Popular Education In Timor-Leste: past and present experiences

FOREWORD

In the mid-1970s, during a process of decolonization in Timor-Leste, Popular Education was present in the country, mostly due to the influence of the work ‘Pedagogy of Oppressed’ by the educator Paulo Freire and the Pedagogy of the National Liberation Struggle of Amilcar Cabral of PAIGC. On November 28th of 1975, Timor-Leste won independence through the political association Revolutionary Front of Independent Timor-Leste (FRETILIN). However, ten days later, Indonesia invaded the territory in December 1975.

In this sense, a struggle begins in Timor-Leste that would result in the achievement of the restoration of the country’s independence in 2002. Behind all this process, Popular Education stands out as one of the weapons of the struggle.

This education - which had as main objective the awareness of the Maubere people - manifested above all through the fight against illiteracy, in the training of teachers and paramedics, and the knowledge of their territory during the struggle carried out on the guerrilla war.

After restoring independence, to raise awareness among the Maubere people, Popular Education materializes through literacy campaigns and, in particular, in the struggle for agrarian reform and the development of a solidary economy founded on the real peasant needs of Timor-Leste.

Thus, this book arose from the need to gather researches and essays on Popular Education in Timor-Leste, aiming to externalize experiences related to Popular Education, as well as to contribute to the development of an awareness education in Timor-Leste.

In this sense, in the “Literacy model of the Maubere Pedagogy”, Antero Benedito da Silva presents the literacy process called Pedagogy Maubere carried out since the 1970s in Timor-Leste.

Correspondingly, in the “National liberation and Freirean Pedagogy in East Timor”, Samuel Penteado Urban and Irlan von Linsingen highlight the role of Freire’s pedagogy in achieving the restoration of independence in the East Timorese country.

In “The FRETILIN literacy manual of 1974-75: an exploration 18