Through a different lens...

Thurs. 6/24
Today we visited the second of the two public schools that is partially funded by a private sector. This school, called NAVE happens to be sponsored by a phone company and is geared towards technology training. Both NATA and NAVE are model schools for the state of Rio and there is a third one that is in the works that will be geared towards marine biology and sea port jobs skills with related businesses that will sponsor it. At NAVE they see the teachers more as researchers so they have a lot of time where they are not in the classroom to do their research and to plan cross-curricularly (such as having students write, record, edit, and produce songs and screenplays about content knowledge such as the French Revolution for example.)…pretty cool stuff. Any student can attend but they have to take and do well on a test to get in. It sort of resembles our magnet schools and their acceptance rate is 30-1….more selective than Ivy League colleges. So even though it is a public school this testing-in situation still perpetuates a socioeconomic gap because you can imagine that for the most part only students who already attended good schools are going to have the knowledge base to get in. It was a shocking feeling walking into a school that is basically a techie’s playground (kind of resembled COSI or a museum…video games and computers in the lobby) which was such a contrast to yesterday’s school visit in the favela and it was sort of difficult to stomach. My feeling of amazement at the facilities and focus of the students was immediately met with a feeling of frustration and jaded-ness (?) at the comparison between these two schools. I suppose we have the same thing in the US but the contrast here just seems a lot greater. It just seems like they are selecting for somewhat privileged students even though it is a public school. As I mentioned before, they don’t have to pay tuition but it stands to reason that the majority of students who do well on the exam have had access to a decent primary education which is usually not a luxury afforded to kids in the favelas. Ahh….the inequalities of offering today’s youth access to quality education….therein lies the rub. But the good news is that the private businesses are “doing good” in at least giving some students an opportunity for a better education that they might have had otherwise.
After lunch we had the privilege of attending a sort of roundtable discussion ut the the systemic problems in the education system and this was with a professor (a friend of Tamo’s) at the Federal University of Rio de Janeiro. He, his colleague, and a few students of his were all there and they were very laid-back, informal yet very academic and intelligent people. And for the first time I really stopped in my tracks and thought about what I have the privilege to be a part of here in Rio. This is a true involved look at the issues surrounding social inequality in education in a still-developing country that really allows and forces me to make connections to and think critically about not only these issues but also those in the US (although it does make me incredibly thankful for many of the systems we do have in place.) Basically I just feel very blessed that my opportunities in education (thank you mom, dad and teachers!) have brought me here at this point in time and I just hope that the journey doesn’t end here.
Anyways….for those of you who are interested, here are some musings on these said issues….(Lauren Staley you would have loved to be in on this conversation….) There is a large stratification in public vs. private schools here and even more inequality in the public system itself. There is no geographic limitation on enrollment (i.e. districting) and kids can go anywhere they want. Yet, they still end up with black/white schools, etc. For example, a school right next to the favela may have a “darker, poorer” student population and there might be a school right across the street with “whiter” kids….and the researchers are asking WHY does this happen?

There is no accountability for the existence of this disparity. For me this kind of highlights the importance of assessment, evaluation and standardization of education especially in developing nations. Apparently in Brazil (Rio) the issue used to be access to education and now it has become the quality of education. As the budget increased 15 years ago the quality of education somehow went down. They discussed how teacher preparation plays a role in this and we found out that when teachers here graduate from university they are professionals meaning they really have no training period that they go through (like that of doctors or lawyers.) They only receive practical training by teaching 5 fifty-minute lessons over the course of 5 semesters. Practical “in the classroom” training is for some reason resisted and there are systems in place to mandate it. Most teachers work a 3-5different schools in order to make enough to live on (i.e. make minimum wage!) This in turn leaves little time for professional development or lesson planning. So being a teacher in Brazil is not unlike having to work several retail or food industry jobs in the US in order to support a family.
Well the academic discourse continued for about 2.5 hours and I will spare you the rest of the details but it was super interesting and very informative and really got me thinking a lot about issues in the education systems. It’s good to be able to look at things from this angle while having the in-classroom perspective as well I think.