NEP: Paulo Freire Center for Popular Education

The Paulo Freire Center for Popular Education (NEP - Núcleo de Educacão Popular Paulo Freire) is a teaching, research and extension group of the Universidade do Estado do Pará (UEPA), formed by students (undergraduate and graduate) and professors associated with UEPA. It was created in 1995 by the student organization PROALTO⁸ and since 2002 it is constituted as NEP.

The NEP bases its popular educational practice on the philosophy (ethical-political) and on Freirean theoretical-methodological assumptions, and is currently affiliated to the Council for Popular Education in Latin America and the Caribbean (CEAAL - Consejo de Educación Popular de América Latina y el Caribe). It develops its activities inside and outside UEPA, in schools, ILPI, hospitals, social assistance centers, urban and rural communities.

This group “develops educational actions with several social segments linked to the popular classes: children, young people, adults, and older adults, in different institutions: hospitals, community centers, nursing homes, and schools. This educational work is dimensioned as a social pedagogy, which considers integrating its educational actions with hospital and peripheral communities, with the non-schooling spaces understood as spaces for inclusive education and popular participation” (^{MOTA NETO; OLIVEIRA, 2017}, p.24).

The NEP is based on dialogue, humanization, questioning, lovingness, respect for orality, praxis, criticality, action based on the generating themes, and the use of varied learning situations as pedagogical presuppositions. At present, the NEP has several lines of research and is constituted by the following working groups:

The Long-Stay Institution for Older Adults (ILPI - Instituição de Longa Permanência para Idosos) is an institution⁹ for older adults in Belém-Pará. It currently houses 38 older adults in situations of vulnerability and social risk, generally with low socioeconomic status, between 60 and 100 years old and without a support network. They are men and women, physically and economically dependent and semi-dependent. This home has an interdisciplinary team of physiotherapists, occupational therapists, nurses and social workers who provide specialized assistance to the older adults.

The NEP has been carrying out its pedagogical activities at ILPI since 2006, with a work in which words and dialogue are the main protagonists. During these years, research and undergraduate and master’s degree works in which the older adults are protagonists of the processes of knowledge production have been developed, such as the participatory research of Milene ^{Leal (2017}) on the school educational trajectory of the older adults based on their memories.

As with children, it is a pedagogical challenge to keep the older adults’ attention for long periods of time; their thoughts are short term and they easily forget things. The NEP has been developing discussion circles about the territory, traditions, food, and memory, every Tuesday from 9:00 am to 11:00 am. In order to continue with the theme and identify the generating themes for the annual work of the NEP in the institution, it was decided to carry out an exercise of reading and analysis of realities with the older adults, using social cartography and the problem tree, based on the methodology of Participatory Action Research (IAP - Investigación-Acción Participativa).

These techniques were proposed and discussed with the popular pedagogues/educators of the NEP, recognizing the valuable knowledge they already had with them: the older adults of the ILPI like to talk about their past, their tastes, their stories, their Belém and all the cultural baggage that this place means. They like to feel heard, observed and recognized as subjects who carry with them interesting stories, incredible travels, and a life that matters. For this reason, techniques were proposed to incite memory with a specific meaning, to achieve an awareness of oneself, and of a “we”, particular life experiences charged with a common experience: being an older adult in the ILPI.

Social Work: for human rights and social justice

Colombian Social Work is conceived under two epistemological dimensions, in which it develops and defines itself: the professional and the disciplinary dimension. In its professional dimension, Social Work is a social practice that seeks to intervene in social problems, evidenced in human suffering or unfavorable states-situations for human dignity; and in the disciplinary dimension, Social Work is a research practice focused on the theoretical production about social problems (^{MALAGÓN, 2012}).

A social problem is initially an ethical issue since the idea of problem refers to something socially undesirable that implies deprivation or suffering. “For this reason, every social problem implies a negative value judgment, a statement that brings to light evil in any of its expressions: infamy, injustice, inequity, lack of love, lack of solidarity, violence” (^{MALAGÓN, 2003}, p.19).

This is closely linked to an issue of human rights insofar as we are talking about dignified living conditions, and Social Work is committed to an ethical action based on the perspective of human dignity, quality of life, integral health, development and happiness.

Thus, social work is a profession-discipline that analyzes, studies and intervenes in social problems, as evidenced in poverty, suffering, inequality, and countless situations that degrade the human condition. These are situations and concrete conditions (gender, class, race, age, sexual orientation, among others) that have an important influence on the life of each person, however - as mentioned above - do not determine them. Therefore, Social Work - and Popular Education - has an ethical, political and critical social character, because it works with people who live in situations of dehumanization, poverty, discrimination, suffering and seeks the guarantee of their rights and social justice.

Social Work develops in the field of interactions between subjects, institutions, social organizations and the State, in a dialogical and critical manner. It involves intervention referents that constitute the axis that structures the professional practice, giving it a social and political sense to promote social transformation processes (^{CONETS, 2015}, p. 22).

