THE HILL, THE ELECTRICIAN, AND THE MIRACLE

an untold history of vocational education for the black population in Brazil

Abstract

This article emerges from the confrontation between memories and forms of knowledge mobilized in the everyday life of a Black family group and the processes of invisibilization that permeate the historical and conceptual foundations structuring the official curricula of Vocational and Technological Education (VTE) in Brazil. By presenting these narratives and challenging such absences, openings are created for other histories, those that persist within memories and forms of knowledge that resist erasure. As a methodological and epistemological pathway, escrevivência and oralitura are assumed not merely as narrative resources, but as epistemological gestures that inscribe lived experiences, voices, and ancestry into the text. In dialogue with Afro-referenced perspectives, the research mobilizes conversations, records, and memories of a Black family group, reconstructing trajectories of education “in,” “of,” “with,” and “for” the world of work, on their own terms. These conversations reveal that the professional education of the Black population is woven through multiple temporalities, spaces, and meanings, historically disregarded by the literature in the field. By bringing these experiences to the forefront, the study points to the urgency of expanding the epistemological foundations of VTE, recognizing the plurality of knowledge systems and modes of existence present in everyday curricula as a condition for building an education that is truly emancipatory “in,” “of,” and “for” the Brazilian population.