Learning Communities: Successful Educational Actions Improving Afro-Brazilian Children's Identities

• In Event: 68.040 - SALEACOM Network: Sharing Global Knowledge to Improve Learning for the Most Disadvantaged Youth

Abstract

Objective
To study the influence of Successful Educational Actions developed in the Learning Communities project on Brazilian students’ achievement and identities.

Theoretical Framework
In Brazil, data on living conditions point to the fact that social inequalities still affect mostly black and brown and indigenous groups who are historically marginalized in the country. The data on illiteracy among those aged 15 and over reveals the inequality: 11% of blacks are illiterate, while among whites, the rate is 5.2 % (IBGE, 2012).
Education quality indicators have shown that culturally marginalized groups in Brazil are offered low quality school facilities (Alves & Silva, 2013) and when they are placed in more privileged schools, this does not necessarily mean improvement in learning performance, probably due to racism faced by them and their families in relation to school practices (França & Gonçalves, 2010).
Articulating instrumental learning and equality of differences, through Dialogic Learning (Aubert et al., 2008), the transformation of schools in learning communities, implying the development of Successful Educational Actions (SEA) (Flecha, Author & Gómez, 2013), was proven as an alternative to improve quality education, by focusing on the cultural identities of vulnerable groups, as in the case of the Roma population in Europe (Flecha & Soler, 2013). Transferability of Learning Communities and Successful Educational Actions for the Brazilian context has been studied by NIASE (Constantino; Marigo & Moreira, 2011; Author, 2009; Author, 2011). In this paper, we will focus on the data and analysis aimed at the impacts that the (SEA) may have to present to strengthen the identity of black children in Brazilian schools, as well as to improve their instrumental learning.

Methods
The project used communicative focus groups (Rue, Martínez, Flecha & Álvarez, 2014) to collect data about the implementation of SEAs with black and white teachers and black and white children (Constantino; Marigo & Moreira, 2011). Four communicative focus groups were conducted with thirty children aged eight years old, mostly involving black children and their teacher, and later, at another school, four communicative focus groups were conducted with six teachers (four black and two white) on SEAs and the strengthening of the identities of black children. The two schools had already been transformed into Learning Communities for more than two years.

Results
Data analysed throughout the research indicated the positive effects of SEAs, such as the use of dialogic literary gatherings (DLG) (Flecha et al., 2015), in Afro-Brazilian children’s learning and identities affirmation. In the data, the DLG were highlighted for allowing the establishment of dialogue between white and black children based on discussions of the stories of the national and universal classic literature about racism, friendship, courage, choices, etc. This generated and deepened the scope of reflection, self-reflection and the consensus for the rules of social coexistence in a learning community.

Scientific significance
This case study focused on the Brazilian educational context helps to highlight the transferability of Successful Educational Actions for schools on this region, supporting learning and identity development.

Authors

• Fabiana Marini Braga, Federal University of São Carlos

• Roseli Rodrigue de Mello, University of Sao Carlos

• Francisca de Lima Constantino, Universidade Federal de São Carlos