Revista Brasileira de Educação do Campo
The Brazilian Scientific Journal of Rural Education
EDITORIAL
DOI: http://dx.doi.org/10.20873/uft.rbec.e8135
Tocantinópolis/Brazil
v. 4
e8135
10.20873/uft.rbec.e8135
2019
ISSN: 2525-4863
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Este conteúdo utiliza a Licença Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 International License
Open Access. This content is licensed under a Creative Commons attribution-type BY
Thematic Dossier: 50 years of Alternating Cycle in Brazil:
what national and international research says
Pedro Puig-Calvó
1
,
Claudia Gagnon
2
, Janinha Gerke
3
1
Universitat Internacional de Catalunya - UIC / Association Internationale des Mouvements Familiaux de Formation Rurale -
AIMFR, Spain.
2
Université de Sherbrooke - Quebec, Canadá.
3
Universidade Federal do Espírito Santo - UFES.
Autor para correspondência/Author for correspondence: ppuigcalvo@gmail.com
The year 2019 marks a milestone in Brazilian Education, particularly in training
experiences in Rural Education, on the occasion of the celebration of the 50th anniversary of
Alternating Cycle Education. Created in France and brought to Espírito Santo by a Jesuit
priest, it was developed by peasants who considered the different realities of our country, as
an educational counter-hegemonic possibility, mixing school training with work experience,
sense of belonging to the land and cultural identities.
From this perspective, the Association of Family Movements for Rural Education
(AIMFR) and the research groups CNPq / UFES Field Cultures, Partnerships and Rural
Education, and the International Research on Dual-Alternating Cycle System at Sherbrooke
University, Canada, propose to the Brazilian Journal of Rural Education the creation of a file.
This is an opportunity to gather, in this important journal, a plurality of discussions and
investigative results that emerge from the praxis of teachers and researchers, working with
Alternating Cycle Education in Brazil, Canada, Spain, Cameroon, Italy and France. We
believe this to be a chance for reflection, problematization and sharing of good experiences,
considering the numerous challenges of the current scenario. It is not a contemplative article,
but a reflective and problematic one, with a living and dynamic exercise, produced by
historically situated subjects, who place themselves in the field of resistance, thus thinking
about contexts and rising possibilities.
In this sense, the research now shared emerges from the most diverse experiences - from
basic to higher education - revealing us the transgressor potential of Alternating Cycle. To
recognize this diversity of practices is also to affirm that Alternating Cycle Education, created
Puig-Calvó, P., Gagnon, C., & Gerke, J. (2019). Thematic Dossier: 50 years of Alternating Cycle in Brazil: what national and
international research says...
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in Brazilian lands 50 years ago, is today part of the Brazilian Education Heritage and, as such,
figures in law and public policies. However, this historical and social journey also poses
challenges that arise in the very movement of transformation of society and ways of life, work
and production. Facing such challenges and keeping on with the struggle are central flags in
the production of new and different meanings for Training by Alternating Cycle, without
diverging from its pillars, its mediations and/or educational instruments and, above all, while
strengthening its political emancipation, transforming agent of realities and their subjects.
For this, we thank the Brazilian Journal of Rural Education for granting us this space
which, in turn, translates into an action of visibility of the knowledge’s and practices of
Alternating Cycle Education.
We chose to organize the 26 texts in three big thematic groups: firstly, articles that talk
about the history of alternating cycle education and its intertwining with rural education;
secondly, epistemological principles and analysis of mediations or pedagogical instruments,
with texts that specifically discuss alternating cycle education in the training of educators-
teachers-monitors in the countryside; and finally, we bring researches about different
experiences in basic school education and others.
What national and international researches on Alternating Cycle Education in these last
50 years of history show us, is an invitation to the knowledge produced by subjects who act,
reflect and problematize praxis through scientific research.
