Indigenous school education and community projects for the future

Abstract

This article reports on a study on the school of an indigenous community and the aspirations for the future of the people who are part of it. The main problem we sought to address focused on the distinguishing characteristics of indigenous school education and conventional school education in Brazil. Our background concern was to bring elements that could elucidate to what extent indigenous communities have autonomy to define school processes that overcome the colonialist character of conventional education. Therefore, we looked for a type of school that intervenes directly on the living conditions of the people it provides educational services with. The main ethnographic work was conducted at Khumuno Wʉ'ʉ Kotiria Indigenous Municipal School, in the territory of the indigenous Kotiria, in São Gabriel da Cachoeira municipality, Amazonas state, Brazilian Amazon region. The information was collected mainly through direct observation and records of informal conversations over a period of four months in Caruru Cachoeira, the largest Kotiria community in Brazil. The results consist of the description of the remarkable characteristics of school practices, and lead to the conclusion that this local group, when planning their school objectives, reflects on what they want for their future and the future of their community, which makes their school the main space for community meeting, debate and intervention in current and future living conditions.