ANTI-RACIST EDUCATION REFORM IN BRAZIL

Abstract

This report is the product of the collaboration between sixteen students in the Henry M. Jackson School of International Studies at the University of Washington under the guidance of Professor Jonathan Warren, and in consultation with Professor Rodrigo Peixoto. Having extensively researched and analyzed academic sources as well as teaching resources and media relating to Brazilian race relations and racism, we recommend the following: 1. Formally acknowledge the problem of racism within Brazilian society and take steps to correct it through education. 2. Further and broaden the implementation of laws 10.639/03 and 11.645/08 by moving beyond the simple teaching of history and expanding curriculum reform to other areas of the education sector. 3. Require the training of teachers in areas of multicultural and antiracist education. 4. Use the following teacher guide as a model by which to reform current education systems. 5. Begin small by implementing in the city of Belém with the eventual goal of implementing the project nation-wide . The purpose of this report is to provide a discussion of racial politics and a tool with which teachers can bring this discussion into their classrooms. Our goals are: to train educators how to deal with racism, to instruct both teachers and students in anti-racist practices and teach people how to valorize their own identities as well as those of the people around them.