ESHURIAN PEDAGOGY OF TERREIRO: Decolonizing School Knowledge
Pedagogy of Terreiro; Echu; Teacher Training.
Pedagogy of Terreiro is a transformative epistemology that can contribute towards the development of subjects. Why not introduce the knowledge that cuts across this theory to schools? This interventional study analyzes knowledge constructed within the terreiros, or places of worship, of Candomblé linked to the appropriation of values, behavior, memories, and representations. With a view to strengthening singular ethnic identity, it goes against the fact that schools fail to dialogue with other ways of being considered to be outside the social norm. These times demand other epistemologies, which are open and whose circular movements nourish and provide feedback to becomings in the development of a subject whose identity is hybrid and fleeting. To this end, our understanding of terreiro goes beyond tradition. This interventional study draws on the Pedagogy of Terreiro based on Eshu, which evokes criticism of the current education model that legitimizes a colonial culture of intolerance and racism. It uses qualitative methods comprising a literature review and the analysis of teachers’ accounts of their experiences on the continuing training course: “Pedagogy of Ancestry and Terreiro: Anti-racial, decolonizing practices and the implementation of Law 10.639/2003”. One of the fruits of this course was the production of a documentary that will serve as a teaching resource for future teacher training courses to be held in the “Discovery Coast”, Bahia, Brazil.