https://orcid.org/0000-0002-8498-5390
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ABSTRACT
Nearly two decades have passed since the Open Educational Resources (OER) movement was launched. Its success in Brazil can be illustrated with the establishment of a UNESCO Chair in Open Education in 2014, in one of the country’s most prestigious universities. Crucially, OER were included in the 2014–2024 National Education Plan, a key piece of national educational legislation, as a category of educational technologies framed as tools. Assuming metaphors such as this play a key role in the ways we think, speak and act, this article presents a critical perspective on OER in Brazil. Examining the implications of the main metaphors used to construe OER in local media and academic sources, the text argues that these metaphors reflect hegemonic discourses on educational technology, concealing the non-neutrality of technological artefacts, obscuring issues concerning curriculum and pedagogy, and overlooking actual local needs. The article discusses issues concerning local OER advocacy, positioned in respect to specificities of a context where education, albeit a constitutionally established right, may be poised to undergo radical changes in the near future.
Disclosure statement
No potential conflict of interest was reported by the authors.
Notes on cotributors
Giselle M. S. Ferreira is a Lecturer at PUC-Rio. Previously, she was a Lecturer at the Post-Graduate Programme in Education of the University Estácio de Sá, UNESA (2011-July 2018) and a Lecturer at the United Kingdom Open University, UKOU (1998–2013), where she was also a Visiting Researcher (2013–2016).
Márcio S. Lemgruber is a Lecturer at the Post-Graduate Programme in Education of the University Estácio de Sá since 2012. Previously, he was a Lecturer at the Department of Education of the Federal University of Juiz de Fora, UFJF (1991–2012).
ORCID
Giselle Martins dos Santos Ferreira http://orcid.org/0000-0002-8498-5390
Notes
1 See http://educacaoaberta.org.
2 The new president, who took office at the beginning of January this year, has already earned himself an entire section on The Guardian (https://www.theguardian.com/world/jair-bolsonaro). Concerning education, specifically, a new minister has already been appointed, following public outcry against his predecessor’s inability to manage one the largest budgets in the country, amongst other charges (c.f. https://www.theguardian.com/world/2019/apr/09/brazil-replaces-far-right-education-minister-with-conspiracy-theorist).
3 For 2019, government has spent in excess of 1.1 Billion Brazilian Reais (approximately US$ 280 Million) in textbooks through the National Didactic Book Programme (c.f. https://www.fnde.gov.br/index.php/programas/programas-do-livro/pnld/dados-estatisticos).
4 Local commentators are particularly concerned with plans to legalise distance learning at all levels of compulsory education (currently permitted only in a few cases) and home schooling (whilst school-based public education is a constitutional right) – c.f. https://www1.folha.uol.com.br/internacional/en/brazil/2019/01/government-seeks-to-legalize-homeschooling-with-executive-order.shtml.
5 This scenario may change in the near future, as companies like Kroton, the ‘market leader’ in private HE in Brazil, have begun to invest on the compulsory education sector, following changes in funding for HE that have made this a less desirable sector for private investment (c.f. https://www.competitionpolicyinternational.com/brazil-cade-approves-without-restriction-the-purchase-of-somos-by-kroton/).
6 Recent public mobilisation in defence of public education illustrates the extent to which these values are shared (c.f. https://www.theguardian.com/world/2019/may/31/students-protest-across-brazil-over-jair-bolsonaros-sweeping-cuts-to-education). Other sources suggest over one million people took to the streets in the second protest (c.f. https://www.brasildefato.com.br/2019/05/30/30m-atos-em-defesa-da-educacao-terminam-com-chamado-a-greve-geral-de-14-de-junho/).
7 Portuguese word that may mean ‘teacher’ or ‘lecturer’ (or ‘professor’, if appropriately qualified).
8 See ‘Sobre’ section on http://educacaoaberta.org/.
9 e.g., http://aberta.org.br.
11 This is widely disseminated locally by EdTech and innovation sites such as Porvir (http://porvir.org/ – also available in English at http://porvir.org/en/) and StartSe (https://www.startse.com/), particularly popular sources here for all actors involved in educational ‘innovation’.
12 This metaphor positions students as a blank page upon which the teacher’s voice prints knowledge.
13 At the time of writing, the new government has completed little over five months in power.
14 Growing sectarianism and conservatism, especially amongst the neo-Pentecostal sector, is epitomised by the Minister of Families, Women and Human Rights, a preacher known to some as the Brazilian ‘Aunt Lydia’ (in an allusion to Margaret Atwood’s novel The Handmaid’s Tale). Also, USarian alt-right anti-intellectualism has begun to take roots in the country, with ‘cultural Marxism’ as well as other strange notions to be found in the talk and writings of government officials (e.g., the newly-appointed minister of Education and, to the horror of educated Brazilians, the minister of External Relations).
15 Data-driven technologies have begun to be actively and strongly promoted in Brazil for various purposes, including educational uses (for a sample of the type of ‘hype’ at stake here, see https://www.wired.co.uk/article/claudio-sassaki-wired-2015) and, as announced recently by the ultra-neoliberal Minister of the Economy, replacement for civil servants set to retire within the next few years, in a move to minimize central State costs (c.f. https://odia.ig.com.br/colunas/servidor/2019/03/5630539-para-a-uniao--reduzir-concursos-e-investir-em-tecnologia-e-necessidade-da-realidade-mundial.html#foto=1). This is consistent with the scenario of radical neoliberal experimentation envisaged by some local commentators.
16 Or, perhaps, further legislation needs to be passed, considering ‘a singularly Brazilian characteristic of insisting that everything related to Higher Education is better served if constitutionalised and transformed into a law’, as Nunes (Citation2012, 163) puts it.
17 c.f. https://g1.globo.com/educacao/noticia/2019/05/27/plano-nacional-de-educacao-esta-com-80percent-das-metas-estagnadas-diz-estudo.ghtml (in Portuguese). The Guardian has an interesting selection of articles focused on Brazil that cover a few key issues within local current affairs (c.f. https://www.theguardian.com/world/brazil).