Ensaios reflexivos questionadores sobre cidades educadoras na perspectiva do turismo: cases Chile e Brasil

Abstract

In November 1990, in Barcelona, ​​Spain, the first International Congress took place of Educating Cities. The representatives of the cities present proposed to systematize, in a Charter, the basic principles that should form the educational profile of cities, especially with regard to their inhabitants. In conclusion, a new right of the inhabitants of the cities is affirmed: right to educating city. They are responsible for the right to an educating city the municipal administration and other instances that have influence in the city, just as its inhabitants must commit in this enterprise. In order to achieve the new right, these cities have agreed on a set of principles centered on the integral development of their inhabitants that guide the public administration. The 20 criteria established refer to: the role of public power, aspects of training, interventions aimed at reducing inequality, access to information, preservation and dissemination of local culture, spatial planning, freedom and cultural diversity and the inclusion of the population (mainly children and young people) in the decisions related to educational projects for cities. The Charter was reviewed at the III International Congress (Bologna, 1994) and at Genoa (2004), in order to adapt to new challenges and social needs. It is still the most important reference of the International Association of Educating Cities - AICE, which gathers 486 cities from 37 countries. In America, there are 12 countries with 64 associated cities. The distribution of these cities in America, especially in the cut of this essay, Chile and Brazil, is thus disposed: Chile: a city (Purranque); Brazil: 15 (Belo Horizonte, Caxias do Sul, Guarulhos, Horizonte, Mauá, Nova Petrópolis, Porto Alegre, Santiago, Santo André, Santos, São Bernardo do Campo, São Carlos, São Paulo, Sorocaba and Vitória). In Carta (2004), it is understood as an educating city that has its own personality, integrated in the country where it is located and, consequently, interdependent of the territory of which it is part "(sp), having as permanent objective" [... ] to learn, to exchange, to share and, consequently, to enrich the life of its inhabitants ". The city will be an educator when carrying out and developing this "function in parallel with its traditional functions [...], with a view to the formation, promotion and development of all its inhabitants" (s.p.). Educating cities, with their formal educational institutions, their non-formal and informal interventions, should cooperate bilaterally or multilaterally, making exchange of experiences a reality. Any city that commits itself to the principles of the Charter may join the AICE, but they must follow the procedures: a) approval of the adhesion at the municipal level by the competent councils; b) compliance with the principles of the Charter; participation in AICE's discussion, exchange and collaboration channels; c) payment of annual quota. In view of these guidelines, and insofar as: (a) a city is referred to as an "educator"; (b) the formative and pedagogical dimensions are implicit in the term "educator"; and (c) that these dimensions can not be circumscribed to the scope of activism; it is necessary to ask what is being taken into account when the city is referred to as "educator". What would be guiding the initiatives of possible instances called educators? Which epistemological-pedagogical bases could guide the "pedagogical initiatives" of the instances promoting these proposals / actions? Bringing to the scope of Tourism, would it be possible to carry out a re-reading of the educating city as a tourist destination? In this sense, what possibilities of promotion of tourist activities could be linked to the qualification of educating city? What possibilities of pedagogical activities by the tourism could be linked to the qualification of educator of the city besides the formal schooling and services and tourist equipment? Is it possible to think of shared public management through public policies between the areas of Education and Tourism? In addition, considering the criteriais found in the Charter, educative initiatives of Brazilian cities on the website of the International Bank of Documents of Educating Cities, the pedagogical potential of Chile, with its cultural diversity, natural, because there is only one city associated with this Network? Still with specific relation to Chile, it is questioned: what would be the base of this reduced number of Chilean educating cities? Is it the non-availability of and / or access to referential theoretical aspects to designate a city as an educator and to guide public policies and programs? Or would they be: aspects of municipal public management? The existence of cities whose initiatives already constitute an educating city regardless of the adjectivation or their adhesion to the AICE? Or is there not the recognition of possibilities of conjunction of the tourist and educational perspectives, including with Brazilian educating cities? What would be the position of the country in relation to educational initiatives and their relations with tourism? Finally: why answer these questions? In short, given the latency of positivity in exchanges of experiences and the strengthening of links between Latin American countries, these are all issues that deserve to be the object of reflection and scientific research. Therefore, overflowing borders of knowledge, education, pedagogical and tourist practices becomes a crucial factor when seeking sustainability in the development of Tourism.