Social Work applies research and intervention in an articulated manner; there is no intervention without research, nor research without social intervention. It is the profession that is characterized by making context analysis with a deep and critical reading of reality and at the same time provides tools for transformation at the micro level - in processes such as Popular Education with the older adults - or at the macro level - as in the formulation, implementation and evaluation of services, plans, programs, projects and social policies aimed at the preservation and defense of human rights and social justice.

The being of Social Work configures, on the one hand, the recognition of the “other” and of “the others” as social and political subjects capable of transforming social realities in the processes of formation, participation, mobilization and collective action; and, on the other hand, the recognition of the structural and conjunctural conditions of the social realities in which the same subjects, the organizations, the institutions and the State are being developed daily (^{CONETS, 2015}, p. 22).

Hence, the defense of Human Rights and social justice are fundamental elements for Social Work in the process of context reading; thus Social Work

is positioned in favor of equity and social justice, in the perspective of universal access to goods and services related to social policies and programs; the expansion and consolidation of citizenship are explicitly put forward as a guarantee of civil, political and social rights of the working classes (^{NETTO, 2006}, p.16).

Based on the premise that social Work is to guarantee and promote Human Rights, which it works against injustice and social inequality, against situations of violence, oppression, poverty, hunger, and unemployment, it was decided to focus on a transforming methodology. That is why we work based on Popular Education and the postulates of Paulo Freire.

Popular Education¹⁰, beyond theory, a political choice

According to Marco ^{Mejía (2013}), quoted in “Popular Education and Latin American decolonial thinking in Paulo Freire and Orlando Fals Borda” (Educação popular e pensamento decolonial latino-americano em Paulo Freire e Orlando Fals Borda) by ^{Mota Neto (2015}), Popular Education is a historical accumulation that becomes a movement and a political-pedagogical proposal. It is characterized by its open political intentionality towards the interests of the people, their struggles and objectives, aimed at a project of social emancipation (2015, p. 106).

Popular Education is not only a professional choice, but also a choice of life. It is a position that crosses, questions, challenges, defies and demands the profession and the life of each subject who decides to assume it. Popular Education is a way to contribute to build relationships from love, listening and the words. Hence, Paulo Freire’s work is not only for pedagogues, but for all oppressed human beings who experience injustice and choose to act in relation to it.

Popular Education is at the same time a movement (a practice, an experience, a process of struggle) and a paradigm (a discourse, a theory, an ideology), that aims, via education, to empower the popular classes to face diverse modes of oppression, thus fighting for a solidary and inclusive society (^{MOTA NETO, 2015}, p. 117).

Popular Education “is an intentional way of doing education from the interests of the popular sectors and a way of contributing to the processes of social transformation” (MARIÑO; CENDALES, 2004, p.10). It is hope, it is life, it is movement, it is justice, it is feeling, it is joy, it is strength, it is love. Popular Education goes through the lives of each person who assumes it, Popular Education is an invitation to transformation and not from a perspective of assistance, Popular Education recognizes the political character of each subject.

Awareness is in the method

At a conceptual and methodological level, it is considered that the reading of realities or contextualization of the subjects in the world is a fundamental part of the research or intervention processes of Social Work. This reading realities is a process of conscientization, in which the subject is capable of reading and being read, in order to transform the world.

This process of conscientization is important since conscience is the presentation and elaboration of the world; it is the “capacity of the human being to be distant from things in order to make them present, immediately present” (^{FREIRE, 2005}, p. 13)¹¹ and think about them. “But none of them becomes aware separately from the others; awareness is constituted as awareness of the world [...] “ (FREIRE, 2005, p. 15) and awareness of oneself. Thus, awareness is ultimately awareness of the world, with an intrinsic relationship between conquering oneself, becoming more oneself, and conquering the world, making it more human.

The human beings, as a historical subjects and immersed in culture, language, communication and other human relations that allow them be awareness of themselves, of their existence, have the possibility to think of themselves in time and intervene in the world. It is not possible to understand human beings outside of their relationships with the world; indeed, their way of acting is a function of how they perceive themselves in the world. That is why, by participation and dialogue, we seek to problematize reality and transform it (^{FREIRE, 2005}).

Therefore, the most coherent method with the proposal and commitment of Freirian Social Work and Popular Education, in which participation and construction from and for the community is the Participatory Action Research (IAP - Investigación-Acción Participativa)¹². IAP was the methodology presented and applied during the process, together with the techniques: social cartography and the problem tree, which made it possible to identify and objectify the reality experienced by the older adults of the ILPI.

Participatory Action Research (IAP - Investigación-Acción Participativa): building from Social Work and Popular Education

According to Ezequiel Ander-Egg (2003), IAP is a methodology that has the purpose of producing profound social transformations, including the promotion of popular participation processes, whether in terms of mobilization of human resources or protagonism of the popular sectors. This is why this methodology is relevant to the NEP’s pedagogical processes, since not only is teaching work is done, but also research and direct intervention processes are carried out with and for the community.

