Daniel FerrazDept of Modern Languages -University of Sao PauloFATEC – FACULDADE DE TECNOLOGIA DE SÃO PAULO

ABSTRACTIn my short presentation to the Language and

Literacy Research Group, I will discuss some general information about Brazilian

educational systems. Based on Leite (2010) and on MEC – Ministério

da Educação e Cultura, I will problemitize some of the challenges we have faced in relation to the tensions between

public and private education, Federal and State curricular orientations,

traditional and critical literacies

I will then focus on foreign languages education and will present how English departments from some universities in the country have responded to these challenges through a National Project of foreign language teacher education.

Key words: Brazilian education, critical education, foreign languages teaching

INTRODUCTION:

Brazil

Brazil is the fifth largest country in the world5 regionsTropical climateFauna and floraHuge urban areas

Jungles

DemographicsColour/Race (2008) White 49,4% (? – census is done through questions

in Brazil)

Brown (Multiracial) 43.80% Black 6.84% Yellow 0.58% Amerindian 0.28%- The population of Brazil, as recorded by the

2008 PNAD, was approximately 190 million, Southeast, urban, young.

Sao Paulo: economic centre, megalopolisSão Paulo: 10,990,249 inhabitants

Greater Sao Paulo: 19.889.559 inhabitants

Illiteracy...

EDUCATIONAL SYSTEM

LEVELS

EDUCATIONAL SYSTEM – Sistema BÁSICO

EDUCAÇÃO BÁSICA

PUBLIC X PRIVATE

portal.inep.gov.br BASIC EDUCATION

MEDIUM LEVEL: 8,9 million students:

PUBLIC X PRIVATE

88% 12 %7,8 million students 1 million

General CharacteristicsMore students in PUBLIC education:More dropout % = 30%Usually considered of LOW quality

Fewer students in PRIVATE sectorLess dropoutUsually considered of HIGH quality:

WHAT IS HAPPENING IN PUBLIC BASIC EDUCATION?

EDUCATIONAL SYSTEM –SISTEMA SUPERIOR DE ENSINO

EDUCAÇÃO superior

Higher education www.inep.gov.br 2,252 institutions ( 2,016 –private X 236 – public)

340,000 professors 230,000 private; X 110,000-public (70,000 are PhD)

5 million students ( 2,5 % of population)800,000 conclude

General Characteristicsfewer students in PUBLIC UNIVERSITIES:Usually considered of HIGH quality,

research institutions

MORE students in PRIVATE sectorUsually considered of LOW quality, not

focused on research

CRITIQUE: Educational paradox

PUBLIC BASIC EDUCATION:

Most students (88%)“inferior” quality

PRIVATE BASIC EDUCATION:

Fewer students (12%)Excellent quality

PRIVATE UNIVERSITIES:

Most students Inferior qualityCorporate, business

PUBLIC UNIVESITIES:

Fewer studentsExcellent qualityAcademia, research

Challenge: Educational cycleThe fact that many of these university

students lack these critical practices but become teachers in elementary and secondary schools indicates the gravity of this situation and how its negative aspects may be multiplied and reinforced in the school system (Monte Mor 2007: 49).

OTHER BIG ISSUES

REPRODUCTIVISM (Bourdieu)

MEMORIZE = LEARN

BANKING EDUCATION

EPISTEMOLOGY

Humanities Paradox

EPISTEMOLOGIES

Alan Liu – The map of human knowledge

HE in Brazil: great challengeConventional / tradicional = grounded on

Illuminism, positivism

REPRODUCTIVISM, REPETITION, LINEAR thinking,

Pedagogy = authoritarian in many instances,

Jug and mug...

Pedagogy = FREIRE´S BANKING CONCEPT of education. Students as mugs, teachers as jugs

Novos letramentos

HE in Brazil: move to … or add…Contemporary epistemologies: dialogism,

digital/ multi epistemologies = grounded on post-movements

PRODUCTION, CREATION, NET thinking,

Pedagogy = negotiation,

Pedagogy = critical pedagogy, critical literacies, new literacies

Leite (2010)

Anthropofagic HIGHER EDUCATION = at structural level

Reproductivist HIGHER EDUCATION = at epistemological level

Possible answers?

NATIONAL PROJECT of Foreign Languages Teacher EducationProject initially designed by Lynn Mario

Menezes T de Souza and Walkyria Monte Mór (USP) who designes the latest National Curricular Orientations for Medium level Foreign languages Education ( OCEM 2006)

26 Universities around the country ( show LIST)

English departments (some professors of those departments)

Portuguese Departments (2 universitites)

Who participate: undergrads, graduate students (Master´s and PhDs), professors, teachers of foreign languages (English and Spanish) and Portuguese language areas.

Actions Yearly encounters where we discuss the project

and construct it together. In these encounters, there are round-tables for theoretical studies on new literacies, multiliteracies and critical literacies, and also round tables for discussion of the research from each locality.

Research in public schools (basic education). Each university develops projects on teacher education and basic education though English courses.

Supervisions: professors supervise dissertations and theses connected to the issues proposed by the Project: in the area of critical education (

Publications – Publications of articles and books related to the researches of the Project.

International partnership – TRANSNATIONAL LITERACIES PROJECT- exchange between scholars who have developed similar projects. They are invited to join our discussions every year ( Partner institutions – University of Manitoba – Dr Diana Brydon, Univ of York Brian Morgan and Dr Ian Martin, University of |Toronto Dr Monica Heller, among many others)

To close...In order to fully embrace a humanizing pedagogy, we

must go beyond the technicism in classroom

instruction and engage other fundamental knowledges

that are seldom taught to us in our preparation as

teachers. These knowledges include, according to

Freire: the courage to dare, in the full sense of the

term, to speak abou tlove without fear of being called

a-scientific or anti-scientific. (MACEDO 2002)

THANK YOU!