Cuidar da educação, da cultura e de si: horizontes de uma experiência de resgate da cultura popular na escola

Supported by Culture Psychology, the present study aims to understand the principles of a new educational practice that rescues popular culture in the school scope as a way to contribute to the consideration of the nexus between education and culture. The investigated context is Morro Vermelho, an agricultural community in the city of Caete, state of Minas Gerais, which is known for the vitality of its traditions. A semi-structured interview was conducted with the principal of the community’s municipal school. She is the main idealizer of the project that aimed to transform the relationship between the school and the local culture. In the phenomenological data analysis, the focus was on the apprehension of the dynamism of conscience as it gives meaning to life experiences. Concerning the results, two categories that represent the motivations that guided that pioneering initiative were found: a) to take care of the culture that one recognizes as a part of oneself; b) to foster children’s participation in culture as a way of taking care of their present and future. The results reveal the prominence of the first category, showing the reason why making popular culture become a source of education is taken as the school’s obligation, and leading to the confirmation of the educator’s importance in the revival of the relationship between school education and popular culture. It is the personal acknowledgement of the enrootedness in the tradition of which one is an heir that allows one to act favoring both the strengthening of culture and the recovery of the legitimacy of the educational practice that happens at the scholastic institution.