Experiential and Relational Dimensions in the Pedagogical Practice of Solidarity Economy: Insights from Brazil

Abstract

Giroux (1991) claims that a basic trait of an effective popular education methodology is that of being a “border pedagogy,” a pedagogical practice that de-centers participants from their own taken-for-granted realities, leading them to transform their identities and remap norms, meanings, social relations and subjectivities in an emancipatory manner. Adriana Hernández (1997) argues that at the core of such transformative process is the development of the capacity for “worldtraveling,” to mediate between the mainstream and oppressed groups, as well as to empathically understand the worldview and living conditions of the “other.” A basic question arising from Hernández and Giroux’s claims is how, and in what circumstances, do participants in popular education initiatives gain the skills necessary to become world-travelers. So far, the focus of analysis has been on the skills and attitudes necessary for educators/coordinators to assume such a role (Darder, 2002). It is therefore important to develop empirical, case study-based analyses ofthe kind oflife histories and dynamics between what Paulo Freire calls “coordinators” and “educatee-educators” that contribute to the development of world-traveling identities.