Hi everyone,

Instead of writing about transformative pedagogy, I‘ll describe a typical public school in a rural community in my region that needs transformation. Here’s my account:

The Sunflower Elementary School is a public school, located in a rural community in the Valley of Jequitinhonha, one of the poorest areas in the northeastern region of the state of Minas Gerais, Brazil. The nearest town, which has about 20,000 inhabitants, is situated 30 km away. The school has around 60 students who are originally from the community in which the school is located and other neighboring rural communities.

The school has three classrooms for up to 10 students. The paint is worn and the windows are broken. There is not good ventilation and the lighting is poor as some light bulbs are defective. The wiring is also defective. The small blackboards are in poor conditions. There are some desks with defects, but still used by the students. There are some steel shelves where the textbooks are kept. One of the rooms contains five computers, without access to the Internet. They are rarely used. According to the teachers, there are no computer classes as nobody knows how to use the machines. In the corner, there is a printer that doesn’t work.

The assignments done by the students are usually placed on the walls of the classrooms, hallways and even outside the school. When the class assignments are produced for exhibition, the existing ones have to be removed from the walls to make room for the new ones. There is not a library, but a small space at the end of the hallway, where there are some old books and torn magazines. At the back, there is a small kitchen with an old stove. Needless to say, the children eat their meals in the classrooms.

There are no multimedia, administration and coordination rooms. For recreation, there are no sports courts and recreation areas. The children play soccer next to a dangerous road right in front of the school. Some of them have already been run over by careless drivers.

The school has two bathrooms, but the taps are defective and the toilet flushing does not work. The children must throw bucket water into the toilet seats after using them. However, there is not always running water in the school. Down the hall, there is a small room with a bunk bed, two single beds, a TV and a small bathroom. This space, which is used as a dorm for the teachers, is also used as a staff room and a meeting room. Next to the entrance door, there is a small room, which is an improvised secretary’s office. Inside of it, there is only one small table with a globe and a mimeograph machine on it. Above the table, there is a shelf with very few books. The school supply items (notebooks, pencils, pens, cardboards, etc) provided by the government are generally few and end fast. Much of the students’ material is bought by their parents. To make up for that, teachers buy and / or reuse some leftovers from other school assignments. Materials like soda bottle tops and plastic cups are sometimes used for school work too.

Students are occasionally sent home early due to the lack of school meals. According to the teachers, it happens because the government delays the bidding process for the purchase of food supplies. Regarding student transportation services, there is a van which sometimes stops due to mechanical problems or the fact that the government does not pay for the transportation service on a regular basis.

The teachers, who are mostly hired annually, do not complain over fear of losing their jobs. When there is no transportation, most students who live in places with difficult access wake up early and walk miles on poorly maintained roads. Some of them, apart from walking long distances, have to cross water streams. When it rains heavily, which is common in this area, they cannot get to school because the streams fill up and there are no bridges for them to cross. According to the teachers, all the problems related to infrastructure have been discussed with the students’ parents, but none of them has offered to help the school. They believe it is the government’s responsibility to look after the school, not theirs. There is a parents’ meeting every semester and many of the parents still believe that the school is very significant for their rural communities as it ensures the education of the children in their homeland. For them, the school is a center for integrating most of the rural communities in that region.

Regarding the staff, apart from the six teachers and a cleaning woman who also does the cooking, there is a director, a supervisor and an inspector for all the 60 rural schools in that area. These professionals visit the schools once in a while or when their presence is requested by the teachers. Sandra is one of the six teachers who work there. She is contracted by the government annually, does not hold a university degree as she had to quit her studies early to start working. Once she lives 30 km away from the school, she sleeps in the “school dorm” during the week. She finds it tiring to get to work every day. She does not have a car and there is no public transportation to take her to work. To get there, she hitches a ride in a friend's car or on the highway that leads to the school. She says she loves to be a rural school teacher. The students, she says, despite all the difficulties, are motivated and like to go to school. Due to the fact she has no job stability and gets a very low salary, Sandra pursues the dream of an opportunity to be transferred to a public school in the city or to get another job. She says she is sick and tired of dealing with the difficulties she has to go through every day.

The students, whose parents are landless movement people, agricultural workers who have been expelled from their land by large land owners or mining companies, “acampados” (those who are occupying land illegally) and “assentados” (those who were occupying land illegally in the past), enjoy living in their communities with relatives and friends. Unfortunately, these kids know that their school might close for the lack of funding very soon. As a result, they will have to make a very important decision in their lives. They will either continue their education in the city or give it up.