Between us and the others of modernity

school violence and sustainability in the countercolonial turn

Abstract

The article proposes a philosophical and epistemological shift by incorporating Afro-descendant and Indigenous worldviews as alternative perspectives on the world, capable of challenging the modern paradigm that separates culture and nature, humanity and Earth, and individual and object. The theoretical framework articulates Habermas's decentered worldview and the category of “the others of modernity” with the formulations of Antônio Bispo dos Santos and Ailton Krenak. The methodological approach consists of a theoretical-interpretive analysis, guided by a hermeneutic reading of the texts and the construction of a conceptual framework on recognition, curriculum, and coexistence. The results confirm that interpreting school violence as a mere disciplinary, individual, or management failure conceals a colonial grammar that hierarchizes existences, memories, and belongings. It is concluded that the articulation among decentering, confluence, and belonging to the Earth allows for understanding violence as a crisis of the common world and repositioning the school as a micro-public sphere of dialogue, recognition, and socio-environmental responsibility.