The Teaching of the Visual Arts in the Lay Teacher Programme in Mid Araguaia, Brazil

This paper reports on a teaching experience which took place in a course for the qualification of primary school lay teachers in the mid-Araguaia region in midwestern Brazil. The greatest challenge was to work with the heterogeneity of the group of adult teacher/students from varied ethnic, social and cultural backgrounds (homesteaders, immigrants from other areas of the country, and Indians of the Tapirape´ and Caraja´ tribes), taking into account their multiple understandings and experiences in an attempt to maintain their individual identities while constructing new knowledge.