INDIGENOUS SCHOOL EDUCATION IN BRAZIL: A CRITICAL ANALYSIS TAKING AS POINT OF DEPARTURE THE TWENTY YEARS OF THE LAW OF DIRECTIVES AND BASES FOR NATIONAL EDUCATION

Abstract

This article aims at causing a reflection on the trajectory of Indigenous school Education in Brazil, taking as point of departure the twenty years of the Law of Directives and Bases for National Education (Portuguese: Lei de Diretrizes e Bases da Educação Nacional), Law 9394/96, as well as both backward and forward steps that took place during such historical period. Resulted from a process of organization and struggles of indigenous peoples and social movements, Indigenous School Education has been built from a tough dialectical process, which involved the Brazilian indigenous population, social movements and educational institutions along with the participation of scholars and researchers, majored in indigenous issues. Thanks to the involvement of all these social actors, conquests have taken place during these twenty years. Nevertheless, backward steps have also been present in the core of the transformations occurred in the mentioned time. Therefore, in this article, we intend to contribute to the national debate concerning the indigenous issues, pointing out the elements that contributed and/or impaired the process of consolidation of the Indigenous school educational policy in Brazil.