An education in gender and agroecology in Brazil’s Landless Rural Workers’ Movement

Abstract

This article explores the implications of a blended agroecology and gender education within Brazil’s Landless Rural Workers’ Movement (MST). The discussion is first situated within MST’s struggle for land and for peasant families’ livelihoods, generally, and under neoliberalism, specifically. Central to the struggle against neoliberalism have been critical educational models that evolved towards agroecology and a gender-equality-oriented pedagogy. Women have played important roles in the movement’s growth, particularly the development of the education sector. Using data from a literature review, observations, and interviews, the article argues that MST’s education, focused on agroecology and accompanied by gender-oriented pedagogy, empowers women and men to disrupt the traditional sexual division of labour in rural communities, and within land struggles, more generally.