Critical Education as Resistance in Brazilian Current Hard Times

Colloquium
Eliane Fernandes Azzari,  Eduardo Moura,  Daniel Ferraz,  Walkyria Monte Mór,  Suzanna Mizan,  Danielle Ramos,  Clarissa Jordão  

There have been social, cultural and political signs that critical education has been currently under surveillance again in Brazil: propositions to go back to the "good old times" of “schools without ideologies," control of critical development, cancellation of investments in schools, universities, research grants, teacher education, and so on. The learnings from “the plumb years” (from the 60’s to mid-80’s) indicate that this might be an already-seen and concerning scenario. Not coincidentally, in our view, those propositions emerge when again critical education has become widely rediscussed as a disposition/a resource for critical awareness, resistance and agency within a newly fostered authoritarian scenario. Aiming to expand educational possibilities in the country, studies, practices, and field investigations all based on updated critical education--multiliteracies, new literacies, and critical literacies--have been designed and experienced/implemented in school and university projects in different Brazilian regions in the last decades. The literacies studies have shown great affinity with the Freirian premises of critical education, autonomy and citizenship in Brazil. Acknowledgedly, they have brought fresh air in the revision of education and pedagogies that entail equity issues. This colloquium then aims to discuss the literacies proposals in terms of their potential for awareness and resistance in Brazil. It thus presents and analyses data generated by qualitative and interpretive field investigations and school/university practices, as a way to share and debate perspectives of the aforementioned project with colleagues from different cultural contexts/environments.