Aesthetic education and social organization:

theater in the Licentiate Degree in Countryside Education

Abstract

This article addresses the teaching and learning dynamics of theatrical language in 2 courses of Licentiate Degree in Countryside Education (Licenciatura em Educação do Campo – LEDOC) – at the University of Brasília (Universidade de Brasília – UnB) and the Federal University of Piauí (Universidade Federal do Piauí – UFPI). What is common between these two courses is the work of Terra em Cena, a theater and audiovisual collective that operates as a university outreach program and a research group, based on popular education methodologies and on Political Theater (Theater of the Oppressed and Dialectic Theater). Experiences of working with student groups and creating theater groups in rural communities are described and analyzed, in order to see in which aspects theatre education contributes to qualifying educators from an emancipatory perspective. It is verified that adopting the Theatre of the Oppressed, as a method and education content, potentiates the LEDOCs as cultural resistance fronts and as a crucial domain for expanding the Brazilian popular education.