In times of neocolonialism: School without party or School departed?

Abstract

In this paper, we aim to discuss the perspectives and projections of the “Escola sem Partido” (EsP - School without Party) movement, which emerged in Brasil in 2004 and gained momentum in the scenario of more recent conservative attacks, singling out an “education without indoctrination” as its main agenda. The movement defends a model of schooling characterized as “without party”. We base our discussions on Decolonial Pedagogy (Oliveira, 2016; Walsh, 2009), since we understand the EsP as a new way of colonizing our schools, with ideas that would once again serve the interests of groups closely related to the ones that were and still are benefited by high-level education since the period of colonization. Moreover, we resort to Foucault’s (2004) concept of disciplinary society to think about the control mechanisms over teachers’ work proposed by the EsP. We briefly historicize different school contexts in Brazil, underlying the inseparability of power, politics and education. Our analysis suggests that the conservative forces connected with neoliberal projects have engaged in an all-out attack against public education, endangering both significant political achievements and the concept of democracy in educational environments.