racial diversity in the Brazilian educational field. Even so, it is important to emphasize that it has gained very specific features in the country. In the Brazilian case, it can be noted that cultural diversity and economic inequality mark our social life and, consequently, our schools, which is a political problem based on the claims made possible by the country’s democratization (1985), with the space conquered in the parliamentary debates due to the pressure exercised by the activism of the black and indigenous movements. They attempt to legally include something that challenges/overcomes the widespread social belief that there is no prejudice in Brazil (Chamlian & Kowalski, 2016).

3 Legislation Favourable to Cultural Diversity in Education

To begin with, it is necessary to point out that the gradual return of democracy in Latin America has allowed the claims of dominated cultural and ethnic groups to resurface in most countries in this region. Between 1980 and 1990, eleven Latin American countries have thus recognized in their constitutions the multi-ethnic, multicultural and multilingual nature of their societies. As a result, public policies in the education sector have been required to take the management of cultural differences gradually into account (Ferrão Candau and Russo, 2010).

In Brazil, the first discussions on the educational situation of marginalized groups were launched during the 1970s to 1980s when the Afro-Brazilian movement for civil rights emerged and the first research was carried out on stereotypes and discrimination in the school environment (Domingues, 2007; Gomes, 2010). It should be said that, before this time, the school reflected a policy of assimilating minority populations into the dominant Western culture (Meunier, 2010).³ It was therefore during this period that the demands of minority populations became politicized and organized: the Afro-Brazilian associations requested the full recognition of rights for Afro-Brazilians and the need to oppose negative stereotypes applying to their community. Among the indigenous populations, “numerous conferences and assemblies took place […] and led to discussions concerning the introduction of a differentiated formal education” (Meunier, 2010, p. 392).

It was also during this period that educational researchers looked closely at the persistence of negative stereotypes applying to Black Brazilians in the school environment, particularly concerning teachers’ attitudes and school textbooks (Pinto, 1987). Indeed, it can be noted that images of Black children were entirely absent from children’s books until the 1930s, after which they appeared but in a caricatural manner until the 1960s (Barbosa, 2015).

At the legislative level, the contribution of the Brazilian Constitution of 1988 should first be emphasized, which gradually reintroduced democracy. It recognized the composite and plural nature of ethnicity and culture in the Brazilian nation. The Constitution’s Article 215 recalls the State’s responsibility for the safeguard of popular, indigenous and Afro-Brazilian cultural characteristics.

Then, the Law on Educational Directives and Bases (LDB) of 1996 created a more decentralized education system with the distribution of educational responsibilities shared between federal, regional and municipal authorities. At the same time, this law stipulated the necessity of basic schooling which should be provided to all children, as well as the proviso that the school should be adapted to regional and local realities (Article 26). The right to be different had therefore penetrated for the first time into educational legislation. However, the LDB tackles the question of cultural diversity in a general and transversal manner, with the exception of special attention devoted to bilingual and intercultural education intended for indigenous peoples (Articles 78 and 79) (Saraiva, 2010).

In 2003, a new stage was reached in the legislation favouring interculturality in the school. Law 10,639 introduced the obligation to teach African and Afro-Brazilian history in the official curriculum of basic and middle schools. The Black community’s contribution in the construction and formation of Brazilian society and identity now formed part of official educational programmes. This law also introduced into the school calendar the date of 20 November as the annual national celebration of Black awareness. In 2008, Law 10,639 became transposed into Law 11,645, which renewed the necessity of teaching African/Afro-Brazilian history and culture, and also introduced the history and culture of indigenous peoples (Saraiva, 2010).

Table 1 draws attention to the way the two principal ethnic minorities have been dealt with when introducing multicultural approaches in Brazil. Due to their small numbers (less than 1% of the Brazilian population) and their widespread distribution, indigenous populations were the first to benefit from the school’s acceptance of cultural diversity. It can be seen, for instance, that in the 1990s there was a new relationship between the Western form of schooling and traditional education, alongside the development of “intercultural bilingual education” (Meunier, 2010, p. 394) in schools located in indigenous territories.

Table 1 Principal dates and legal measures in favour of intercultural approaches in Brazil

On the other hand, numerous misgivings can be detected at the level of valorising the Afro-Brazilian cultural heritage. In fact, this population is the most numerous in certain parts of the country (the north-east). Furthermore, the Black and mixed-race populations represent, according to recent official statistics, the major part of Brazil’s population. Even in the southern regions, sometimes considered as White Brazil, the mixed race and Afro-Brazilians have been present among the population for a long time. Moreover, the over-representation of the Afro-Brazilians in the disadvantaged urban districts (favelas) has inspired numerous researchers and decision-makers to suggest that the racial problem would be automatically resolved if a determined effort were made to eradicate social exclusion and poverty. By expanding the analysis to the whole of Latin America, Hooker (2006) has even spoken of including indigenous populations and excluding African descendants.

In short, one can observe that the introduction of Afro-Brazilian heritage into the education system has brought about a reconsideration and a questioning of Brazilian national identity (Canen, 2000). The rethinking of this identity would be achieved particularly by accepting the hybrid character of every Brazilian, but also by recognizing the historical discrimination suffered by Afro-Brazilians and Amerindians. There has been a fundamental revolution in the structure of Brazilian education, originally conceived by the Jesuits as a means of assimilating the “uncivilized” peoples and preparing the country for modernity perceived as European and Christian.