The first article, Pedagogy of Alternation and Rural Education: from
epistemological hybridism’s to symmetry with Popular Education, by Úrsula Adelaide de
Lélis (UNIMONTES / Brazil), Magda Martins Macêdo (UNIMONTES / Brazil), Leandro
Luciano da Silva (UNIMONTES / Brazil) and Maria Auxiliadora Amaral Silveira Gomes
(UNIMONTES / Brazil), historically affirms that Alternating Cycle Education has been
constituted as a methodological possibility for the education of rural people, given its
pedagogical and political convergence with the principles of Rural Education. However, it
points out that hybrid experiences have revealed that the epistemological foundations that
underpin this Education have been placed on the fringes of practice, thus emptying the
emancipatory potentialities of Alternating Cycle. Based in this principle, the text is the result
of theoretical reflections, discussing the epistemological principles that underlie the
Alternating Cycle Education, understood as a practice that is forged in the unity of time and
space, and its contributions to the emancipatory formation of the rural peoples.
Puig-Calvó, P., Gagnon, C., & Gerke, J. (2019). Thematic Dossier: 50 years of Alternating Cycle in Brazil: what national and
international research says...
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The article "Stories of life with alternating cycle education: the trajectory of
research-training in two steps, three movements and the master of training and
sustainable development in Brazil", by Gaston Pineau (France), Pedro Puig-Calvó (Spain),
constitutes a historical reflection based on the researchers' partnership with the Alternating
Cycle training processes in Brazil and also in their countries of origin. They understand the
anniversary of the Alternating Cycle Education as a significant milestone in vocational
training, putting in place discussions and work undertaken with a specific pedagogy for the
development of the individual and the environment. They evoke conclusions that challenge a
production of existential rhythmic skills to be learned through a greater attention to ecological
rhythms, as opposed to the logic imposed by the market.
The third article, Alternation and its 50 years: A training possibility of Countryside
Education by Janinha Gerke (UFES / Brazil), Silvanete Pereira dos Santos (UFES / Brazil),
discusses the main theoretical-practical and methodological aspects of alternation and its
formative potential in rural education. It is based on the reflections of the Alternating Cycle
and Rural Education Working Group, produced at the International Seminar held in October
2018. On the occasion, the celebration of the 50th anniversary of the Espírito Santo
Promotional Education Movement (MEPES), a pioneer in alternating cycle education in Latin
America, approached the emancipatory cooperation networks in integral education and
sustainable development. It emphasizes the relevance of the Alternating Cycle Training
Centres (CEFFAs) on the strengthening of family farming and the organicity of the
assumptions of alternance training with the Rural Education Movement, regarding its
relationship with the demanding guidelines of integral education and sustainability.
The History of the Constitution of EFAs in the State of Espirito Santo, by Bruno
Raphael Mont Alto Santos (CEIER / Brazil) and Sandra Regina Gregório (UFRRJ / Brazil), is
the fourth text of this file. It brings us the history of Alternating Cycle Education in the State
of Espírito Santo, the creation of the EFAs - Agricultural Family Schools in Brazil, its
characteristics and the movement that emerges for the implementation of the Alternance
Education in the country. It initially reports the emergence of the Alternating Cycle Education
in France, its characteristics and current context in Espírito Santo. It presents the creation of
the Espírito Santo Promotional Education Movement - MEPES and RACEFAES - Regional
Association of Family Alternating Cycle Training Centre, highlighting the process of
constitution of this institution and its way of working within the CEFFA's.
Puig-Calvó, P., Gagnon, C., & Gerke, J. (2019). Thematic Dossier: 50 years of Alternating Cycle in Brazil: what national and
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Following, is the article entitled "Tutoring in the context of CEFFA: the experts'
point of view", by Jordi González García (Spain) and Dr. Claudia Gagnon (U. Sherbrooke
Canada). The text discusses people's education and training as a mechanism for economic
growth and personal development. Based on the foundations of CEFFA's educational model,
the authors present a study that analyzes the experts' point of view on one of the system's
elements: personal guidance. Semi-structured interviews were conducted with five experts
selected for their excellent work or academic experience in the countryside of alternating
cycle. The results of the inductive data analysis show, among other conclusions, that
mentoring is primarily a relationship between people, which must be planned, impacting
students beyond their academic success.
