CONSTELAÇÃO DE SABERES
Cristine Takuá
28 de março de 2024
Photo: Vhera Poty
In educational processes, and not only in them, but also in human relationships, I miss affection and concentration, care and attention!
This makes me realise that the school institution is not making sense! This school model prioritises writing, reading, numbers, a flood of ephemeral information, empty of poetic and practical meaning for the lives of children and young people.
I've been thinking and dreaming about Living Schools, which value everyone's potential in their own delicate essence. Which dialogue about the values of being in the territories in a beautiful and balanced way. Which talk about the arts, healing, chanting and the enchantment of this life that pulses with every new dawn.
For twelve years, I was a teacher at the indigenous state school in my community. Those were years of struggles and challenges, a constant attempt to balance the toughness and the beauty of this long journey. As a philosophy teacher, but also a history, sociology and geography teacher, I always enjoyed drawing, going out and walking with the students, seeing the forest, listening and learning from beyond the books.
And along the way I was part of a very strong process of demanding rights to guarantee the qualification of indigenous teachers in an indigenous intercultural degree programme.
Para isso, formamos um grupo de trabalho e, durante dois anos, ficamos dialogando, debatendo e construindo o PPP, o Projeto Político Pedagógico, para o curso. Nesse processo do GT que deu origem ao PPP da licenciatura que sonhamos, desenvolvemos o conceito da “constelação curricular”, para fugir da ideia de grade, onde todos os saberes ficam divididos, fragmentados e presos.
Thinking of a sky that produces knowledge and, from that point on, articulating knowledge and practices will be the great differential of this qualification, which will bring a lot of strength to the indigenous territories of São Paulo. The course will be organised through alternating between university time and community time.
After much struggle, in March this year the qualification course began at Unifesp in Santos, a historic moment for indigenous peoples living in São Paulo.
I was invited to offer the inaugural lecture together with Carlos Papá on the first day of the degree programme. It was a very special moment because, having been out of the classroom for two years, I was able to reflect on my concerns about the school, the mental monoculture and the challenges I had experienced during the time I was teaching and, at the same time, I fought intensely to guarantee an educational process that respected the time of each culture.
During community time, each undergraduate student has to do an internship under the guidance of a teacher, who can also be a spiritual leader, a connoisseur of the culture or a member of the local school. I was surprised when a young student asked me to be his supervisor at the Guarani Living School with the coordinator Carlos Papá. This is a transformative moment for education and the strengthening of ancestral memories.
The Living Schools have blossomed like a breath of inspiration, a multicoloured sowing that activates the energies of teachers who are often tired of the constant challenges. We hope that, as a result of this collective walk, they will be encouraged to weave together plots of narratives, knowledge and possibilities for dreaming further.
Drawing: Fabiano Kuaray