Paulo Freire in the rubber trees of Acre: the liberating education of the Rubber Project

Abstract

The article presented here reports and analyzes the first experience of adult education based on the Paulo Freire method in the Amazon, which took place in the State of Acre. The experience took place in the Nazaré rubber plantation in the early 1980s in the municipality of Xapuri, with an audience of rubber tappers who fought against the advance of cattle ranching in their territories. This public was linked to the Xapuri Rural Workers Union – STR. The experience was systematized in the Rubber Project, which operated until 1989. It was the basis for the formulation, in the early 1990s, of a school model for children and adolescents from the rubber plantations, equivalent to the official Elementary School in force in the country. In writing this article, we followed a mixed methodology based on bibliographic research, field research and memories lived as a co-founder of Rubber Project.

Keywords

• paulo freire
• rubber tappers
• rural workers union
• liberation theology
• adult literacy.