Participatory Action Research implies the simultaneity of the process of knowing and intervening, including the participation of the people involved in the program of study and action.

As research, it is a reflective, systematic, controlled and critical procedure aimed at studying some aspect of reality, with an express practical purpose. As action, it means or indicates that the way of carrying out the study is already a mode of intervention and that the purpose of the research is oriented to action, which in turn is a source of knowledge. As participation, it is an activity in the process of which both the researchers and the people to whom the program is addressed are involved, who are no longer considered as simple objects of research, but as active subjects who contribute to know and transform the reality in which they are involved (^{ANDER-EGG, 2003}, p. 4-5).

IAP is characterized by principles of dialogue, action, reflection, and participation. According to ^{Calderón and López (2013}): 1) The horizontal relationship between learner and educator in which it is recognized that each one has a knowledge; 2) The practice of conscience based on collective reflections; 3) The rediscovery of popular knowledge in which the accumulated knowledge of social collectives is recognized, ordered, validated and empowered; 4) Action as a central element of training; 5) Active and critical participation in the reflections of the actors that allows the possibility of acting with equality, being the educator-researcher a member of the collective, who puts his or her knowledge at the service of such reflection (strengthening and systematizing it) (^{CALDERÓN; LÓPEZ, 2013}, p.5-6). These principles are articulated with the assumptions of Social Work and Freirian Popular Education that the NEP manages.

IAP as a method of awareness raising is the bridge on which Social Work and Popular Education are made. This bridge is based on the active participation of the subjects, since it allows reflection-action in which the cognitive subjects are capable of analyzing, questioning and transforming their reality.

Thus, during the intervention period, the generating themes were identified and chosen by the participants, and in turn the actions were directed towards these themes. The participation of the subjects was evidenced in the identification of generating themes and in the problematization of them, since these themes are part of their reality and place them as protagonists.

Techniques

Given the dynamics of the group, social cartography and the problem tree were applied as participation techniques in which the spoken word and non-verbal language (drawings) prevail, and by recording, socializing and interpreting them, the value of the knowledge that the subjects and communities have within themselves is recognized.

Social cartography

Social cartography is a methodological tool that through the individual and collective construction of maps provides a comprehensive reading of reality by rescuing the oral narration and memory of a group or community. There are three types of maps: the eco-systemic-population map, which refers to territorial relations; the temporal-social map, which explores the tensions of the past, present and future; and the thematic map, which shapes specific problems and planning (^{BARRAGÁN GIRALDO, 2016}. p.257)¹³.

It was proposed to start with social cartography as a work methodology in ILPI because it allows the dialogue proposed by Popular Education, and it is based on the notion of territory¹⁴.

Problem tree

In this section, the Problem Tree will be presented as a technique that is part of the methodology used in the diagnostic phase of social work intervention projects, useful for the pedagogical scenarios of the NEP.

Social Work is characterized by the planning, execution and evaluation of social intervention and research projects. These intervention and social research projects can be guided by different methodologies. The logical framework approach is generally applied in social investment projects, since it is characterized by organizing projects in a synthetic manner by means of objectives, results and activities. These projects are characterized by having: concrete and verifiable aims and purposes; precise, planned and interconnected activities to achieve the purpose; concrete results (which are based on the situation to be transformed); established resources; the time determined for their execution; and the people responsible for the execution of the activities.

For this, the project must be developed in a cycle or stages: identification, formulation, execution-monitoring and evaluation. Identification is the phase that interests us, because it is in the phase when problems affecting the community are identified and the objectives or alternative solutions are proposed.

However, as we are in Popular Education scenarios, the rigidity and “effectiveness” of social projects with the logical framework approach are not assertive in the dynamics of Popular Education of the NEP, so this technique is applied from the IAP.

The main principle of IAP could be summarized as research and knowledge of reality in order to be able to act; that is, to study the problems, needs and interests of the population involved in order to seek social transformation with and from them.

This is why it is fundamental to recognize the problems and interests of the population. Initially, social cartography was proposed; however, due to the dynamics of the older adults group, it became evident that the motivation and collective initiatives were low, and more oriented and motivating activities were needed. Thus, it is proposed to articulate the technique of drawing and map the problems (as suggested by social cartography) in the location and classification of the problem tree technique.

The problem tree is a “participatory technique that helps develop creative ideas to identify the problem and organize the information collected, generating a model of causal relationships that explain it. This technique facilitates the identification and organization of the causes and consequences of a problem [...] The trunk of the tree is the central problem, the roots are the causes and the top is the effects. The logic is that each problem is a consequence of those below it and, in turn, is the cause of those above it, reflecting the interrelationship between causes and effects” (^{MARTÍNEZ; FERNÁNDEZ, 2008} p. 2).

Description of the process

The group of popular educators in charge of the process at ILPI is led by two NEP pedagogues. They have maintained the pedagogical work in the institution and actively supported the co-construction of the process during the Social Work internship. During this time, seven meetings were held in which, as the group and its individual and collective interests were recognized, proposals for participation and dialogue were developed jointly with the educators and older adults.

