Schools, Land, and Power: Education and Brazil’s Landless Workers Movement

Abstract

This essay reviews two recent books on the role of education in Brazil’s Landless Workers Movement (MST), a far-reaching social movement that advocates for agrarian reform and social welfare of the rural poor. The first book, Occupying Schools, Occupying Land: How the Landless Workers Movement Transformed Brazilian Education by Rebecca Tarlau offers an insightful examination of how the MST worked to reclaim formal education from their oppressors, establishing schools within their settlements, and developing tertiary education opportunities for members to train as both leaders and teachers. The Political Ecology of Education by David Meek explores the educational forces shaping the movement’s land ethic, with a focus on adult education, agroecology and foodways. Both Tarleau and Meek highlight the ways in which the MST promoted action learning and self-knowledge in creating meaningful and lasting education in Brazil’s countryside.