Sentidos da escola pública a partir das narrativas da comunidade escolar do Poti Velho – PI

Abstract

This document has as its research problem the understanding of the meanings of public school for a community in Teresina/PI and its developments in the problematization of school racism. To guide the study, I sought an understanding of the constitution of school racism supported by concepts from the philosophy of difference — State racism, in Foucault (1999) — and contemporary Brazilian sociology, in Jessé Souza (2022), based on his theorization concerning the middle class and the ralé brasileira (Brazilian underclass), problematizing public school in the neoliberal context. As empirical material, the following were used: a) documents from Firmina Sobreira Public School, Teresina/PI; b) nine semi-structured interviews with school segments and members of the neighborhood community, as well as a conversation circle with 11 students. To examine the empirical material, I draw inspiration from the concept of discourse, in Foucault, as an interpretative tool to analyze the narratives produced within the scope of the research. As main results, I highlight the meanings of public school circulating through the dimensions of learning and socialization, showing how public school resists its death and the discourse that claims it does not function — through everyday gestures of human formation and through the strength of the teacher figure.