Costura da vida: encounters between Community Social Psychology and Rural Education in the Denis Gonçalves Settlement of the MST

Abstract

This article reports an experience in Community and Social Psychology with the first group of "Youth and Adult Education Program'', in a school in the Denis Gonçalves settlement of the Landless Rural Workers Movement (MST), which culminated in the construction of the memoir Costura da vida: história de vida do homem e da mulher da roça. Based on the discussion about the impact of the latifundium on the Brazilian social formation and the possible relationships between Community and Social Psychology and Rural Education, the methodological paths and insertion in the territory are presented, emphasizing the relationship between the subjects and the use of several psychosocial intervention strategies and registration: field diary, photographs, community walk, group dynamics and construction of the memoir. As a result of the experience and the construction of the book, the importance of rescuing memory and recording the daily history told by students is emphasized for the strengthening of personal and community identity. It also highlights the role that these experiences have in the construction of a committed and fair Psychology in face of the reality, especially that of rural communities, and those dialogues with different knowledge and disciplines.

Keywords

• community social psychology
• rural education
• adult and youth education
• memory
• identity
• social movements.