Recognition and identification

In the first and second ¹⁵ sessions, an observation, listening, recognition and identification exercise was carried out. During the first session, the educators conducted the activity of presentation and introduction to the group. In order to achieve horizontality, they chose to participate together with the older adults in the same activity. This allowed the participants to get to know the educators better.

This observation shows that the mood of the older adults decreases with time and participation is not active; not everyone present participates in the activities. It was identified that this group is characterized by getting tired quickly and speaking individually, there is no collective listening, each participant speaks to the educators individually and their participation in the group¹⁶ is restricted.

Social Cartography: Belém in the Past

The individual and collective elaboration of a map of Belém in the past was indicated. The group was asked to individually elaborate the neighborhood or the places where everyone lived, and then, they were instructed to build the map of Belém together. The individual instruction was understood and executed, however, participation was not very active during the process of the collective map, they almost did not speak when asked in group; in the end, in the drawing of the collective map they chose to draw individually, not elaborating a common work.

During the collective moment we tried to encourage the group to draw freely, but it was not possible; they used to work with simple and mechanical instructions. So for the following sessions the methodology had to be modified, so that the instructions were easy to understand with an invitation to think and reflect on their realities.

Two important events are highlighted from this session: first, the educators arrived one hour before the activity to prepare the space in the maloca, and found that Mr. Manuel was already there waiting for them. “Mr. Manuel showed the Charter of the Statute of the Older Adults, which provides their rights. And while the work tables were being organized, a conversation was held on the importance of knowing the rights of the older adults”¹⁷. This dialogue was valuable because it evidenced Mr. Manuel’s interest in the activities and the intention of them, by identifying in the NEP the relevance of Human Rights and the importance of recognizing them as subjects of rights.

Second, the importance of the territory in the constitution of the lives of each older adult “the participants of the experience remember the places of work, some evoke their places of birth, the places where they used to work… One of them worked on Nazaré Avenue, others at the market, at the railway terminals; they also remembered the river, the beach, the soccer fields, their homes and the people who were part of these places, the women, grandmothers, fishermen” (^{NEP, 2018}) (Figure 1). The importance of places is not only constituted by the physical space, but also by the people and particular elements that characterize it; territories are constituted by a network of relationships, meanings, situations full of stories, emotions and life. See figure 1 ¹⁸.

Mr. Manuel¹⁹ talked about what he drew, he drew a boat and a house, when the educator asked him what this drawing represented, he explained that it represented everything he had already done and the places he traveled to. His drawing - he says - refers to the happy moments of his life, when he worked on the boats, the work that sustained his family and that today he misses so much. Mr. Manuel loves to talk about his travels and always recognizes himself as a sailor - in present time ^{(NEP, 2018}, p. 4).

Source:^{NEP (2018)}

Figure 1 Older adults drawings (04/17/2018) 

Social cartography: past-present

In the first part of this session, it was decided to take up social cartography in the past in order to delve a little deeper into the subject of the places that constituted the past of the older adults of ILPI. It was proposed to remember the drawing they did, and participation was encouraged with questions about the drawings.

Given that the older adults did not have the same participation to speak in public as with the educators, it was decided to listen individually to each participant, and then the educators quickly socialized what each one spoke, redirecting the questions and giving voice and protagonism to each older adult. This proposal was successful, because they began to speak more fluently, however, it was noted that attention was only obtained when an educator was speaking and not when any of the older adults was participating, so the group was challenged to listen to the others with the same attention.

In a second moment they were instructed to make a map of the present, of the places that they currently like, the instruction was delimited to the places of the institution, considering that it is the space they currently inhabit. Most of them drew the maloca, scenario in which the activities are developed, and they said that they like them because “here we take a breath of fresh air, we talk and do activities that distract us”; “here we listen to music and do activities, it is a way to get away from the noise of the main hall of the house. Although all the places here are good, the people are good and we are well-treated here”, Mr. Manuel drew the roof of the maloca, he emphasized that it was an indigenous structure -circular- and he liked it (Figure 2), they also drew places of interaction such as the television room and the dining room. The group member, Josefa, expresses her interest in food and the pleasure in the “dining room” where they eat, watch TV and talk, she says she likes açaí with tapioca, and with great emotion - opening her eyes and tasting her lips - she remembers the cupuaçú jam with bread, flour, and tapioca with cheese and butter (^{NEP, 2018}).

Source:^{NEP (2018)}

Figure 2: Drawing of the Maloca 

Social cartography was useful to identify objective and subjective realities of each older adults and the group in relation to the topics discussed. For example, when talking about what they like and what they don’t like, the topic of food was discussed; when “Mrs. Antonia draws a plate of rice, beans, flour and water, she said that she doesn’t like that because that’s what she always eats when she has no money, that’s all she has to eat” (^{NEP, 2018}, p. 3). Thus exposing how difficult her economic situation was and her relationship with food.

