Ancestral Pedagogies for Good Living: a sociopoetic cross-cultural matrix

Abstract

Humanity, immersed in a profound educational disease, is witnessing the destruction of the balances necessary for life on Earth. Species disappear, resources are depleted, peoples are exploited, all fueled by education that values competition, individualism and short-sightedness. The school, an accomplice in this tragedy, needs to review its principles. But there are remedies. Ancestral peoples, with the Earth at the center of their cosmologies, teach Good Living, Life in Plenitude, in which educating youth is to rescue the lost harmony. It is necessary to understand that reexisting is more than resisting; it is affirming life. In this article, we reflect on what we seek to learn from the Guarani and shamanism. We understand that ancestral pedagogies, such as sociopoetics, emerge as educational practices that, instead of standardizing, celebrate uniqueness and rootedness in ancestry. The article weaves voices, trajectories and learnings, proposing an education that, instead of disciplining, invites us to Life in Plenitude, where body, mind and spirit dance in the web of Good Living, escaping from colonial ties.