{"id":31298,"date":"2016-09-21T08:00:04","date_gmt":"2016-09-21T11:00:04","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.rioonwatch.org\/?p=31298"},"modified":"2016-10-05T06:27:28","modified_gmt":"2016-10-05T09:27:28","slug":"state-teachers-in-rios-favelas-describe-challenges-and-hope-for-change","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/rioonwatch.org\/?p=31298","title":{"rendered":"State Teachers in Rio’s Favelas Describe Challenges and Hope for Change"},"content":{"rendered":"

Clique aqui para Portugu\u00eas\"\"<\/em><\/strong><\/a><\/p>\n

Teacher discontent and demoralization in Rio de Janeiro is growing. After\u00a0four months, a strike coordinated by the state teachers union<\/a> recently ended. The striking teachers were demanding an increase in wage and more investment in education<\/a>. While many gaps exist within the education system in Rio de Janeiro, teachers and school professionals are creating their own solutions<\/a> to ensure students\u2019 success.<\/p>\n

While education is a popular profession in Brazil, some teachers don\u2019t feel prepared for the job after graduating. A recent study conducted for Todos Pela Educa\u00e7\u00e3o<\/a>, an education NGO, found that teacher training courses in Brazil are\u00a0very theoretical, as opposed to practical courses which prepare teachers to work in classrooms.<\/p>\n

Not all teaching courses are equal. Zena Eisenberg, a professor of education and psychology at the Pontifical Catholic University (PUC) of Rio de Janeiro, explains: \u201cThe number\u00a0of teachers that are graduating\u00a0with a degree, but\u00a0a very poor degree, is huge. They are going into the classroom, they\u2019re dealing with children, and they don\u2019t know what to do. They don\u2019t have the training.\u201d<\/p>\n

Josimar Rosa, an English teacher at that state school CIEP Elis Regina says he felt prepared to teach in an ideal classroom, but not in the\u00a0reality of his school in Mar\u00e9<\/a>, a favela in Rio’s North Zone<\/a>. The prospect of teaching in favelas, like Mar\u00e9, represents a further\u00a0challenge for teachers.<\/p>\n

\"Photo<\/a><\/p>\n

The problems begin with the placement process. When applying for a job in\u00a0a state school within Rio, teachers select an area of the city where they\u2019d like to work and receive a list of choices to pick from. For new teachers, those schools are usually located in favelas that lack adequate school staff. Despite a huge diversity\u00a0in the 1,000 favelas in Rio de Janeiro, stigma<\/a> around violence, drugs, and crime prevails, and teaching in a favela is sometimes the first time a teacher enters a favela.<\/p>\n

The process places\u00a0teachers to work\u00a0in areas\u00a0with different socio-cultural groups, often\u00a0facing a different reality to\u00a0their own, even for teachers\u00a0from the favela. Monique Silva, a lifelong resident of Mar\u00e9 and teacher at CIEP Elis Regina says, \u201cWhen I came to work here, even though I had lived in Mar\u00e9 the whole time\u2026 it was a reality that in a way wasn\u2019t part of my reality. There are various Mar\u00e9s within Mar\u00e9.\u201d<\/p>\n

Teachers in favelas receive a small bonus and can request to be moved to a different state school after a few years, resulting in a high turnover rate of teachers that can disrupt stability for students.<\/p>\n

Within the same school in Mar\u00e9, teachers said\u00a0violence<\/a>\u00a0was their biggest challenge. The school is located in an area between sectors controlled by two different gangs. Conflict between the two, as well as operations by the Military Police<\/a>, cause the school to cancel classes or close early, meaning students in the favela get less time in the classroom. Mar\u00e9 has a tumultuous relationship with security forces. The military occupied the community<\/a> during the 2014 World Cup, and now the Military Police<\/a> routinely conducts\u00a0operations<\/a> in the community, invading homes. Luiz Loren\u00e7o, a teacher at a different school in Mar\u00e9, explains that\u00a0these operations negatively affect education<\/a> in the community by creating a difficult study environment.<\/p>\n

To work around these challenges, CIEP Elis Regina\u2019s administrative staff arrives early every morning to assess the security situation and decide whether or not to open that day. In order to guarantee\u00a0this assessment time, the school petitioned to delay their start time from 7am to 8am. When the Military Police plan a \u201csurprise\u201d operation within Mar\u00e9, administrators can decide to close the school early, ensuring both teachers and students are out of the area. While both gangs and police respect the school, teachers reported instances where they were trapped in the school during a conflict, unable to leave.<\/p>\n

\"alunos-se-protegem-de-tiroteio-no-complexo-da-mare-original\"<\/a><\/p>\n

Violence in the community affects students even when they are not in school. In an interview in 2013<\/a>, Susana S\u00e1 Gutierrez, another teacher at CIEP Elis Regina, explained the \u201cchaos\u201d in her classroom after a police operation resulted in ten deaths in Mar\u00e9<\/a>. She said students were upset and \u201cinsisted on spending the entire time talking about what had happened that morning\u2014the beatings, the shots, knives in the throat.\u201d<\/p>\n

Many teachers also feel that the curriculum is a problem in Rio\u2019s educational system. With different mandates from the federal, state, and municipal governments, teachers are not always sure which guidelines to follow. Rio de Janeiro uses workbooks for each grade level, and not all teachers are trained to use them. Early this year, when students began occupying high schools<\/a>, they found classrooms full of such materials. Some in the educational community speculate they were unused because\u00a0teachers did not know how to use them.<\/p>\n

If teacher preparedness is questionable, lack of teachers is a precursory problem. Suzanna da Silva, a mother of six in Vidigal<\/a>, a favela in Rio\u2019s South Zone<\/a>, describes the lack of teachers in public schools in Vidigal, saying, \u201cThe teachers miss class more than the students.\u201d Four months of a teacher strike augmented this problem.<\/p>\n

