Reasons for changing the world: rural education and the contributions from PRONERA

ABSTRACT:

Neoliberal reasoning permeates all institutions and disseminates its view of the world by imposing corporate governance on all dimensions of development. Education is one of the spheres mostly affected by the neoliberal logic. The Brazilian peasantry, as highlighted by the Landless Workers Movement (MST), along with teachers and researchers, has built an alternative paradigm for rural education through the National Program for Education in Agrarian Reform (PRONERA). In this article, we discuss the confrontation of these two paradigms in dispute within the educational policy field. The contribution of PRONERA, in twenty years of existence, is to ensure that public policies remain relevant for peasant education.

Keywords:
PRONERA; Neoliberal reasoning; Rural education; Paradigmatic debate