Escola no meio popular e vulnerabilidade social : perspectivas de adolescentes no bairro de Cruz das Armas/João Pessoa - PB

Abstract

In the context of the current Latin American debate, there has been a need for Popular Education to equip itself with emerging approaches that are crossing the educational landscape. New phenomena are demanding such a field to overcome the prevalence of the same paradigms that dominated the 20th century. The issue of violence, for example, is one of these phenomena. Social inequality has led to consequences for young people, such as situations of vulnerability, extreme poverty, the world of crime and drugs. With this in mind, public schools located in vulnerable contexts, from the perspective of Popular Education, constitute a pedagogical alternative that is distinct from the hegemonic aspects that are guided by the conditions of capitalism in the political, economic, social and cultural dimensions. The present research is located in this thematic field, with its general objective being to analyze how students in the Final Years of Elementary School at Escola Municipal Em Tempo Integral Almirante Barroso, in João Pessoa-PB, relate school education with their future perspectives. In order to achieve its purpose, the research has the following specific objectives: a) to identify how the school's students understand school education; b) to investigate the educational practices developed by the school; c) to reflect on the social vulnerability of the school's locality. From the point of view of its theoretical framework, the study basically takes into account the contributions of two critical spheres: The sociological analytical bases about inequality and social mobility, and the emerging Latin American perspectives of Popular Education. Methodologically, this is a qualitative study that was carried out through non-systematic observations at the Almirante Barroso Full-Time EMEIEF and through narrative interviews with the teachers; with the adolescents, a focus group was held and they produced essays about their experience. The empirical material resulting from the interviews was scrutinized according to the technical procedures of Thematic Analysis. As a result of the Thematic Analysis carried out, the work came up with six categories, which guided the discussion of the results regarding the teachers: 1) Social context of the Almirante Barroso School; 2) Educational proposal developed at the Almirante Barroso School; 3) Difficulties faced in daily school life; 4) Actions aimed at overcoming the difficulties; 5) Students' trajectory; 6) Teachers' perspectives on the students. With regard to adolescents, the empirical material was analyzed through direct inferences, based on readings and re-readings, with some influence of Thematic Analysis, resulting in four thematic categories: Self-description: what he/she does outside of school; 2) Daily life in the neighborhood; 3) Future perspective; 4) The school. Among other findings, the following was identified: 1) students value the search for social mobility and quality of life, not wanting to reproduce the condition in which they live; 2) some teachers and their practices encourage students to attend school; 3) although the practices at Escola Almirante Barroso are close to the parameters of Popular Education, there is a need to have a training process involving all teachers, in order to enable comprehensive knowledge of reality and respect for the diversity of adolescents.