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

of early nationalist themes”, Michael Leach discusses the manual used with Popular Education held between 1974 and 1975. In the essay “Learning from our past to craft good educational policy today”, Pamela Sexton analyzes Popular Education carried out after the 1970s, aiming at the education of the present and the future. In “East Timor’s literacy campaign and the struggle for a post-conflict democracy”, Bob Boughton presents the literacy campaign carried out after the achievement of the restoration of indepen- dence under the influence of Cuban cooperation. As director of the Fulidaidai-Slulu Institute of Economics, Elsa J. Araujo Pinto discusses Empowerment and Active Participation in community development in “An analysis of the effects of ‘empowerment’ and ‘participation’ in community development”, carrying out a study on countries like Kenya, Indonesia, and Timor-Leste without ignoring Popular Education. Finally, in “The Fulidaidai-Slulu Institute of Economics: Popular Education and peasant struggle”, Samuel Penteado Urban, Antero Benedito da Silva, and Irlan von Linsingen present the formation of this school as part of an epistemological resistance linked to the real needs of peasant struggle in Timor-Leste.

Samuel Penteado Urban