The Instituto de Educação Josué de Castro (Institute of Education Josué de Castro), sponsored by the Instituto Técnico de Capacitação e Pesquisa da Reforma Agrária (Technical Institute for Training and Research in Agrarian Reform) which is associated to the Movimento dos Sem-Terra (MST - Landless Farm-worker Movement), provides both secondary education and technical training. This paper aims at describing the features of this school and at elucidating whether its educational conception, which seems to be similar to that of the schools controlled by the MST, presents educational characteristics that may be of interest for the working classes as a whole, from a democratic and popular point of view. The investigation showed that the Instituto, whose framework and organization differ from those usually found in official schools, emphasizes such educational categories as the union between teaching and work, and a management democratically shared among students, teachers and school staff.
Education; Work; Self-management