Mrs. Antonia makes reference to food quality as something important. It is evident that food is something transversal in the older adults, not only in the past, because of the food typical of the region (such as açaí and fish) to which they no longer have access, and which are fundamental in the constitution of their territorial identity as a paraense²⁰, but also the problematization of the quality of food. In the past, for various social and economic reasons, they did not have access to quality food, eating only water, rice, beans and flour; when now their breakfast is always “banana jam” and they do not have access to açaí in a “free” way.

Social cartography invited us to think about the ways in which we can decolonize hegemonically instituted fields of knowledge in order to constitute subjectivity (^{BARRAGÁN GIRALDO, 2016}, p. 259). For example, during the social cartography sessions, Mr. Manoel, Mrs. Olinda, and Mr. José were characterized by constantly drawing the boats, as elements in common, and as an element that “represents life”. Mr. Manuel says “it represented everything I already did and the places where I traveled to” (Figure 3). Thus, boats are seen as a common territory, for the people who worked on them during their lives, but also for the rest of the participants, who had boats in their landscape, because they were an important means of transportation in Belém, or because many times the family economic dynamics were involved in the dynamics of the boats²¹.

Source:^{NEP (2018)}

Figure 3 Cartography 

Initially, this social cartography exercise was intended to be historically charged, in order to situate the participants as historical subjects, active in their own reality. However, due to the group dynamics²² , the expected participation and collective work in relation to the territorial problematization was not achieved, so the development of cartography as a technique was continued and it was proposed to work on the Problem Tree from the Participatory Action Research as a methodology, in order to identify the generating words and themes, an input for the work process during the rest of the year.

Current social cartography - Problem tree

This session was important because a real work of collective listening was achieved, everyone remained silent and really listened to what their peers were talking about. Usually, as was reported about the first meetings, a collective silence prevailed when the educators asked the group to speak, or everyone spoke at the same time and they did not listen to each other. On this occasion, they listened and started talking, respecting each other’s speaking time.

Source:^{NEP (2018)}

Figure 4 Drawing by Mr. Manuel 

It was also significant because the challenge of the first cartography session, in which all those present in the activities were active and participative subjects, was achieved that day because they actively participated; when Mr. Manuel identified the triggering theme (Figure 4) ‘health as a problem’²³, Mrs. Josefa also said “I also have a diabetes problem”, and Mrs. Filo also said that she had diabetes problems, Mrs. Maria said that she did not have diabetes but high blood pressure, then everyone began to talk about their physical ailments (^{NEP, 2018}).

When they started the conversation by asking about the causes of ill health, or what it means to be sick, they emphasized care, and the consequences, delved into pain that goes beyond the body, and the importance of family and friends (support networks) in situations of pain.

After placing health as a central theme, the participants recognize as causes: lack of basic sanitation, referring to garbage in the street; lack of drinking water and medicines; sedentary lifestyle; rain; poor nutrition etc. As consequences they affirm that not having health “everything is bad” there is discomfort, pain not only in the body but pain in the soul; there is an atmosphere of sadness and suffering in the person and in the family; there is a lot of stress and one has to be looking for a cure (^{NEP, 2018}, p. 4).

By means of social cartography and the problem tree, problems experienced individually and collectively by the older adults were identified. They also mentioned violence as an important issue, and although the older adults did not “directly” feel the violence transmitted by the city’s news programs, they know what is going on. On that day, different types of violence were discussed: gender violence “Mrs. Brandão drew a girl and exposed physical violence, abuse and child labor (especially child domestic labor of girls)²⁴; [...]Mrs. Filomena emphasized the violence and danger that blind people face when they are alone in the street”. This evidences how each person spoke from their locus of enunciation, in this case they spoke as women, and as persons with disabilities. The interesting about this session was that the participants reached a consensus on health as an issue that affects everyone. They recognized that many of the problems they experienced individually were also collective experiences.

Problem tree - objectives

In this session, a sensitization activity was carried out, prior to the objectives tree. The participants were instructed to close their eyes and listen to the song “Eu só peço a Deus” (I pray to God) by Mercedes Sosa and Beth Carvalho, a song that invites to reflection and also to action. After this moment, they were asked to draw or write a letter to someone in the future, informing what is really important, what should be protected and maintained over time. Participants responded: “it is important to go out to work, make money”; “health, good home, happiness, bread, life, the walks, the fridge full of food”; “health, being free of diabetes, high blood pressure” (here, just like the previous session, several people also manifested having diabetes and other people high blood pressure, hypertension); “help to live well”; “play, the sun, because it gives us life and dries clothes, food, and Pará (the place where I live, where I was born)” ; “work in the boats, it is everything I did”; “the boat represents life”; “God is important to me because he helps me to live well”; “someone from the future, take care of the others” (^{NEP, 2018}).