As the sixth and last text of this first block, we present the article entitled Mapping of
scientific production at IBICT's BDTD on Alternation Pedagogy 2011-2018, by Odaleia
Alves da Costa (IFMA / Brazil) and Anny Camila Lima Rodrigues (IFMA / Brazil). The
study aims to identify how many and what publications are available in the BDTD of IBICT,
on the subject Alternating Cycle Education. It intends to build a mapping of the scientific
production from 2011 to 2018. This is a bibliographic survey using Iramuteq software, that
makes a great contribution to Rural Education, considering the possibility of providing the
scientific community with knowledge about the reflections in the academic environment
about Alternating Cycle Education, as well as a glimpse of new research perspectives. The
study allowed us to realize that the Brazilian regions do not have uniformity in the number of
publications, as well as to conclude that the Alternating Cycle Education experienced in the
CEFFAs, presents itself as a proposal that is articulated with the formation of the critical and
participative subject.
We therefore collected texts that deal specifically with the training of educators-
monitors and teachers in the countryside, through Alternating Cycle Education. In this
perspective, the seventh article in this file, entitled “The training of indigenous pedagogues
in alternance in Paraná: a contribution to interculturality and bilinguism”, by Marcos
Gehrke (UNIOESTE / Brazil), Marlene Lucia Siebert Sapelli (UNIOESTE / Brazil) and
Rosangela Celia Faustino (UEM / Brazil), presents the process of constitution of the
experience in training of indigenous educators, of the Central West State University
(Guarapuava / PR), highlighting the arrival of indigenous demands to the University, the
participatory construction of the Educational Project of the Course (PPC) and the
implementation of Alternating Cycle Education in indigenous higher education in Paraná.
Puig-Calvó, P., Gagnon, C., & Gerke, J. (2019). Thematic Dossier: 50 years of Alternating Cycle in Brazil: what national and
international research says...
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Through documental and bibliographical research, the protagonism of the indigenous
movements in the struggle for the right of access to higher education in Paraná is explained,
in an intercultural and bilingual perspective. The research shows that the results of the
ongoing training process reflect a better participation of indigenous peoples in the decisions
and organization of indigenous higher education, the establishment of an intercultural and
bilingual curriculum, and the establishment of an Intercultural Degree.
Fabrícia Vellasquez Paiva (UFRRJ / Brazil) and Aloísio Jorge de Jesus Monteiro
(UFRRJ / Brazil), in the article “Alternation as a decolonial diasporic movement: for a
popular memory-history of subjects in Course”, aim to contribute to the debate on
Alternating Cycle Education, based in a concrete research experience with the first class of
the Rural Education Undergraduate Course (LEC) of the Federal Rural University of Rio de
Janeiro, Seropédica campus. Taking the problematic of Alternating Cycle as a decolonial
diaspora movement, particularly the exchange of knowledge between School Time and
Community Time in their diverse methodological dynamics, the authors investigate how the
historical memory could be written by a collective popular education of the participants of the
Course. Through a discursive analysis of official Course documents, also revisited by the
students' participation in different methodological processes during graduation, the study
demonstrated how the effective proposals made available another possibility of formation,
based on Alternating Cycle.
Dulcinéa Campos (UFES / Brazil), Dalva Mendes de França (UFES / Brazil) and
Valmere Santana (UFES / Brazil) in her article “The curricular organization in alternation
on the teacher’s training courses: PRONERA and graduation Degree in Rural
Education”, aims to contribute to a reflection on the theoretical-methodological principles
that guide the curricular organization in alternating cycle, in the Degree in Rural Education. It
analyzes how these precepts, materialized in the pedagogical work of the alternating cycle
course, can serve as a parameter for the construction of a new school reference. Based on a
bibliographical research, supported by the conception of Rural Education, dated at the
National Seminar of 2002, its analysis is based on the assumptions of dialectical historical
materialism. The results of this study indicate that the proposition of an alternating curriculum
organization in the Rural Education Degree, aimed at teaching coherently with the dialectical
method of reality interpretation, giving teachers the necessary tools to rethink and transform
the existing school configuration in the field.
