Education in cooperative cells as a social innovation: a case study in the Brazilian semiarid

Social innovation's fundamental objective is to promote life quality. Any new initiative with this purpose might be considered a social innovation. From this concept, it is perceived as social innovation the efforts of the Programa de Educação em Células Cooperativas (PRECE), an initiative originated in Pentecoste, a municipality in the state of Ceará, located in the Brazilian semiarid region. This program has benefitted hundreds of youngsters, enabling their access to knowledge and further approval in university entrance exams. The educational method of collaboration in cells made possible broadening the horizons of many youngsters coming from rural communities, even when lessons were ministered under a tree in the middle of a farm. The objective of this study is to identify the dimensions of social innovation, according to Tardif and Harrisson (2005), existing in the PRECE's proposal. It is aimed to evidence how the initiative is composed, bringing to light the essential elements that make it social innovative. A case study of PRECE was carried out through qualitative research. Data were collected via semistructured interviews with members of the direction and coordination of the Program, and analyzed using the software NVivo 10. The results highlighted how the dimensions of social innovation are composed within PRECE. This research contributes by foregrounding a social initiative that has been capable of changing individual realities in the Brazilian semiarid and showing how such initiative is constituted in the social innovative perspective.