Freirean inspirations in solidary internationalism between East Timor and Brazil in science education

The aim of this work is to reflect on the challenging trajectory of international cooperation between East Timor and Brazil, which focused on the need to rethink teacher education from a critical intercultural perspective, aiming to build emancipatory relations, love, and solidarity. From 2009 until 2016, we coordinated the Qualification of Teachers and Teaching of the Portuguese Language program in East Timor, inspired by the dialogicity of Paulo Freire, an educator well known and beloved by the Timorese people for his indirect contribution to the independence of that country. Freire’s dialectic denunciation-annunciation was essential to identify the problems and propose solutions with the Timorese and not only for them. In addition, through our experiences in that country, we identified issues like those of Brazilian education as the effects of coloniality and introjections of inferiority and subordination, as well as the transnationalization of education, among other problems. Thus, the Freirean dialectic denunciation-announcement of this praxis, together with Timorese education, drove us to examine our own Brazilian territory, provoking intersectional reflections related to racism, gender and sexuality issues, and social class prejudice, among other forms of oppression. It deepened ways of acting based on critical interculturality and the concept of decolonial pedagogy, which suggested ways to fight for social justice in science education.