At this point, the importance of the contribution of each one of them was socialized, and at the end, the conclusion was reached that health is one of the common themes for human well-being, and that, although the letters have been prepared individually, there are common elements such as the importance of food and work in everyone’s life.

The tree session was taken up again, and the issue of health was further problematized. During the conversations, the topic of work and child labor arised. The relationship between health and old age was discussed, in which old age is problematic because of its relationship with health, however, it is also affected by a question of social class, because as one of the participants said “the poor are the ones who die waiting in line at the hospitals”. They were asked who worked when they were children and they all nodded in agreement, Mrs. Filomena and Maria raised their hands and said that they had to transport clothes and wash other people’s clothes. Mr. Edimarino said he had to transport clothes from Pedreira to Ver-o-peso²⁵ (approximately 5 km), several times a day and that he was tired when he arrived.

To close this session, they were asked to propose possible solutions to all the problems they had stated, to which they responded: taking medicine, eating well, sleeping, getting up early, get some fresh air in the morning, doing physical education, walking, watering plants, and having a good relationship with God (spirituality) are necessary actions for good health (^{NEP, 2018}).

Farewell and closing of the process

Since the time of the academic stay ended, a cultural closing was held with music and traditional food: açaí with tapioca²⁶, exposing the work done during the last two months: Social Work, Popular Education, social cartography, the tree of problems and the IAP, as part of an exercise of reading realities, photographs and visual material resulting from the process were exhibited and an invitation was extended to continue working on the reading-reflection and action of reality (Figure 5).

It was remembered how these last cares they mentioned (eating well, sleeping, getting up early, get some fresh air in the morning, walking, among others) are important and have a relationship with the recognition of their territory, their dynamics and the development of their lives, the sessions in which they talked about the experiences of child labor and the possibilities of self-care that older adults had during their lives and that they have now were evoked. They proposed the self-care and care for others as the possibilities of being and doing in the present, having the NEP as an ally.

Source: ^{NEP (2018)}

Figure 5 Cartography, problem tree, and photographs. 

After a moment of music, acknowledgements and informal conversations with the guests (teachers and participants of the NEP and external musicians), it was decided to play guitar and sing the song “Só peço a Deus” (I pray to God), thus closing the process.

At the methodological level

Social cartography and the problem tree under IAP are useful participation techniques for diagnostic processes and reality reading in work groups, under a critical view of Popular Education. With the ILPI older adults group, these techniques were successful because there was a clear interest in talking about their territory, their life histories and their individual and collective experiences, past and present. The following is a brief description of the main contributions of these techniques in this process.

The cartography

Cartography was proposed as a mean to recover the word. It is a technique that made it possible to articulate the knowledge and activities already developed at ILPI and to propose the territory and its dynamics as a problematizing and thematic axis. With the cartography, conflicts were visualized and located, such as food; identity patterns of the population were identified, such as the fruits and the river, and situations such as the different types of violence were denounced.

Territory was considered to be a subject that generates insofar as it contains elements that construct subjectivity. Territory is a social construction that develops from the meanings and uses that individuals construct on a daily basis, based on common histories, uses and meanings (^{FERNANDO; GIRALDO, 2016}). As evidenced in the first social cartography session, when we talked about Belém (Pará), we talked about constituent elements of the city, the state and even the country, such as mango, açaí and tapioca, elements that were and are part of its life history.

Social cartography made it possible to recognize events that remain in the group’s memory, and led to an understanding about the present and to outline future possibilities for action.

The problem tree

The Problem Tree technique was proposed to locate and organize the problems identified by the older adults and propose a pedagogical action-research project for the rest of the year. For this reason, the following generating words are presented, as a result of the classification of the problems and needs that older adults considered appropriate to analyze in order to find solutions to these problems. This task is carried out on the basis of specific issues and immediate experiences presented by the population and simultaneously collected and organized together with them in the problem tree.

One of the most important contributions of Social Work (and of pedagogues) is to systematize and give back to people the contextualized problematic experiences, showing that there are not individual and abstract needs, problems and interests, but that they are all directly or indirectly related to each other²⁷. This technique also made it possible to systematize the problems in generating themes, and at the same time subjects were placed as an active part of this network of relationships, thus placing them as participating subjects and transformers of their own reality. In addition, it should be noted that the methodology (IAP) allowed significant experiences that resulted from the process as a commitment to a pedagogy towards the human.

Towards the pedagogy of the human

It is bold to say that an awareness-raising exercise was achieved in the short time that was shared with the older adults. However, considering that “awareness is the critical insertion of the oppressed in the oppressive reality, and by objectifying this reality, the subjects can act on it” (^{FREIRE, 2005}, p. 42), it can be affirmed that through social cartography and the tree of problems an exercise of critical insertion in reality was carried out, which is only the first step for a critical pedagogy.

The pedagogy proposed by Paulo Freire as pedagogy of the human has two distinct moments: the first, in which the subjects unveil the world of oppression and commit themselves in praxis to its transformation through a critical reading of reality; and the second, in which the subjects expel the myths created and developed in the oppressive structure (^{FREIRE, 2005}). During the process with the older adults, this first moment of reading and critical analysis of reality was achieved.

