Memórias e processos educativos: uma análise da constituição da Comunidade Alto da Estação em Ituverava/SP – 1975–2003

Abstract

This dissertation aimed to understand which educational processes, processes of belonging, identities, and identification were constructed in the Alto da Estação Community (CAE), located in the municipality of Ituverava, São Paulo, Brazil, between 1975 and 2003. The study adopted a qualitative approach, developed through an autoethnographic-inspired perspective and grounded in hermeneutic-oriented thematic analysis. Data were constructed through semi-structured interviews with fourteen collaborators, documentary research, and field notes. The theoretical framework was primarily based on Stuart Hall, Paulo Freire, Ecléa Bosi, Jorge Larrosa, bell hooks, Cida Bento, and Oliveira et al. The analysis was organized into three thematic axes: identities, identification, and belonging; memory, stigma, and intergenerational transmission; and schooling, social practices, and educational processes. The findings indicate that identities, processes of identification, and senses of belonging within the CAE were historically constituted through community relationships, shared experiences of struggle, and forms of recognition produced within the territory. Community memories articulate experiences of stigma and pride, transforming the expression “dirty feet” (“pé sujo”) into an element of belonging and historical continuity. Educational processes emerged both through schooling, understood as a collective achievement, and through social practices developed in neighborhood relationships, rights-based mobilizations, religious activities, cultural experiences, and community life. The study concludes that the CAE was constituted as an educational territory, in which memories, identities, processes of identification, and educational processes were produced through collective experiences of organization, participation, and struggles for rights. This research contributes to the understanding of education as a social practice that extends beyond the boundaries of formal schooling and materializes in the everyday experiences of human formation lived within the community.