Curriculum and capoeira

Based on my master's thesis, this book discusses the relationship between different knowledges in the school curriculum, analyzing a municipal school in Rio de Janeiro, where Capoeira workshops were held as part of the Mais Educação Program. I sought to point out possible readings which take into account contemporary demands for identity and difference, as well as contributions from social discourse theorizing, from Cultural and Post-Colonial Studies, and from historiographical, anthropological and pedagogical studies on Capoeira. The text reveals that the hegemonic, modern/colonial discourse - which sets apart "black knowledge" and "black culture" in the curriculum - has not proved to be absolute or without tension. I highlight the protagonism and the anti-racist educational role played by teachers and masters of black cultural traditions. In the school analyzed, two black angoleiros capoeiristas, Mestre Cláudio and Treinel Ludmila, challenge the racism so present in Brazilian education and society and provide, to the different subjects in the school, opportunities to think the "black culture" and "knowledge" under new lenses.