During the development of the activities, several emotional and reflective moments arose, both individually and collectively. Considering that “The place of encounter and recognition of consciences is also the place of encounter and recognition of oneself” (^{FREIRE, 2005}, p. 20), two important moments stand out: when talking about child labor and care for others.

When asked who among them worked when they were children, they all nodded in agreement. Mr. Edimario provoked a debate about capitalist society and class struggle, he emphasized that “poor’s people life is not easy”, he explained why work and money are so important. He continued the stories, explaining that he worked since he was 9 years old, he helped his mother carrying clothes buckets on his head, he lied to his mother saying he was going to school, meanwhile he was working as a seller at the Ver-o-Peso Market. This day, several people began to narrate their childhoods, which were marked by work, scarcity, abandonment and even begging, the group was immersed in a collective nostalgia, they remembered their hurt childhoods… The group provoked and maintained a deep silence, and with a voice of hope Mrs. Josefa closes the space “but it is forbidden now, now the children must go to school”.

The second moment of deep reflection felt in the group was when in the problem-objective tree they were instructed to draw and write a letter “for someone in the future”, indicating what was important in the past, now, and what should be preserved for the future. Mrs. Rosinha in her drawing says that it is important for her to “take care of others”, and everyone was asked if this is important or not. Everyone said yes, and then they were immediately asked if they take care of others, or of their colleagues. The group reacted by looking at the floor and giving a mumbled negative response. The silence of the group was respected and the invitation was made to build in their present everything that was, is and will be important to them.

The aim is for the educator and the learner to establish an authentic way of thinking and acting, thinking of themselves and the world simultaneously, without dichotomizing this thinking from the action (^{FREIRE, 2005}). Based on the relationships recognized by the older adults in the social cartography and the problem tree, it was possible to identify the relationships (with the problem tree) and the meanings (with the social cartography) of the constituent elements of themselves as individuals and as a group. These techniques make it possible to problematize and resignify the significant and constitutive elements and situations of people, based on an exercise of critical reflection about reality.

The group achieved critical insertion in reality, as these techniques allowed the older adults to analyze how their life stories and experiences responded to a specific historical context with specific socio-cultural dynamics, which have allowed their lives to pass through a matrix of oppression crossed by poverty, in this case.

In the cartography, Mrs. Antonia related that her house was made of mud, very simple. Mr. Manuel points out his stilt house, and Antonia talked about the economic needs her family experienced, the looks and the listening became empathic, remembering her own experience.

Mr. Edimarino emphasized the disrespect towards the older adults and the authoritarian education, stating that “Poor’s life isn’t easy”. Besides, he explained that work is so important, “because it gives us money” and everything would be different with or without money. In turn, Filomena brings up the class struggle discussion, stating that the “Poor person is humiliated; they [the politicians] only do what they want. It’s hard to change other people’s minds. It’s necessary a change in everyone. Not everyone, some people change, others don’t, there are arrogant people, who think they are better” (^{NEP, 2018}, p. 8).

The discussion was restarted when working with the problem-objective tree. They were asked to propose solutions to the problems identified during the meetings, mainly health; however, they did not participate very much. For this reason, they chose to talk about Paulo Freire and the importance of reading the world in order to read and transform reality. One of them stated that “I did not know how to read, and that is why I was and I am a stupid. I didn’t go to school because I went to Ver-o-Peso to work, to make some money. One day my mother saw me, and she told me that’s why I didn’t learn and wouldn’t learn, if I wanted to be like that all my life” (^{NEP, 2018}, p. 9).

The dialogue was not reduced to the act of reading books or written words, but was directed to reading as part of an exercise of a critical reading of the world, of reality. A short story was presented in which the lecture received other meanings. This story was based on an observation on the way to ILPI: two children of approximately 7 and 9 years old, very early in the morning walking on the streets of Belém, harvesting mangoes to sell them later. After remembering their own childhoods, they were invited to think about the children who work in the streets since they were very young, they were asked if these children know what it means to work, to get money; if they know how to work to bring some food to their homes; and if they don’t know what life is like. The older adults answered yes. Based on this, it was suggested that just as children who work since they are very young understand how the world “works”, a precarious world in which they have to work to obtain food, it is also necessary for people to understand what they have to do to have a dignified life. But part of this pedagogy is not merely to understand “how the world works”, but to problematize it, to problematize their own experiences, to see them, describe them, analyze them in order to transform them. This is the aim of Popular Education. And therefore, their own life experiences were problematized, which at first seemed individual, and in the end resulted in common experiences.

