Banca de DEFESA: WELLINGTON DA SILVA MEDEIROS

Uma banca de DEFESA de DOUTORADO foi cadastrada pelo programa.
STUDENT : WELLINGTON DA SILVA MEDEIROS
DATE: 13/08/2026
TIME: 13:30
LOCAL: videoconferência
TITLE:

A pedagogy of transformation: the Basic Education Movement, workers and class struggle in Alagoas (1962-1968).

 

KEY WORDS:

Basic Education Movement; Social History of Religions; Archdiocese of Maceió; rural workers; rural unionism.

 

PAGES: 300
BIG AREA: Ciências Humanas
AREA: História
SUMMARY:

The Basic Education Movement (MEB) was created in March 1961, at the initiative of the
Catholic Church in partnership with the Federal Government. The historiographical analysis
shows a dearth of studies on the leading role played by rural workers within the movement
and their contribution to the rural unionism in Alagoas. Considering that, this research aims to
contribute to studies on the MEB in the state and its complex regional and national relations.
In the Archdiocese of Maceió, the movement took place in 1962, linked to the launch of
Rádio Educadora Palmares, which is a local radio station. In a sense, its development,
especially its infrastructure, was linked to the Basic Education Programme for the northern
region of Alagoas. The central argument put forward is that the MEB was devised as a
strategy to curb the expansion of the Peasants’ Leagues in the neighbouring state of
Pernambuco. Such expansion would have posed a direct threat both to the traditional
influence of the Church in rural areas and to its agricultural estates, thereby justifying the
choice of the Northern region as a pilot experiment. However, by shifting part of the Church’s
focus towards the lower classes, the socio-religious utopia of the MEB, initially grounded in
Christian personalism, privileged awareness and commitment to social transformation through
educational work amongst rural workers. In this regard, it is argued that, from 1963 onwards,
its educational approach linked political action with other spheres of social life, fostering a
class identity in opposition to the local agrarian bourgeoisie. In the wake of approaches such
as those of Edward P. Thompson and James Scott, the research distances itself from the
history of institutional policies by focusing on the understanding of the individual and
collective experiences of the subjects who formed the MEB. The analysis seeks to uncover the
socio-religious values and the vision of society that guided their social practices. It is based on
the premise that the everyday experiences of these student-workers were not neutralised by
the dominant ideology but were instead marked by tensions that created fissures in hegemony.
This research allows us to analyse the experiences of sections of the working class, especially
rural workers, as well as their practices and political organisation within trade unions as acts
of resistance against the age-old system of large-scale landownership and exploitation in the
countryside. Drawing on extensive documentation held at the Maceió Metropolitan Curia

Archive (ACMM) and making use of Oral History, this research aims to achieve what
Thompson and Christopher Hill defined as “history from below”. Therefore, an analysis is
carried out from the historiographical method, within the framework of the History from
below and the Social History of Religions, on the political resistance of rural workers in
Alagoas, more specifically in the social sphere that constitutes the Archdiocese of Maceió,
between 1962 and 1968.

 

COMMITTEE MEMBERS:
Externo à Instituição - CLAITON MARCIO DA SILVA - UFFS
Externa à Instituição - IRINEIA MARIA FRANCO DOS SANTOS - UFAL
Interno - 1720605 - JEAN RODRIGUES SALES
Presidente - 1736091 - JOAO MARCIO MENDES PEREIRA
Externa à Instituição - LEONILDE SERVOLO DE MEDEIROS - UFRRJ