The BLACK EDUCATOR MOVEMENT: THE CONSTRUCTION OF A CONCEPT

Main Article Content

Nilma Lino Gomes
Glenda Cristina Valim de Melo
Branca Falabella Fabrício

Abstract

In this interview, professors Glenda Valim Mello and Branca Falabella Fabrício talk to Nilma Lino Gomes about the concept of the Black Educator Movement, which investigates Afro-diasporic discourses, practices and knowledge in Latin America. Nilma explains that the concept stems from her personal and political trajectory as a black woman, marked by experiences of racism and transformative contact with the black movement. This experience allowed her to re-examine Brazilian society in light of racial inequalities, understanding race as a structuring political and social category. Throughout her training and teaching career, Nilma realised that critical knowledge about racism, identity and black history was not learned in formal institutions, but in spaces of activism, collectives and black organisations. Based on this experience, she formulated the concept of the Black Educator Movement, understood as a set of practices, knowledge, and political actions historically produced by the black population. The meeting discusses how political, identity, aesthetic-corporeal, and intersectional knowledge is organised, systematised, and transformed into demands and interventions that re-educate both the movement itself and society. Such transformation requires resistance, collective struggle, political awareness, and the construction of a language guided by love as a political act.

Article Details

How to Cite
Gomes, N. L., Valim de Melo, G. C., & Falabella Fabrício, B. (2026). The BLACK EDUCATOR MOVEMENT: THE CONSTRUCTION OF A CONCEPT. Journal of Black Brazilian Researchers Association, 18(50), 14–49. https://doi.org/10.31418/revistaabpn.v18i50.2397
Section
The Movimento Negro Educador: circulating discourses and knowledges in Latin America
Author Biographies

Nilma Lino Gomes, Federal University of Minas Gerais, Faculty of Education, Belo Horizonte, MG, Brazil.

Nilma Lino Gomes is a full professor emerita at FAE/UFMG. With an MA in Education (FAE/UFMG), a PhD in Social Anthropology (USP), Post-Doctorates in Sociology (University of Coimbra) and Education (UFSCAR), she is a professor with the Graduate Program in Education, Knowledge and Social Inclusion (FAE/UFMG) and a collaborating professor with the Graduate Program in African and Afro-Brazilian Studies (UFMA). She is also a recipient of a Research Productivity Grant from Brazil’s National Council for Scientific and Technological Development (CNPq). She coordinates the Center for Studies and Research on Ethnic-Racial Relations and Affirmative Action (NERA/CNPq) and is the Principal Coordinator of the INCT “Transformative Education: Anti-racism, Intersectionality and Social Justice in Latin America” (INCT Antirracismo/CNPq). Deputy Coordinator of the project The Movimento Negro Educador: Discourses, Practices and Knowledges in Circulation in Latin America (CNPq), she is also a visiting professor with the Graduate Program in Education at UFOP (2026). She was a pro tempore Provost of the University for the International Integration of the Afro-Brazilian Lusophony (UNILAB, 2013-2014), and served as Minister of the Special Secretariat of Policies for the Promotion of Racial Equality (SEPPIR, 2015-2016) and of the Ministry of Women, Racial Equality and Human Rights (MMIRDH, 2015-2016)

Glenda Cristina Valim de Melo, Federal University of Rio de Janeiro, Department of Letters, Interdisciplinary Graduate Program in Applied Linguistics

A Tenured Professor with the Interdisciplinary Graduate Program in Applied Linguistics at the Federal University of Rio de Janeiro (UFRJ), and with the Department of Anglo-Germanic Letters at the same institution, Glenda Valim de Melo is a recipient of a Research Productivity Grant from Brazil’s National Council for Scientific and Technological Development (CNPq). She coordinates the research group “Performativity, Race and Intersectionality” (PRINT/CNPq). She is also Deputy Coordinator of the INCT/CNPq project “Transformative Education: Anti-racism, Intersectionality and Social Justice in Latin America”, and General Coordinator of the project The Movimento Negro Educador: Discourses, Practices and Knowledges in Circulation in Latin America (CNPq).

Branca Falabella Fabrício, Federal University of Rio de Janeiro, Department of Anglo-Germanic Letters, Rio de Janeiro, RJ, Brazil

A Full Professor with the Interdisciplinary Graduate Program in Applied Linguistics at the Federal University of Rio de Janeiro (PIPGLA/UFRJ). A member of the research team with the INCT “Transformative Education: Anti-Racism, Intersectionality, and Social Justice in Latin America” (INCT Antirracismo/CNPq) and with the research project The Movimento Negro Educador: Discourses, Practices and Knowledges in Circulation in Latin America (CNPq), she was a visiting professor at King’s College, London. Her recent research work focuses on textual trajectories, discourse circulation and identity performances in online-offline contexts. Her publications include the edited volume A Cidade Fala: Memórias, Linguagens e Resistências  (The City Talks: Memories, Languages and Resistances) (2025).