Visit to University of São Paulo College of Education: Challenges of Public Education in Brazil (Escola de Educação)
By Katherine Portilla
On March 20th, we had an eventful day in which we visited the University of São Paulo Escola de Aplicação and Escola de Educação. University of São Paulo is a public institute. Public schools are different compared to the U.S in which tuition is free, but these schools are often hard to get into. In order to get accepted you have to pass exams and receive a high score. There are about 130,768 applicants and 14,052 yearly enrollment. The University has eight campuses throughout eight cities. There are 329 undergraduate students, 264 graduate programs, and 48 schools/specialized institutes. This is the largest Brazilian public university and the country's most prestigious educational institution.
We started off by a transfer from our hotel to this school at 7:20 A.M. Once we attended the practicum school with the high schoolers, we had a little time in between before visiting the Escola de Educação. We got a tour around the campus and got to hear about some experiences attending this school. Dr. Ana Duboc from this university invited us to a room in which we were able to meet with Dr. Daniel Ferraz and a student of hers via Zoom.
The school of Education was founded in 1969. There are three departments; School Administration and Economy of Education, Philosophy of Education and Sciences of Education, and Teaching Methodology and Comparative Education. While in this Zoom, we got to hear different perspectives and this school’s pedagogy. Hearing about this school and their challenges made me more aware about the different needs these schools have compared to the U.S. The one undergrad student explained his challenges throughout school and learning English. As well as creating a balance with school and work, due to community services and projects being needed to help the development of new professional educational demands.
This new project the school created, Projeto Nacional de Letramentos (PNL) shares how new English language teaching, culture, education and policies come into play in an educational setting. By reflecting, designing, offering courses and establishing agreements allowed collaborations among global settings. This has encouraged language development for contemporary times.
