Dec. 4, 2008

Brazilian Master of Arts student earns Calgary peace prize 

Daniela Nascimento

“When I first thought up this project, people at home told me I was a dreamer or that I was just crazy,” says Nascimento. “But, NewClassroom was launched in 2006 and it keeps getting bigger every year. It’s been a great success.”

Nascimento explains that public school teaching in Brazil is not a coveted profession. “Being a teacher in my country is a very poor option—people there believe teaching has little influence in society.”

Naturally, this disinterest in public school teacher preparation has a ripple-down influence on young students. “I have often said that teachers in Brazil pretend to teach, and their students pretend to learn,” she sighs.

Frustrated with teaching, Nascimento came to Canada in 2005 to learn English and consider another career. But when she finally approached the U of C Faculty of Education’s Tim Goddard, David Watt and Karen Dodge with the proposal, she found her idea generated real enthusiasm.

“At some point I remember suggesting she apply for a Masters of Arts in Education at U of C because I thought she could develop her project that way and deepen her understanding of what she was doing and that’s what she did,” recalls Dodge.

So in 2006, the small team recruited volunteer teachers from U of C and Mount Royal College to spend the month of July in rural Brazil, passing on their knowledge of pedagogy and inexpensive teaching methods to 75 teachers. The project continued through 2007 and 2008, and is due to end in 2009 unless funding is secured.

Nascimento says she’s been told by the Brazilian teachers that their new methods of teaching are definitely working.

“The students are excited and other teachers are asking them, ‘What are you doing? You don’t even have books!’”

For more information about NewClassroom, consult www.newclassroom.org.