Puig-Calvó, P., Gagnon, C., & Gerke, J. (2019). Thematic Dossier: 50 years of Alternating Cycle in Brazil: what national and
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As the tenth article, we bring the “Teacher formation in alternate times and spaces:
synchronizing learning times”, by Celia Beatriz Piatti (UFMS / Brazil) and Jose Roberto
Rodrigues de Oliveira (UFMS / Brazil) who ask: In the degree in Rural Education what is the
sense and meaning of alternating cycle? The objective is to present the results of an
experiment conducted with undergraduate students in Rural Education, using the field
notebook records - alternating cycle instrument - performed in 2017. Such records, according
to the authors, point out three moments: Who am I? Who are we? What is the point of
graduating only to work in a countryside school? These records are expressions of the
possibility of the subjects to realize their training, regarding their right to access university,
but also the guarantee of permanence in alternate educational times and spaces.
Following, the article “Rural Education and Pedagogy of Alternance: UnB
experience in the Kalunga historical site and cultural heritage”, by authors Caroline
Siqueira Gomide (UnB / Brazil), Rafael Litvin Villas Boas (UnB / Brazil), Maria Lúcia
Martins (EPOTECAMPO / Brazil), Luan Ramos Gouveia (UNESP / Brazil), Ana Leda Dias
(UnB / Brazil), historicizes the dynamics of the University of Brasilia's (UnB) Rural
Education Degree with the communities of the Kalunga territory and cities around the
quilombo. It analyzes the advances, limits and challenges of teaching, extension and research
actions developed in the territory, considering the forms of political and community
organization of the region, and the relationship between culture and forms of resistance to the
modes of production that imply environmental degradation, such as mining and agribusiness.
In the extension activities, the perspective of praxis is highlighted, and, from this action, we
can see a series of advances in the strengthening of the process of education, training and
social organization of the rural and quilombola population of the region.
Reflecting on the limits and potentialities of Alternating Cycle Education in teacher
education within the context of Rural Education, is the central objective of the twelfth text,
entitled “History of Rural Education and Pedagogy of Alternation: limits, challenges and
possibilities in teacher training”, Sebastião Silva Soares (UFT / Brazil), Selva Guimarães
(UNIUBE / Brazil). The article presents a brief historical review of the Alternating Cycle
Education and its integration in the curricula of the higher education degree courses
implemented in Brazil, through Selection Notice no. 2/2012-Sesu / Setec / Secadi / MEC.
According to narratives of teacher-educators of two institutions contemplated by this public
call in the northern region of Brazil, there were conceptions, limits, potentialities and future
projections of the Alternating Cycle Education.
Puig-Calvó, P., Gagnon, C., & Gerke, J. (2019). Thematic Dossier: 50 years of Alternating Cycle in Brazil: what national and
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The following article, “Alternance notebook as instrument of registration,
evaluation and teacher training”, by Lisiane dos Santos Moreira (UNIPAMPA / Brazil) and
Ana Carolina de Oliveira Salgueiro de Moura (UNIPAMPA / Brazil) presents an investigation
aimed at understanding the contributions of the Alternating Cycle notebook for teacher
training. The participants in the research were undergraduate students of the eighth semester
of the course, that took part in a survey related with their experiences with the Alternating
Cycle Book. Considering that personal and professional development are interrelated, the
reflection provided by the writing in the Notebook, according to the authors, represents a
privileged action in the formative process.
As the fourteenth and last text of this second block, we bring the article “Rural
Education in a Decolonial Turn: the Community-Time Experience at the Fluminense
Federal University (UFF)”, by Francisca Marli Rodrigues de Andrade (UFF / Brazil),
Lucas do Couto Neves (UFF/Brasil), Letícia Pereira Mendes Nogueira (UFF / Brazil) and
Marcela Pereira Mendes Rodrigues (UFF / Brazil). The research presented tried to understand
the process of construction of the Community Time, implemented in the Interdisciplinary
Degree in Rural Education (UFF) to then identify the decolonial pedagogical elements that
enhance the training of countryside educators. Methodologically, a qualitative research
proposal and an interpretative approach were adopted. The main results indicate the
importance of Community Time in the training of rural educators, as well as in the processes
of reality transformation.
