As práticas educativas não-formais nas histórias de vida LGBTQIAPN+ em assentamentos do Movimento Sem Terra no Rio Grande do Norte

Abstract

This dissertation investigates how non-formal educational practices have contributed to the formation of LGBTQIAPN+ identities within camps and settlements connected to the Landless Workers' Movement (MST) in the state of Rio Grande do Norte, Brazil. The research is guided by three main objectives: (a) to understand the MST’s struggles for land and the specific challenges faced by the LGBT community in organizing their own political movement; (b) to examine, through the personal memories of the interviewees, the elements in their life stories that shaped either the repression or the affirmation of dissident identities; and (c) to explore how the creation of inclusive spaces for sexual diversity within MST territories has fostered non-formal educational practices that, in turn, support the emergence and affirmation of new identities. To that end, I put forward the argument of this dissertation is that non-formal educational practices have played a key role in disrupting the social asymmetry between sexual and gender dissidences and the traditional identity of MST settlers and landless workers. This qualitative, participatory study constructs a narrative based on the life stories of LGBTQIAPN+ individuals whose trajectories intersect with the MST. The context of the life histories was analyzed according to of oral history and gender and sexuality studies, with particular attention to the educational practices developed by and within the MST in collaboration with the Landless LGBT Collective. The theoretical framework draws on a range of authors and concepts: Oral History and Memory (Alberti, 2013; Halbwachs, 2006; Portelli, 1993, 2010; Nora, 1993; Pollak, 1989; Sarlo, 2007); the Landless Workers' Movement (Fernandes, 2000; Cruz, 2010; Gohn, 2006); Gender and Sexuality Studies (Louro, 1997; Butler, 2010; Eribon, 2008; Preciado, 2020; Quinalha, 2018; Foucault, 2004; Bento, 2017); Non-formal Education (Freire, 1980, 1982, 1997, 2013; Caldart, 2001; Gadotti, 2005; Estevam, 2021); and discussions on Heterotopias, Utopias, and Mysticism (Foucault, 2000, 2013; Coelho, 2014; Chaves, 2022; Bogo, 2002), as well as MST’s pedagogical materials and booklets (1986, 2001, 2017, 2021).This interplay of seemingly contrasting elements gave rise to alternative spaces (understood here in Foucauldian terms) that profoundly influenced experiences of political struggle, labor, and identity. These spaces enabled the recognition of diversity, challenged prejudice, and fostered transformative practices. The narratives presented here underscore the role of non-formal educational practices in bridging the social divide between sexual and gender dissidences and the collective identity of those who live and fight for land.