Institutional Responses to Changing Political Landscapes: Federally Mandated Teacher Education Coursework in Brazil

• In Event: Multiple Perspectives on Preparing Teachers for Diverse Populations: National, Institutional, and Curricular Responses

Abstract

This paper examines the way Brazilian universities define effective pedagogies for working with diverse populations through federally mandated teacher education course syllabi designed to meet the 2003 groundbreaking federal education Diversity law championed by progressive educators and activists in Brazil. One sweeping requirement of the law is that all K-12 preservice teachers be prepared to teach racially diverse and historically marginalized Black and Indigenous students, and more specifically employ anti-racist pedagogies and integrate Afro-Brazilian history and culture into curriculum across content areas (Akkari, 2012). Diversity is operationalized through the federal law based on three principles: (a) historical and political consciousness of diversity, (b) strong notion of identity and rights, and (c) educational action to combat racism and discrimination (Silva et al. 2004)

Brazilian literature on race and schooling has grappled with notions of teacher effectiveness with diverse populations and largely consists of studies of textbooks and curriculum, student achievement by race and class, and teacher-student interactions (Souza 2001). In this latter category, there is extensive research ranging from ethnographies in classrooms (Botega, 2006; Cavalleiro, 2000; Santos, 2007) to large-scale mixed methods studies in schools (Castro & Abranovay, 2006) that have explored public K-12 teachers effectiveness with diverse student populations. This paper adds to the literature by examining teacher preparation at the nexus of policy and curriculum.

This study uses qualitative analysis (Miles & Huberman, 1994) of preservice teacher foundational course syllabi designed to meet federal diversity mandates. These syllabi are required by law to be published on the school’s website. Syllabi were sought out in 176 of the largest and most highly ranked universities across Brazil representing 64% of universities that are responsible for over half of the teachers being trained in Brazil. Federal regulations stipulate that the requisite diversity course syllabi be published on the school’s website. Eighty syllabi were received and of those 44 syllabi, each from different universities that met stricter inclusion criteria were analyzed. The range of definitions of diversity and effective pedagogies for working with diverse populations were analyzed.

Despite central conceptual and pedagogical federal directives, findings show that conceptions of diversity in required pre-service coursework are disparate, both challenging and reifying racial inequity in Brazil. Among those universities that are complying with the educational diversity regulations, the concepts of racial equity and educational opportunity are manifold and often conflicting. Diversity is situated in syllabi both through dominant discourses of racial democracy and subaltern discourses of racial consciousness that resist structural, historical and institutional forms of racism. Pedagogical approaches are advocated from political and cultural standpoints where racism is strategically silenced by some liberal multicultural approaches and contested by other critical anti-racism approaches.

This work contributes to broader understanding of often complex ways that schools of education respond to federal policy mandates requiring pre-service teachers be prepared to understand and effectively work with diverse populations in K-12 public schools. This study raises several possibilities and constraints of federally legislating the rigorous preparation of teachers to effectively work with racially diverse populations through foundational coursework.

Author

• Jenifer Crawford, University of Southern California