Juventude e participação: os sentidos da experiência juvenil em duas escolas municipais de Campinas SP

Abstract

This research analyzes the different forms of youth participation into two elementary schools in Campinas SP, in its institutionalized and non-institutionalized spaces. The aim was to investigate the meaning of the experiences of the youngsters involved in the Self Evaluation Commission (Comissões Próprias de Avaliação CPA), which has been created by the municipality as part of the program of Participative Institutional Evaluation (Avaliação Institucional Participativa AIP). The objective of the CPA is to encourage processes of self-reflection among different groups in the school (students, teachers, managers, personnel and parents). This evaluation policy has proved to be interesting because of its participatory bias, which aims to democratize the social relations in the school, unlike the hegemonic market-based systems of education evaluation. However, beyond the possibilities provided by the CPA which was the starting point of this research , it was observed that in those schools youth participation was also very significant in non-institutionalized spaces. Thus, four different categories, based on the places where the participation took place, were created to analyze those experiences: representation, tutoring and projects, as places set by the school, and interstitial spaces, as places that have been created by the students without the adults initiative. Noticeable was the difference in participation between the two schools, which depended on the opportunities given by the educational institutions, but also on the actions held by the students in order to construct their own spaces. Part of the research was also dedicated to investigate the youth's perspectives, in regard to the school and their future plans, but also to their studies and participation. For this qualitative analysis, various methods have been used: planned semi-structured questions, on-site observations, social-demographic questionnaire, documents analysis and specialized bibliographic research.