Acceso usuarios
Elvira S. Lima
This article discusses the meeting point of Vygotsky�s cultural-historical psychology and the critical pedagogy Brazilian school and the alternative schooling experiences in Brazil. It examines the actual reform of the city of Belo Horizonte�s public education system and the role of some of Vygotski�s ideas in order to complete and expand the theoretical foundations of critical pedagogy and illuminate the historical praxis of the struggle for equity in education. The Brazilian experience of alternative schooling, which already has a long tradition and a great wealth of experiences accumulated throughout the XX century, challenges the traditional notions of schooling and the narrow viewpoints of learning and literacy which lead to education�s instrumentalization. Building upon this experience, critical pedagogy has developed a comprehensive view of the educational process as development and liberation of the total human being and of education for social participation and democratic development. Vygotski�s notions on human development and education provides a new theoretical contribution to Brazilian experience which, in turn, can offer a new perspective for the reading of some of the key concepts in cultural-historical psychology.
