Black Movement and Education in Brazil: Decentering Leucocratic School Culture to Denounce a False Paradise

• In Event: Research Focus on Black Education Paper Session

Abstract

Black social activists and/or anti-racist educators in Brazil are celebrating two decades since Federal Law 10.639/03 was enacted by President Lula da Silva on January 9, 2003. This law reformed the national K-12 curriculum and made the teaching of African and Afro-Brazilian history and culture mandatory in Brazilian public and private schools. This paper views this legal landmark as a radical shift in Brazilian curriculum policy and argues that Black social organizations were crucial to the passage of a national law to include Afro-Brazilian history and culture in the national education curriculum. Thus, I argue that this struggle potentially acted to decenter the leucocratic school culture in public education. What can the African Diaspora learn from the Afro-Brazilian experience?

Author

• Thiago dos Santos Molina, Universidade de Sao Paulo