BETWEEN SOCIABILITY AND RESISTANCE MOVEMENTS: THE MEANING OF SCHOOL EDUCATION FOR YOUNG OFFENDERS

Abstract

Despite legal advances, there is a difficulty of political actions to ensure the democratization of access and permanence in school of young offenders. School failure and dropout are a common phenomenon in young offenders’ lives, and a significant percentage of these youngsters do not attend school. Therefore, the objective in this article is to comprehend the significance that youngsters who currently attend an assisted freedom program attribute to school and their scholar experiences, aiming to identify the aspects which might act as facilitators and obstacles for their school attendance. The qualitative study used interviews with six young offenders who currently attend an assisted freedom program, participant observation and document analysis as instruments of data collection. It was found that school history of the young participants are marked by frequent changes of schools, school failures and expulsions, and that the institution has an ambiguous meaning to them, because while it discriminates, labels and is the scene of conflict with teachers and peers, it also promotes sociability and friendship relations. The data indicate that the youngsters subvert the school logic, prioritizing sociability at the expense of the official teaching of content. Overall, the narrative of young people on the school indicates that this space presents violence and resistance movements against the relations that oppress them, but also social relationships between friends and teachers.

Key words: School education; young offenders; meaning of school; educational processes.