4 Intercultural Approaches at the School

Table 2 presents the principal initiatives concerning intercultural approaches observed in the Brazilian education system. It can be noted that there is a variety both of approaches employed and of initiators. Beyond the measures associated with curricula, which are omnipresent, we may also note a proliferation of days commemorating the cultural heritage of different ethnic groups.

Table 2 Intercultural approaches in the training and work of teachers

Furthermore, one can observe the intensive use of art in Brazilian intercultural approaches. In fact, this domain could be considered as the backbone of culture; in this case, the artistic dimension is particularly useful for cultural diversity in the classroom. In general, pupils like to learn new content concerning African and indigenous artistic styles. Manual tasks, songs and dance bring the pupils together without reference to their ethnic identities. However, one should arm oneself against the temptation to present minority cultures as simple inherited curiosities, thus strengthening stereotypes and the gulf between cultures (Dos Santos and Dias da Silva, 2017). Art is extremely useful in implementing intercultural approaches, as long as a critical attitude is maintained and there is no temptation towards an essentialist approach, reducing culture to a few simple features. For example, using the capoeira [war dance] as an artistic activity recognizing the contribution of Afro-Brazilian culture requires placing it in the context of resistance by slaves to oppression.

The curriculum seems to be a productive way of introducing intercultural approaches into the Brazilian school (Ferrão Candau, 2011). The national curricular parameters (PCN), prepared by the Federal Ministry of Education, recommend the integration of cultural diversity in teaching. The PCN’s introductory document for the primary school (Brazil, Ministério da Educacão e Cultura, 1997) draws attention to the need to take account of diversity by including it in the objectives, the content and the evaluation criteria. The question of diversity forms part of the transversal themes which must be reflected in different educational disciplines (Portuguese language, mathematics, history, geography, science and arts), thereby bringing interdisciplinarity into the primary school. The Ministry of Education emphasizes:

To live in a democratic and plural society, we need to respect and recognize ethnic and cultural diversity. Through its historical origins, Brazilian society has been influenced by the presence of different ethnic and cultural groups, descendants of immigrants with various nationalities, religions and languages (Brazil, Ministério da Educação, 1998, p. 68).

It seems useful to us to point out that Brazilian teacher training has undergone profound reforms in recent years towards the generalization of a university training and increased professionalization. The place occupied by intercultural approaches in these reforms was limited in the sense that they were not imposed as an obligatory and unavoidable part of training. They seem to have been relegated to the individual initiative of the designers and managers of training programmes. Frequently, intercultural approaches are placed in the teacher-training curriculum as the pedagogy of inclusion, which brings together both awareness of handicapped pupils’ needs or those experiencing learning difficulties. However, the availability of federal resources in support of indigenous teachers has encouraged some public universities to launch innovative training programmes in this area (Grupioni, 2006).

Quilombola education is also a most remarkable innovation involving intercultural approaches in Brazil. The word quilombo⁴ refers to the region located between the Democratic Republic of the Congo and Angola. In Brazil during the slavery period, the term designated the places inhabited mainly by escaped slaves in remote areas. It is a form of independent socio-political and community organization opposed to the oppression of slavery. One of the most famous quilombos in Brazil was “Palmares” (in the interior of the State of Alagoas) set up in 1595 by Zumbi Dos Palmares (30,000 people on a land area equivalent to one-third of Portugal).

The Brazilian Constitution of 1988 recognized for the first time the existence of quilombos and raised the possibility of recovering the ancestral lands of communities bearing the scars of slavery. According to the Palmares Foundation,⁵ there are at present 1,436 quilombos bringing together 1.3 million people organized in a participative manner. Quilombola education is based on the historic social and cultural heritage of communities living in quimbolas. Children study in the school according to their context and their cultural heritage.

A present threat hovering over the recognition of Afro-Brazilian or indigenous cultural heritage is the omnipresence of evangelical groups in Brazil, which are particularly opposed to recognizing the Afro-Brazilian religious heritage in intercultural projects in the school. These evangelical groups have available a number of political allies, as well as national television channels (Mariano, 2007; Oualalou, 2018).

5 Conclusion

This chapter has enabled us to throw light on the two most important aspects in the debate on intercultural education in Brazil. First, it should be said that, to a certain extent, the country is open to experiences and discussions associated with addressing cultural diversity at the international level. Then, our analysis drew attention to the implementation of numerous legislative measures designed to promote interculturality in the school. However, it is appropriate to go beyond the present legislative, judicial and historical approach dominant in the country in order to attempt to found Brazilian interculturality on a critical approach, which challenges interethnic relationships, not only in the school, but also in society at large.

According to Bezerra, Da Silva and Leal (2017), teachers represent the principal tool in overcoming the present immobility and hesitation of the Brazilian education system towards intercultural approaches. We believe that, in order to bring about a real change in the way cultural diversity is dealt with, teachers must have a wider vision of intercultural education not restricted to partial knowledge about typical costumes, festivals, music and food. They must understand intercultural education in the context of a critical and democratic citizenship, and not simply as a contemplative appreciation of the cultural richness of different ethnic groups.

Intercultural approaches are promoted in the Brazilian education system from two principal perspectives. The first, focusing on curricular reforms, favours the recognition of the contribution of traditionally oppressed groups (Afro-Brazilian and Amerindian). The second is centred on policies of equal access, which function through the use of a system of ethnic and social quotas for entry to certain educational institutions. If the first has not encountered a great deal of explicit resistance, it is because it is still not operational in the school’s daily life or simply takes the form of a few commemorative days. On the contrary, the second perspective, which challenges the social privilege of being White, has been the target of innumerable controversies which have not yet been resolved.