São Paulo Route in Agroecology Caravan Project: views of a graduate student in Sustainable Development and Community Work/UFLA from "inside" an academic discipline.

Abstract

DOI: 10.12957/interag.2016.15919

This report aims to share the experiences of a M.A. student in Sustainable Development and Community Work at the Federal University of Lavras (UFLA) and further training through Agroecological Experience, which was made possible in the discipline "Agroecology: ecological transition and sustainability". I intend to briefly show the scope of the Southeast Agroecology Train project for the establishment of teaching, research and community work in agroecological zones. Also, I intend to relate this project with the evaluative activity of Agroecology Experience brought by the aforementioned discipline. Finally, I intend to link my personal experience with the Train and the discipline. The results achieved can be divided into three biases, namely, interdisciplinary, academic and personal gain. The interdisciplinary aspect that pervades the master’s course and reaches the activity of Experience performed outside university walls was extremely rich, after all, as stated by Paulo Freire1, scientific knowledge does not overlap popular knowledge in a hierarchical, technical and higher way. The meeting of different knowledge and perspectives was vital to complement the emancipatory educational process. Academically, the experience reinforces the pedagogical mechanism used by the discipline as a strategy of approach between agroecology groups and social diversity. Personally, the gains pervade the human growth and the broadened perspective of the processes of sustainable development and (the) many social actors. Finally, we mention that the Experience was important to guide several learning processes, for the university and society, and the academic performance linked to social demands.