Eleventh Global Studies Conference

Abstract

In May of 2017, professors and students from four post-secondary institutions (two Canadian and two Brazilian) undertook a partnership to develop and participate in a cross-national course in Sao Paulo, Brazil. The course was designed for students and scholars in all four institutions to explore the overlapping inequities resulting from a shared experience of colonialism, as well as a shared history of the marginalizing of Indigenous peoples. Professors from UOIT’s Faculty of Education, Durham College’s School of Interdisciplinary Studies, University of Sao Paulo’s Faculty of Education and Universidade Estadual Paulista’s Institute for the Arts partnered to offer the social justice-themed course entitled Poverty, Access, Resistance, and Resilience. Twenty Canadian students travelled to Brazil, the homeland of educator and philosopher Paulo Freire, who’s “Pedagogy of the Oppressed” was a foundational part of the course content. The Canadian students learned alongside their Brazilian counterparts as they considered how racism, poverty, misogyny, and abuses of Indigenous rights reflected hegemonic social forces in the two nations. The course also explored how students could implement Critical Pedagogy’s calls to action in their respective fields of education, journalism, broadcasting, and visual arts. An additional partnership with The Freire Institute resulted in an opportunity for students to meet Freire’s son who provided an engaging talk on his father’s work, and the historical context from which it emerged. This paper considers the lessons learned as well as challenges and rewards associated with the project.