\"Claudio<\/a><\/p>\n

Maria Aparecida Rocha de Camargo, coordinator at the Claudio Besserman Vianna Bussunda school in the West Zone<\/a> community of Rio das Pedras<\/a> describes a similar lack of teachers. \u201cWe started the year missing nine teachers,\u201d she says. This resulted in a class staying home for two months. The school\u2019s solution was to have teachers cover extra classes until someone could be found to join the staff.<\/p>\n

Lack of schools is another problem, resulting in large class sizes. The Claudio Besserman Vianna Bussunda school serves 1,300 students from grades 1-5. However, it is running over capacity, hosting three sessions a day. Schools in Brazil usually hold a morning session and a separate afternoon session, but to accommodate the large number of students, the school also hosts an evening session that runs from 4pm to 7pm every day.<\/p>\n

Teachers frequently make sacrifices, from small to large. Dorot\u00e9a Frota Santana, coordinator of SEPE, the state teacher\u2019s union<\/a>, describes the lack of resources in schools, saying: \u201cAt\u00a0the beginning of the year, the teachers have to buy markers to write on the board.\u201d She describes her experience teaching in City of God<\/a> for 28 years, describing how\u00a0the lack of security and abandonment by the government \u201cemotionally affects\u201d the teachers.<\/p>\n

Government investment is a tense topic among some teachers, who have not received an overdue, legally guaranteed pay increase since 2014. In June, the governor of Rio de Janeiro state declared a \u201cpublic calamity<\/a>\u201d over finances. Despite the crisis, investments in the Olympics continued<\/a>. \u201cEverything is more important than investing in education,\u201d says Silva in Mar\u00e9. \u201cThey end up investing a lot in [mega-events<\/a>] and education is seen as less important<\/a>. There are a million things to do in the school and we don\u2019t have investment.\u201d<\/p>\n

\"Olympics<\/a><\/p>\n

Teachers have their own ideas about what investments they\u2019d like to see in Rio\u2019s education system. \u201c[The government] invests in these big events, and education and health<\/a> get abandoned. They are essential areas,\u201d says Santana. She\u2019d like to see upgrades in the school, like air conditioning, and the construction of more schools to address the large student population. She\u2019d also like to see more appreciation of teachers, \u201cprofessionals who are there day-to-day.\u201d<\/p>\n

The teacher strike aimed to address teachers\u2019 discontent. Teachers successfully demanded the end to SAERJ, one government-mandated test. Negotiations between the teachers\u2019 union and the government continue; the strike ended July 26<\/a>. Before the end of the strike, one teacher committed suicide.<\/a><\/p>\n

Despite the challenges in front of them, many teachers feel positive about the future.\u00a0\u201cI feel like I can make a difference,\u201d says Silva. \u201cEven if it\u2019s a small difference.\u201d When asked if she felt hopeful about the future, Santana said, \u201cCertainly. I fight every day.\u201d<\/p>\n

\u201cEducation is the base of everything,\u201d according to de Camargo in Rio das Pedras. \u201cWithout education, nobody would prosper.\u201d<\/p>\n

Raven Hayes is a graduate student in the Latin American, Caribbean, and Iberian Studies program at the University of Wisconsin-Madison. Her research focuses educational development and the intersection of schools, poverty, and community. <\/em><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Clique aqui para Portugu\u00eas Teacher discontent and demoralization in Rio de Janeiro is growing. After\u00a0four months, a strike coordinated by the state teachers union recently ended. The striking teachers were demanding an increase in wage […]<\/a><\/p>\n<\/div>","protected":false},"author":118,"featured_media":32728,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_monsterinsights_skip_tracking":false,"_monsterinsights_sitenote_active":false,"_monsterinsights_sitenote_note":"","_monsterinsights_sitenote_category":0,"footnotes":""},"categories":[1288,335,329,328,1329],"tags":[9,1114,258,280,397,1259,918,37,5,809,1019,1445,156,375,1132,1018,1017,363,21,167],"writer":[2110],"translator":[],"illustrator":[],"photographer":[],"class_list":{"0":"post-31298","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-highlight","8":"category-policies","9":"category-solutions","10":"category-understanding-rio","11":"category-by-international-observers","12":"tag-9","13":"tag-ciep","14":"tag-community-solution","15":"tag-complexo-da-mare","16":"tag-education","17":"tag-mega-events","18":"tag-military-police","19":"tag-north-zone","20":"tag-olympics","21":"tag-public-security","22":"tag-right-to-education","23":"tag-rio-das-pedras","24":"tag-south-zone","25":"tag-state-government","26":"tag-strike","27":"tag-teachers-strike","28":"tag-childrens-rights","29":"tag-vidigal","30":"tag-west-zone","31":"tag-world-cup","32":"writer-raven-hayes"},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/rioonwatch.org\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/31298","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/rioonwatch.org\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/rioonwatch.org\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/rioonwatch.org\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/118"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/rioonwatch.org\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=31298"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/rioonwatch.org\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/31298\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/rioonwatch.org\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/media\/32728"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/rioonwatch.org\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=31298"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/rioonwatch.org\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=31298"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/rioonwatch.org\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=31298"},{"taxonomy":"writer","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/rioonwatch.org\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fwriter&post=31298"},{"taxonomy":"translator","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/rioonwatch.org\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftranslator&post=31298"},{"taxonomy":"illustrator","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/rioonwatch.org\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fillustrator&post=31298"},{"taxonomy":"photographer","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/rioonwatch.org\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fphotographer&post=31298"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}