Autonomy as Praxis in the Brazilian Landless Workers Movement

• In Event: Education's Autonomy: Perspectives on Locality

Abstract

The current neoliberal discourse attributes great significance to autonomy in public education. In many ways, this attribution reflects neoliberalism’s conjecture that individuals ought to be responsible for all aspects of their lives, whether they have the conditions and resources to assume such responsibility or not. In fact, one could argue that autonomy is now considered the new orthodoxy within pedagogical transformation debates at a systemic and individual level, posited either as a discipline, a consequence of “successful” education, or a personal aspiration. However, for those familiar with progressive discussions in education, the present functionalist neoliberal view on autonomy represents a far cry from the discursive treatment it receives as a civic and democratic goal.

In his last published work while alive, Pedagogia da Autonomia, Freire revisited many concepts that encircled his dialogic education to identify what autonomy means across articulations of teaching and learning. This revisitation has been influential in various educational initiatives in Brazil attentive to the role autonomy as praxis plays in decision-making processes. Yet, as much as Freire has discoursed on the subject throughout his oeuvre, autonomy remains one of the most criticized and least understood aspects of his rich philosophical output. For instance, many of his critics believe the Brazilian pedagogue did not go far enough to adequately address the inherent tension between autonomy and directivity concerning the establishment of authority. Others, perhaps influenced by Anglo-Saxon strands of critical pedagogy’s readings of Freire’s works, consider Freire’s discourse masquerading as another form of indoctrinating authoritarianism working under autonomy’s banner.

In light of Freire’s critics on the subject of autonomy and to clarify the extent to which his ideas still resonate with educational initiatives in Brazil today, I examine Freire’s theorizations on autonomy articulated more prominently in Pedagogia da Autonomia. I aim to grasp the dimension of autonomy as a polysemic curricular and pedagogical component of Freire’s grassroots educational theory, paying particular attention to the endeavors of the Landless Workers Movement (MST) in Brazil, as it is largely influenced by Freire’s theories. Autonomy cuts across five areas of pedagogical practice enacted by the movement, at different levels: work, social struggle, collective organization, culture (including teaching landless workers to read and write and organizing formal learning sites, such as the Popular University of Social Movements (PUSM)), and history. I also register the tensions that arise from within the movement’s organicism concerning the associative modalities it affords participants as a way to gauge the present history of the uptake of Freire’s emancipatory theories.

Stated as praxis, autonomy, at least in Freire’s view, does not suggest an ideology-free, rational, logical, or independent objective easily applicable to education. It is, however, to a lesser or greater degree, intentional. Hence, the gnoseological attributes of autonomy always respond and change according to human and nonhuman contingencies. For as long as the future is not predetermined, one must decide, struggle and choose over what will be built and assume responsibility for it. Decisions towards building a desirable future translates, therefore, into autonomy, as Freire maintained.

Author

• Sandro Barros, Michigan State University
  Presenting Author