Case study of a Brazilian community association : a thesis presented in partial fulfillment of the requirements for the degree of Master in Public Policy at Massey University, Auckland, New Zealand
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Date
2007
DOI
Open Access Location
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Journal ISSN
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Publisher
Massey University
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Abstract
This is a Case Study Research done inside a poor community in Brazil. The
main goal of the research is to facilitate this community to understand their problems
and to overcome it. Therefore the researcher and the researched developed the following
question ‘why NovaMosanta is not achieving its goals? The researcher wanted to work
as a facilitator throughout the whole process of dialogue that aims to empower the
community. Departing from that question and based on Freire’s ideas of education the
research aims to build new knowledge from the interaction of academic and community
knowledge. To implement this case study field research the researcher decided to use
Participant observation and questionnaires. Surprisingly during the research the NGO
called NovaMosanta faced the challenge of remodeling a public school without
government help; otherwise the school would be closed. This NGO succeeded with the
help of the New Zealand Government that gave NZ$15,000 to build two new
classrooms in the school. Community members helped working in the remodeling and
local commerce gave discounts to enable the remodeling. As a result the school will not
be closed and the students will continue to study there. It also helped to increase
community support and participation. Although not designed as a Participant Action
Research, this thesis evolved to produce action and to change the community reality. It
was an empowering process to the researcher and the researched. The community
support increased and it also served s a catalytic event in the process of transformation
and inclusion. Finally it clarifies the importance of producing fast results to maintain
community support. You can check the research results in the links below that contain
two local network reports about it. (http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Hz_FItXp3nM)
& (http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=py5emCNXRlo)
Description
Keywords
Non-governmental organisations, Community participation, Community support, Public schools