EXPERIENCE REPORT: VISIT TO THE BATIMARÉ AND SÃO MARTIN COMMUNITIES – PAULISTANA/PI

Abstract

This experience report, adopting a qualitative approach and sociological perspective, analyzes the visit carried out on June 21, 2026, to the Batimaré Indigenous community (Kariri People) and the São Martin Quilombola community, both located in Paulistana, Piauí, Brazil. Sixteen participants took part: students from the Indigenous Intercultural Education and Chemistry programs, as well as professors from the Federal Institute of Piauí — Paulistana Campus. The objective was to understand how immersion in traditional communities reshapes perceptions regarding knowledge, coloniality, and academic education. The methodological path combined participant observation, field diaries, dialogue circles, and visual records, with analysis grounded in references such as the ecology of knowledges, coloniality of knowledge, symbolic power, and critical interculturality. The results indicate significant changes in students’ attitudes: from a view associating traditional cultures with the past, they moved toward recognizing living, autonomous knowledges endowed with their own rationality. It is concluded that higher education is enriched when it learns to listen, questions who defines legitimate knowledge, and acknowledges communities as subjects who also produce knowledge. The experience points toward the need for an education grounded in reciprocity, respect for autonomy, and the redistribution of symbolic recognition.