Pixel International Conferences

The paper presents the institutional framework of the Indigenous Schools in Brazil, it raises the issues represented by the relationship between the school as institution and the transmission of  Indigenous culture, considering the complexity of the structure of the Indigenous population in Brazil, divided in more than 306 ethnic groups, and given the intercultural relations established with the European colonizers. 

It also present the field work related to a specific Indigenous school in the community of Nova Esperança, predominantly made up of the Baré ethnic group and located on the Cuieiras River – a tributary of the Rio Negro – 80 kilometers (km) from Manaus, in Amazonia. Nova Esperança is “Pisasú Sarusawa” in Nheengatu, Ñe'engatu o Ñeengatú  also known as the general language of the Amazon. The interview with  the school director develops the topic how indigenous education can be useful in the passage from school to work, promoting at the same time community development, employment and sustainability in respect to the environment. This is facilitated by the fact that the Baré community is located within the Puranga Conquista Sustainable Development Reserve (RDS), managed by the government of the State of Amazonas.    

Indigenous education represents a tool for assuring a successful  passage from school to work to the new generations of Bare.  l fitting into the projects of sustainable development that are foreseen for the area, thanks also to the location in the Sustainable Development Reserve (RDS) Puranga Conquista. However, as the school director points out, sustainability is nowadays a global issue: the experience of Nova Esperança is consequently at the same time local and part of a global trend. 

The Indigenous schools represent a great potential to develop original pedagogical practices in the field of intercultural education that can impact as well the transition from school to work not only in Brazil but in different contexts where Indigenous people live. The case of the community of Nova Esperança is an example going in this direction.