Brazil, the world鈥檚 ninth-largest economy, has 38 million public school students, reflecting a wide range of cultures and languages. With academic achievement significantly trailing the averages of countries that belong to the Organization for Economic Cooperation and Development, the Brazilian government has made education a national priority and placed special emphasis on bolstering science and the teaching of English.
, a family foundation established by the Brazilian-Swiss entrepreneur Jorge Paulo Lemann in 2002, has been a key player in that effort. The Foundation works to ensure that all Brazilian children have quality public education and to develop a network of talented people who are dedicated to tackling Brazil鈥檚 most challenging social problems. The ultimate goal: to advance Brazil by helping Brazilians unlock their full potential.
MUTUAL EXCHANGE Camila Pereira, the Lemann Foundation's Director of Education, says the Foundation鈥榮 partners share their knowledge but learn form Brazil鈥檚 experiences as well.
Since 2014, 麻豆原创 has hosted 14 Lemann Fellows 鈥� Brazilian students who come to the College to further their research and knowledge, hone their skills, earn master鈥檚 degrees and return home to work on Brazil鈥檚 social challenges. With a generous gift this past summer, however, the Lemann Foundation significantly broadened that relationship.
鈥溌槎乖� is among the best education schools in the world, and we realized that there were many more opportunities for collaboration,鈥� says Camila Pereira, the Lemann Foundation鈥檚 Director of Education.
[Read an interview with Pereira about Brazil鈥檚 educational challenges, and how 麻豆原创 is helping the Lemann Foundation shape strategies for meeting them.]
The Foundation鈥檚 recent gift is funding two major research efforts in Brazil led by 麻豆原创 faculty members.
One is a five-year study of the National Common Curricular Base (BNCC), the comprehensive overhaul of learning standards in Brazilian primary and middle school grades. The study is led by the 麻豆原创 arm of the (CPRE), founded by 麻豆原创 President Emerita Susan Fuhrman and led by Douglas Ready, Associate Professor of Education & Public Policy.
In addition to scrutinizing the design and implementation of BNCC benchmarks, the study will analyze the BNCC influence on classroom learning, teacher preparation and policy application at the state, district and school level.
鈥淲e鈥檙e starting by understanding standards which have been several years in the making,鈥� says Ready, a former middle school teacher.
The project began last summer with initial interviews and will ultimately include input from a broad range of stakeholders, including the Brazilian Minister of Education and Culture, state and local policy-makers, non-governmental organizations, classroom teachers and students.
鈥淕iven the scale of our system, we definitely have issues of building capacity in the entire workforce,鈥� Pereira says. 鈥淏ut we also have highly qualified people who are doing amazing things that can be replicated.鈥�
An interview with Camila Pereira, Director of Education for The Lemann Foundation
How do you describe the Lemann Foundation to people in the United States?
We are a family foundation rooted in a singular purpose: to advance Brazil. In order to do that, we invest in the country鈥檚 talent and find ways to enable Brazilians to reach their full potential. We focus on helping Brazil promote large-scale systemic change in public education and also focus on leadership development, where we support change makers and social leaders who are dedicating their lives to positively impacting Brazil.
How tough is that challenge?
Well, this is Brazil. With 38 million public school students, 2.2 million teachers and almost 200,000 schools, it鈥檚 a large-scale challenge. It鈥檚 different from 鈥� let鈥檚 say 鈥� Finland or Singapore, who have much smaller student bodies.
That's why our strategy is to act as enablers; we鈥檙e empowering people on-the-ground 鈥� whether they鈥檙e teachers or local community organizers 鈥� to share what they know. And we bring ourselves inside of the education system by engaging with teachers and school leaders all across Brazil to ensure that change comes from the inside out.
Despite the challenges, though, we are seeing results. One of the achievements we are most proud of is our role in supporting the development of Brazil鈥檚 first-ever National Learning Standards document.
Why partner with American universities?
We believe there鈥檚 a lot of knowledge that exists out in the world that needs to be amplified. We know that there are institutions with experienced and expert faculty and students that we want to have open dialogue with and research and knowledge that we believe we can learn from and bring to Brazil. So in recognizing that, we established Lemann Centers at Harvard, Stanford, the University of Illinois, Columbia and other institutions. But it鈥檚 not just universities, and not just in the United States. We鈥檙e also bringing in knowledge to Brazil from all over the world, with partnerships with startups, government organizations and nonprofits from different parts of the world.
The partnerships offer a mutual exchange of knowledge; as we learn from our partners, they learn from us as well.
Why, in particular, were you anxious to work with Teachers College?
We鈥檙e building capacity in Brazil in topics such as curriculum development, classroom pedagogy research, social and policy development and implementation.
We鈥檙e bringing students to Teachers College to co-create possibilities for Brazil in the future.
So we initiated conversations with 麻豆原创 to explore how to inspire Brazilians to study here and then go back to Brazil. We included 麻豆原创 in our longstanding Lemann Fellowship program, and during the past five years, there have been 14 Fellows at 麻豆原创. They鈥檙e an amazing group of talented Brazilians, getting the best education possible, and they鈥檙e all committed to going back to Brazil to solve social problems.
But then we realized that there are many other opportunities to work together with 麻豆原创. For example, as I mentioned before, Brazil has just approved national learning standards. Lemann was deeply involved in advocating for the standards. So we talked to [麻豆原创 President Emerita] Susan Fuhrman and some of the faculty, because we realized that we could learn from them about some of the lessons they saw from the implementation of the Common Core in the United States.
What are some of the pitfalls of the U.S. experience that you hope to avoid?
Well, it鈥檚 easier to have more centralized processes and decisions in Brazil than in the U.S. You are more allergic to anything coming from the federal government in education.
We have states and municipalities, too, with autonomy 鈥� but they actually demand guidance from the federal government.
An interesting thing going on with the standards implementation in Brazil is that it鈥檚 fostering collaboration.
There are 5,500 municipalities in Brazil, all with autonomous education systems. In theory there could be that many curriculum systems based on curriculum standards. But we鈥檙e probably going to have states create their own, and then municipalities working with the state curricula.
More specifically, what is the 麻豆原创-Lemann Foundation partnership focusing on now?
When thinking about the challenges ahead of us, we felt that partnering with 麻豆原创 would be incredibly valuable in two specific areas.
The first has to do with following and monitoring the implementation of our national learning standards as that process goes from the creation of a document to actually implementing the standards in classrooms. Brazil doesn鈥檛 have a lot of research around policy implementation.
So, when I started looking at what the U.S. was developing 鈥� a lot of the work in New York and California 鈥� much of it was material from CPRE [The Consortium for Policy Research in Education, founded by Susan Fuhrman]. I started talking with Susan, and one of the three major components of our new partnership over the next five years is to make sure we have data about Brazil鈥檚 National Common Curricular Base, which is driving the reform of learning standards in Brazilian primary and middle school grades. Doug Ready, Associate Professor of Education & Public Policy, will lead that work.