In the following block we present the collective of texts that compose the diversity of
training experiences in the Alternating Cycle Education, in different regions of Brazil and the
world, from basic professional school education to further degrees.
The article “Pedagogy of Alternation as a possibility of permanence of peasants
students in a school of Alto Paranaiba region”, by authors Gustavo Adriano Ferreira
(UFTM / Brazil) and Verônica Klepka (UFTM / Brazil) discusses Alternating Cycle
Education as a contribution / strategy of permanence of peasant students at the EJA High
School in a municipality of Alto Paranaíba. (“EJA Educação de Jovens Adultos” – Youth
Adult School) The research was conducted through interviews with high school students and
countryside workers enrolled in the State School EJA, as well as with the school management.
The interview with the school board demonstrated that the interest in Alternating Cycle
Education is related with flexibility of time for students, meeting other needs beyond study.
The analysis shows, on the other hand, that alternating cycle is seen as a formative potential,
Puig-Calvó, P., Gagnon, C., & Gerke, J. (2019). Thematic Dossier: 50 years of Alternating Cycle in Brazil: what national and
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contributing to the reduction of school un attendance or dropout during the most intense
periods in their coffee crop activities.
As the sixteenth article of this collection, we bring the article “The Family Farm
Schools in Africa: the case of Cameroon”, by Benoit Birwe (Africa), Pedro Puig-Calvó
(Spain), with the main objective of presenting the discussions around a historical investigation
of Family Alternating Training Centers (CEFFAs) in the African context. The authors analyze
the main territorial difficulties of CEFFAs and problematize the strategies needed for the
development and sustainable implementation of institutions in Cameroon.
The following text, by authors Marlo dos Reis (UNIFAP / Brazil) and Roni Mayer
Lomba (UNIFAP / Brazil), entitled “The pedagogy of alternation and the construction of
the social movement of extractivists in Amapaense Amazon”, aims to present partial
results of a study conducted in 2017-2018 on the extractive social movements in the southern
state of Amapá, especially the centrality of the Alternating Cycle Education in the struggles
and construction of the collective identity of these subjects. It is a research based on
historical-dialectical materialism as a theoretical, methodological and analytical approach.
The main categories of analysis are 'class struggle', 'peasant identity' and 'awareness'. The
results of the study show the Alternating Cycle Education as a central strategy of rural
education and intellectual formation of these protagonists, reconfiguring the meaning of the
struggle for the conquest of public policies and social rights.
“Family Farm School: 50 years of history narrated by many voices”, by Rogério
Omar Caliari (IFES / Brazil), Erineu Foerste (UFES / Brazil) is the next article. The study
aimed to investigate the relationship between peasant families and the Olivânia Agricultural
Family School. The processes for data production, systematization and analysis benefited
from semi-structured interviews, document analysis, direct observation, systematic field diary
records. The complex realities found were focused in comprehensive ways and contextualized
in conversation circles with the protagonists of the research from the moments of interaction
potentiated by the Alternating Cycle Pedagogy.
Ahead, we bring the nineteenth text, “Pedagogy of Alternation in basic and
professional education: achievements and challenges in 25 years of operation of the
Network of Semi-Arid Integrated Family Schools (REFAISA)”, by Tiago Pereira da Costa
(IRPAA / Brazil), Helder Ribeiro Freitas (UNIVASF / Brazil) and Cristiane Moraes Marinho
(IFPE / Brazil), as the result of a professional master's research. The authors analyze and
systematize the achievements and challenges of the Family Farm Schools (EFAs) linked to
Puig-Calvó, P., Gagnon, C., & Gerke, J. (2019). Thematic Dossier: 50 years of Alternating Cycle in Brazil: what national and
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the Network of Integrated Family Farmer Schools (REFAISA). The methodological approach
was based on qualitative research and action research mediated by participatory
methodologies as tools for problematization and data collection. As a result, advances are
evidenced in the formation of adolescents and young people in connection with the territories
and their complexities, and in the promotion of Contextualized Education in Alternating
Cycle with its pedagogical instruments that guide the integral formation of the subjects.
