Aprendizagem da educação em direitos humanos no Projovem urbano em unidades prisionais de João Pessoa - PB

Abstract

This research proposes to analyse the implementation of education in human rights in the prison context. To that end, it identifies the treatment given to themes related to human rights in the pedagogical activity developed in the curricular component denominated “Citizen Participation”, a constituent element of the integrated curriculum of Projovem Urbano, a programme offered in its prison format in the interior of three different penal establishments situated in the city of João Pessoa, state of Paraiba, as a pioneering experience. Based on a normative demarcation of the international and national legislation, the study identified the condition of education as a human right and also the right to education for persons in situations of privation of liberty, referring to the format of youth and adult education in which the teaching-learning processes are offered in the interior of Brazilian penal institutions. Turning our attention to one of these programmes in particular – the Projovem Urbano programme – we analyse one of the axes of the integrated curriculum, whose methodological proposal is differentiated in such a way as to identify convergences in relation to that education recommended in the National Plan of Education in Human Rights. Hence, making use of participant observation of formal classes, of preparations and of the result of the activity denominated “Community Action” and, principally, by means of questionnaires applied to those learners taking part in the Programme, we analysed the treatment given to the themes related to human rights and, therefore, whether education in human rights is effectuated in the educational experiences studied, apperceiving this fact employing three categories: education as a right; access and permanence in the teaching-learning process; and learning, based on its identifications. We observed that if the experiences of offering the Projovem Urbano programme in prison spaces are responsibly managed, they have the potential to become an innovative and inclusive public policy, in the prison context: that the dimension of Citizen Participation presents a potential for implementing education in human rights, although requiring reformulations when offered in the prison situation; and that confusions and distortions concerning the conception of education as a right cannot transform it into a synonym of approval with respect to all the minorities including persons deprived of liberty.