Education by the Escola Nacional Florestan Fernandes as Transmodernization from Capitalist Consumerism

Educação da Escola Nacional Florestan Fernandes como Transmodernização ao Consumerismo Capitalista

ABSTRACT

Objective:

to analyze the critical debates raised by the Escola Nacional Florestan Fernandes (ENFF) in one of its courses, in order to highlight how this education fosters self-defense initiatives that marketing should acknowledge in consumerist discussions.

Theoretical approach:

the decolonial concept of transmodernity and Paulo Freire’s pedagogy of the oppressed are used to base our analysis.

Methods:

with a decolonial perspective as our guiding epistemology, we collected data from an online course offered by ENFF. Initially, the authors viewed all videos individually, and subsequently, discussed the pre-analyses. The second round of analysis included coding the data, so we could reach categories of analysis.

Results:

an approach aligned with the pedagogy of the oppressed is adopted by ENFF’s, since it: raises awareness of its students about the hegemonic structure that oppresses them; criticizes the illusion this oppressive structure creates about benefiting all, emphasizing that a rupture is only possible if the oppressed are behind it; and proposes a path beyond this oppressive structure, specifically through agroecology. The education by ENFF can thus be interpreted as a transmodernization from capitalist consumerism, given it foments, from subalternized settings, self-defense awareness among its students, who come from oppressed contexts.

Conclusions:

consumerism has been scantly questioned in marketing. However, its activism has been hardly able to deal with the racism, sexism, and coloniality associated to this concept. By presenting a form of educational perspective that resides outside of capitalist principles, a new self-defense model can be considered in the search to protect individuals from market forces.

Keywords:
consumerism; education; transmodernity; Movimento dos Trabalhadores Rurais Sem Terra (MST); Escola Nacional Florestan Fernandes