Horta-oca: space for coexistence, housing, exchanges, learning and culture of ideas

Abstract

The text presents an experience report on the vegetable garden of the National Institute of
Deaf Education that is being cultivated by art teachers and deaf students aged between 8 and
21 years. Begun in 2015 with a class of 1st year of elementary school, the horta-oca (garden-
-oca) is configured as a space for coexistence, exchanges, learning and cultivation of ideas.
Experienced pedagogical practices and the use of tools such as the hoe, excavator and shovel
made possible the agency and amplification of the corporal and sensory experiences of the
children and young people according to the principles of education through the experience and
practice from Paulo Freire. The horta-oca, connected to the notion of Agroecology, provides
an environment favorable to the revaluation of popular and indigenous traditions and wisdoms,
the encounter with the diversity of knowledge and tastes, the connection with the earth and the
cycles of nature and the reflection on the relation between science and art, with emphasis on
collective actions that promote the Bem viver. The narrative of lived experiences consolidated
in the format of an action diary adds a visual narrative composed of photos and small videos
produced in the course of the process.