The following text by Débora Monteiro do Amaral (UFES / Brazil), Patricia Hand Littig
(UFES / Brazil), Sheiliane Bravim (UFES / Brazil) and Amanda Ludovico Breda (UFES /
Brazil), “Alternation Pedagogy in Espírito Santo State and the Agricultural Family
School of São Bento do Chapéu”, aims to discuss how the São Bento do Chapéu Family
Farm School performs the training of the subjects who pass through the institution and what
are the contributions to the peasant communities of the municipalities of Domingos Martins,
Marechal Floriano and Santa Leopoldine. This is a qualitative research, whose results showed
that the perspective of Alternating Cycle Education as an epistemological process and
methodological organization promotes a rapprochement between school and family;
articulates practical and theoretical knowledge of the communities and school curriculum.
As another contribution of international research, we bring the text of the authors Dr.
Roberto García-Marirrodriga (Spain), Andreu Gutierrez Sierra (Spain), entitled “The
multifunctional profile of the teachers in the alternation rural schools”, which discusses
the required teaching multifunctionality of the educators. The authors state that one of the
keys of the alternating cycle education system is the commitment of teacher-monitors to the
multiple functions that exceed teaching. For them, this requested multifunctionality is the
cause of a series of difficulties associated with a professional profile that is not easy to find.
“Dandô Project and the Integral Educational of the youngsters from Escola
Família Agrícola de Vale do Sol: a culture of resistance to "Transgenic Music"” by
Roberto Kittel Pohlmann (EFA / Brazil) and Cheron Zanini Moretti (UNISC / Brazil)
proposes a discussion on resistance to “transgenic music” from the Dandô Project, as a
pedagogical tool developed at the Vale do Sol Family Farm School (EFASOL) in the Rio
Pardo Valley-RS. As a theoretical-methodological strategy they chose Freire's Culture
Circles, in accordance with the Southern epistemologies. The article evokes and joins the
scope of Southern epistemologies, precisely because it is close to the idea of the common
place, either by the recognition of the students in the singers or vice versa. Some of the results
or discussions achieved may be exemplified by the speech of one of the students involved:
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“What has changed (from the Dandô Project) is that before I listened to a song just for
listening, but today I pay attention”.
“Alternance Pedagogy study plan (SP): Problematizing perspective on the
formative action of the Cocais/PI Agricultural Family School (EFA Cocais/PI)”, by
Maria Raquel Barros Lima (EFA / Brazil) and Carmen Lúcia de Oliveira Cabral (UFPI /
Brazil) is the twenty-third article of this dossier. The authors analyze the Research Guide
(RG) of the Alternating Cycle Education in its problematic dimension in the formative action
of the Cocais / PI Family Farm School (EFA Cocais / PI). As fundamental question: to what
extent is the RG-mediated problematizing dimension effective in the Cocais / PI EFA?
Connected to other mediations, no less relevant, the RG articulates, beyond the formative
times and spaces, the daily knowledge of families in the processes of teaching and learning.
The data analysis showed the realization of the problematic condition inherent to the RG in
the formative action developed in the EFA Cocais / PI, but also revealed the existence of gaps
in the realization of what they call the RG-cycle.
Following, the text “The Pedagogy of Alternation in pomerana community of Santa
Maria de Jetibá, Espírito Santo, Brazil”, by Edineia Koeler (UFES / Universität Viadrina,
Germany), Erineu Foerste (UFES / Brazil), Alberto Merler (University of Sassari, Italy ). The
article analyzes aspects of the Alternating Cycle Pedagogy, understood from Nosella's
perspective (1977, 2012), and its relationship with Pomeranian culture. It takes as its object of
study the Emílio Schroeder State School, located in Alto Santa Maria, Santa Maria de Jetibá,
Espírito Santo, Brazil, to understand how such a community, with significant presence of the
traditional Pomeranian people, comprises the alternating cycle project. With a qualitative-
descriptive approach, it benefits from narratives of a teacher with significant experience in
Family Farm Schools and, in addition, analyzes a set of documents consisting of 52
questionnaire forms applied in 2011 to students' families. It is noteworthy that the cultural and
identity dimensions of the traditional Pomeranian people can contribute to the
problematization of the school project, whereas the initiative of rural communities is
fundamental for the conquest and permanence of alternative projects in rural education, and
that parents' poor education may have immediate repercussions on school work, but it does
not prevent them from seeking quality education for their children.
