Collusion, resistance, and reflexivity: indigenous teacher education in Brazil
Abstract This article begins with an account of a teacher education course based in a Guarani community in the south of Brazil. This course was developed as an action research project, with time set aside for reflection on the practice of teacher education. In the main body of the article, I show how the project was gradually refocussed towards the study of “crosscultural” interaction. This refocussing was a consequence of the interactional difficulties that emerged in the course. I also describe how we, as teacher educators, became aware that the Guarani teachers working with us had quite a different agenda from ours and, as a result, recast our analyses of the “crosscultural” misunderstandings to take account of these divergent interests and the wider political context of the oppression of indigenous people in Brazil. I also note the need for greater reflexivity in this area of research.