A critical insertion in reality was achieved by discovering, as stated by ^{Freire and Betto (1994}), that there is no personal crisis, but personal ways of feeling collective crises. The older adults admitted that although each one lived their lives independently, their life histories are marked by common experiences of oppression, poverty, abandonment, child labor and health, deteriorated in part by the impossibility of caring for their own lives and bodies. This analysis allowed us to reflect on the present and the possibilities for action by the older adults in terms of selfcare and care for others. During the conversations it became evident how the older adults assumed themselves as subjects requiring care. From these dialogues it was proposed to them in their routine at ILPI, to be caretakers of themselves, of others (listening, sharing and talking with the colleague) and of the other (the plants, the home) as a political commitment.

Regarding the participation of the older adults, motivation was raised as a challenge and the motivation of them was questioned as in the case of a work team. At times - particularly at the beginning - the older adults were not very participative or justified their passivity with “not knowing”. In cartography, for example, Mrs. Maria, at one point, was insecure about starting to draw the map and said that she did not know how to paint. Later, at the collective moment, several participants responded that they did not know how to draw a map, even when they had already advanced their individual drawing. Why do they not want to participate? How can we awaken their curiosity?” In view of this, ^{Freire (2005}, p. 55-56) states that:

This fatalism, prolonged in docility, is the result of a historical and sociological situation and not an essential characteristic of the people’s way of being [...] self-devaluation is another characteristic of the oppressed that results from their introjection of the oppressors’ vision of them. Hearing so much about themselves being incapable, that they know nothing, that they are sick, all this ends up convincing them of their “incapacity”.

To this end, it must considered that what mobilizes the population is the satisfaction of their primary needs, their problems and everything that contributes to their personal, family, group or community satisfaction. It is about identifying the problem areas and, within them, identifying the specific problems that we want to and can solve. In this process, health was the mobilizing theme. For this reason, the following categories are proposed as key words and themes to continue working with the older adults of ILPI.

At the theoretical level

It is necessary to read the world and understand reality in order to transform it. With this process, social cartography and the problem tree were used as participatory techniques in which the knowledge, interest and experiences of the older adults are rescued and analyzed from a critical perspective. As stated by ^{Santos (2018}, p. 544):

Only the past as an option and as a conflict is capable of destabilizing the repetition of the present. Maximizing this destabilization is the aim of an emancipatory educational project. For that it has to be, on the one hand, a project of memory and denunciation and, on the other hand, a project of communication and complicity.

Ensuring that the older adults improved their participation in the spaces by talking about their interests, their current and historical problems, is considered a great success of the process, in addition to rescuing the following categories based on the dialogues and analysis of the older adults.

The problem tree allowed the identification of the relationships between the categories Health and Work as a basis for a deep and serious academic review. ²⁸. It begins with old age as a fundamental category in order to locate the subjects in the space-time they are currently living at an individual and collective level. The group chose health as the central theme because it is a problem that is experienced by all of them. The category of work is proposed because it is a topic that was present in almost all the sessions without being planned (by the educators) and work is considered a constitutive element of the human being. Finally, gender is proposed as a theme since there are several women in the group and many of them have experienced sexual, physical and symbolic violence and have resistance against men.

As a result of the internship, we intend to propose the categories resulting from the identification process as a summary of themes to develop with participatory perspectives or methodologies. This being an input for the joint elaboration of a pedagogical intervention project for the future.

Thus, at the methodological level, it is suggested to continue working with the Participatory Action Research proposed by Orlando Fals Borda and Paulo Freire, where research is based on action and action is based on research.

Continuing with the importance of reading reality, it is proposed to first work on old age, as a condition in which the older adults find themselves, and as part of the process of understanding that pedagogues must carry out before, during and after the pedagogical work.

Old age, health, work and gender

We propose to conceptualize old age and at the same time question why it is problematic (if they assume it to be problematic).

Monica de ^{Assis (2005}) quoting Ferrari (1999) states that: Human aging is a universal, progressive and gradual process. It is a diverse experience among individuals, for which a multiplicity of genetic, biological, social, environmental, psychological, and cultural factors contribute. There is no linear correspondence between chronological age and biological age. Individual variability and differentiated aging rhythms tend to be accentuated according to the opportunities and constraints existing under given social conditions (p. 2-3).

Old age is a heterogeneous reality for each person, but if it is possible to find points of convergence between the social, environmental and cultural factors of each older adult, a collective conception of the meaning of old age in the ILPI can be constructed. It is suggested to start by identifying how the older adults conceive the relationship between old age and health -a category identified by them-; health and work²⁹; old age and gender. And from there, work from an intersectional perspective is recommended. “The idea of ‘intersectionality’ aims to capture the structural and dynamic consequences of interaction between two or more forms of discrimination or systems of subordination [such as class, race, age, etc.]” (^{UNZUETA, 2010}, p. 25).

It is suggested to consider: historical and cultural times, social classes, personal histories, educational conditions, lifestyles, genders, professions and ethnicities, which allow us to understand old age as the result of a network of situations in permanent interaction with multiple dimensions of living. “The observation of differentiated aging patterns and the search to understand the determinants of longevity with quality of life have motivated studies in the line of understanding what would constitute good aging” (^{ASSIS, 2005}, p. 2).