Eric de Oliveira (MEPES / Brazil), Mônica Aparecida Del Rio Benevenuto (UFRRJ /
Brazil), in the article “The contribution of the Alternation Pedagogy and the young
professional project in the life projects of young graduates of the EFA in Jaguaré/ES”,
Puig-Calvó, P., Gagnon, C., & Gerke, J. (2019). Thematic Dossier: 50 years of Alternating Cycle in Brazil: what national and
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verify the contribution of the Alternating Cycle Education in the working life projects of the
students who completed the Technical Course in Agriculture at the Jaguaré Agricultural
Family School. The goal was to understand if these young people put into practice the Young
Professional Project (final work of the Technical Course in Farming) in their properties
seeking professional autonomy, verifying the permanence or not in the countryside, as well as
their continuity in their studies. The results revealed that the youths put the projects into
practice, continued their studies and remained in the field, keeping themselves economically
sound through farming activities with their families and other youngsters.
Finally, the twenty-sixth article, entitled “Curriculum and Pedagogy of Alternation:
an experience of the Forest School in Rio Branco, Acre”, by Letícia Mendonça Lopes
Ribeiro (UFAC / Brazil) and Adriana Ramos dos Santos (UFAC / Brazil), presents the
experience of Alternating Cycle Education in Centres of Vocational Technical Education at a
secondary level, highlighting the history and curricular practices of the “Roberval Cardoso
Vocational and Technological Training Center”, better known as “Escola da Floresta”, in Rio
Branco, Acre. Despite having as its educational pillar the admittedly neoliberal Curriculum
for Skills, the specific case of Escola da Floresta can be a successful example of the
Alternating Cycle Education and the exercise of dialogicity between the social and individual
issues that permeate the peasant context, especially in interactions between learners and
learning mediators. It is concluded that it is essential to think (and enable) the training of
professionals who will work in the Acre forest in a conjuncture that refutes training and
urban-centric education and values the peasant identity.
We present our sincerest gratitude to all the authors who submitted their productions, to
the ad hoc reviewers with their valuable contributions, as well as to the editors of the
Brazilian Journal of Rural Education for the reception of this file, registering in the wake of
the Alternating Cycle Education and its contributions to Education.
Enjoy the reading!
Prof. Pedro Puig-Calvó (Secretary General of the AIMFR / Spain)
Prof. Claudia Gagnon (U. Sherbrooke Canada)
Prof. Janinha Gerke (UFES)
Puig-Calvó, P., Gagnon, C., & Gerke, J. (2019). Thematic Dossier: 50 years of Alternating Cycle in Brazil: what national and
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Conflict of Interest: None reported.
Orcid
Pedro Puig-Calvó
http://orcid.org/0000-0002-1367-6478
Claudia Gagnon
http://orcid.org/0000-0002-9087-7281
Janinha Gerke
http://orcid.org/0000-0002-6903-8125
How to cite this Editorial
APA
Puig-Calvó, P., Gagnon, C., & Gerke, J. (2019). Thematic Dossier: 50 years of Alternating Cycle in Brazil: what national and
international research says. Rev. Bras. Educ. Camp., 4, e8135. DOI: http://dx.doi.org/10.20873/uft.rbec.e8135
ABNT
PUIG-CALVÓ, P.; GAGNON, C.; GERKE, J. Thematic Dossier: 50 years of Alternating Cycle in Brazil: what national and
international research says. Rev. Bras. Educ. Camp., Tocantinópolis, v. 4, e8135, 2019. DOI:
http://dx.doi.org/10.20873/uft.rbec.e8135