A Quilombo in Pernambuco, Brazil Teaches Lessons on Education and Social Transformation

Imagine a community where young people learn from their own history things like how to develop autonomy, organize collectively to transform their territory, and live in harmony with nature. That is the reality in Conceição das Crioulas, a Quilombo¹ of approximately 4,000 residents in the municipality of Salgueiro, in Pernambuco, Brazil.

According to local residents, the Quilombo was founded by six Black women who arrived in the region in the 18th century. Although slavery was still legal in Brazil at the time, oral histories tell us that these women were free and purchased land with what they earned from planting, harvesting, and selling cotton.

The story of the founders—and the lessons of leadership and organization it carries—echoes throughout the community: on school walls, in writing that accompanies dolls made of caroá (a native plant), and in verses sung by children and elders alike.

The preservation of memory across generations was at the core of the 4th edition of a gathering on arts, resistance, and wisdom, held in July by the Quilombola Association of Conceição das Crioulas (AQCC). Teachers, students, researchers, and local leaders gathered for panels, walks, workshops, and cultural performances, reaffirming the territory as a living space of learning.

In Brazil, Quilombola school education is a model of Basic Education born out of the Quilombola movement’s struggle for differentiated schooling. Regulated by national guidelines, the method must be grounded in collective memory, cultural practices, technologies, and modes of work, as well as elements such as territorial status, which make up the heritage of Quilombola communities.

Despite Quilombola school education being regulated and accepted as a method of education within Brazil,  data reveal the challenges. The 2020 School Census recorded 2,500 Quilombola schools, while there are 6,500 existing communities according to the National Coordination for the Articulation of Black Rural Quilombola Communities (CONAQ)—or 5,800, according to Brazil’s Institute of Geography and Statistics (IBGE). Only 2% of these schools offer secondary education, forcing young people to travel long distances to study. Between 2007 and 2020, just 5% of Quilombola teachers received specific training in ethnic-racial relations. In addition, only about 30% of Quilombola schools have access to teaching materials adapted to their sociocultural context.

An exception to this reality is Conceição das Crioulas, which offers powerful lessons on how education can integrate worldviews and the needs of each territory, rooted in the realities where these children and teenagers live. Below are some distinctive aspects of this successful experience:

1) A Collaborative Quilombola Education Project

In 2003, the schools of Conceição das Crioulas and the Quilombola Association created a pioneering initiative called the Political-Pedagogical Project of the Quilombola Territory. The process engaged approximately 300 community leaders and families through interviews, seminars, workshops, and meetings . The aim was to collectively define what the community understood by Quilombola Education and School Education in the territory, including setting clear priorities. The plan led, for instance, to the construction of a high school and the practice of naming public facilities after members of the community.

2) Multigrade Classes and Full Education Cycle

In the 1990s, Conceição gained a middle school, and today it offers Quilombola education from early childhood to high school. This structure ensures that children and teenagers can study close to home without leaving their territory and have continuous access to all levels of basic education.

3) Quilombola Managers and Teachers

In 2011, Municipal Law nº 1,813/2011 established that all teachers in Quilombola schools must come from the community itself. The law included what is likely the first public hiring process in Brazil reserved exclusively for Quilombolas. This initiative responded to a long-standing demand: that education be led and strengthened by Quilombola people themselves.

4) Ongoing Teacher Training

The community invests in the continuous education of Quilombola teachers, coordinators, and principals as a permanent practice. Training includes ethnic-racial relations and strategies to improve schooling in the territory. Today, all teachers hold university degrees and at least a postgraduate specialization or a master’s degree.

The experience of Conceição now serves as inspiration for other Quilombos² to develop their own methodologies and resources, through a project led by CONAQ’s Education Collective with support from Imaginable Futures. The initiative includes curriculum design and teacher and school training.

The history and practices of Conceição das Crioulas invite us to rethink educational theories and methodologies, placing community life at the heart of the school. It is an inspiring example of how education and social transformation come together to enable all learners to thrive.

1. Quilombos are communities, mostly established in the 18th and 19th centuries by people who escaped slavery, and today home to their descendants who preserve cultural and social traditions. ↩︎
2. According to IBGE, in 2022 there were 8,441 Quilombola localities across Brazil, home to about 1.3 million Quilombola people. ↩︎