Cooperative Work in Freinet Pedagogy and its contributions to pedagogical practice in the early years of fundamental education
RIAEE – Revista Ibero-Americana de Estudos em Educação, Araraquara, v. 19, n. 00, e024097, 2024. e-ISSN: 1982-5587
DOI: https://doi.org/10.21723/riaee.v19i00.17577 14
[…] we don't have that old banking education, of course, but we carry a lot
of the traditional. So, if we don't learn, if we don't have this contact with the
new, with this school, in which the student is the protagonist, the student
builds, he has this autonomy, we are left with a foothold in the traditional
and sometimes we don't even realize it. So, really for me it was a
metamorphosis, it was a total change that made complete sense (Valéria,
teacher, our translation).
We can observe in Valéria's speech that, even though the teacher knows, for example,
Freire's concept of banking education, and is aware that he needs to work in a different way, he
tends to work “with a little emphasis on the traditional”, even without be aware of this. So,
according to the teacher, it is necessary for the teacher to learn more, seek more knowledge,
trying to exercise praxis, to have contact with the new, which according to her, is the school
that sees the student as the protagonist and subject of the construction of their learning.
The lack of resources to work with Freinet Pedagogy is the third challenge identified by
the discussion group participants. Freinet (1985), in his book “Pedagogy of good sense”, already
denounced the scarce resources in schools. Teachers who also work in the public education
network reported difficulties in working with Freinet pedagogy, when resources are limited.
However, although this can be a challenge, the participants point out that there are possibilities
for working with Freinetean principles within a public school. In this regard, Professor Lúcia
reports:
[…] my room at public school is a Freinetean classroom. Vilma asked me a
few things at school, I sent her a photo, she said: “Wow, I see a Freinet
blackboard ”. Why? Because, that's how I know how to work, I don't know
how to work with those concepts, that bunch of activities where the child can't
think, and is there a way to do that in public schools? Yes. Unlike our school,
which has a different structure, but making the child think does not depend on
money, does not depend on school, it depends on who is thinking and setting
these goals for this learning to happen. So, I think we can work, I don't know
how to work any other way, so my vision is the vision of Freinet Pedagogy
(Lúcia, teacher, our translation).
Lúcia's speech highlights that even though she does not have all the resources necessary
to develop the Freinet proposal in the public school where she works, she bases her practice on
the assumptions of Freinet Pedagogy, seeking more meaningful learning for the student. It
argues that even in adverse situations, the teacher can set goals and work to make this learning
happen, signaling the importance of the teacher's intentionality in relation to the practices
developed in the classroom. Almeida et al. (2021) endorses this idea, as they state that it is
essential for the learning process that the teacher's intentionality is present at all times. In this