APINAJÉ INTERCULTURAL BILINGUAL SCHOOL: FOR AN EDUCATION BEYOND THE ETHNIC FRONTIER

Resumo

We share in this paper the partial results of a research about the Bilingual and Intercultural Education in the
Apinajé Indigenous Society, focusing on the Bilingual Teacher. In this approach, we identify its main
characteristics and formulate concepts, distinguishing bilingualism from Bilingual Education, in view of the
fact that these expressions are often seen as synonyms. We analyze the pedagogical practices of Apinajé
Bilingual Teachers, emphasizing the importance of an intercultural curriculum for the provision of a
differentiated education, considering mutual life in the ethnic frontier. For the concepts of Bilingualism, we
used the theoretical bases of Megale (2005) and Flory and Souza (2009); about Bilingual and Intercultural
Education, Maher (2005) and Grupioni (2006); about the Apinajé, Nimuendaju (1983); Da Matta (1976)
and Albuquerque (2007). The methodological procedures are comprised of ethnographic research with
participating observation, grouping semi-directed interviews as a technique that allows interaction. The
corpus investigated is comprised of interviews with Apinajé leaders and teachers, journals and field notes.
We concluded that the Apinajé Bilingual Teacher performs a pedagogy in which interdisciplinarity and
bilingualism are present as practices that promote interculturality, which is deemed as the reason for the
existence of an indigenous school.