The protagonism of young high school students in occupation at Escola Israel Pinheiro

Abstract

This paper approaches young people’s protagonism during the occupation of schools in 2016. It aimed to analyze the contributions of occupations, as a form of struggle, to the historical formation and critical citizenship training of high school students. The research setting was the Israel Pinheiro State School in the city of Ituiutaba, in the state of Minas Gerais, in Brazil, which was occupied by students, as a form of protest against the Proposed Constitutional Amendment (PEC/55), the Provisional Measure (MP/746) and the Escola Sem Partido (ESP) project. As a methodology, it is part of qualitative research, inspired by the ethnographic perspective of research in Education, using observation, production of field notes and interviews with young people who occupied the school. It was concluded that the experience contributed to the historical formation and critical citizenship formation, involved in the process of experiencing issues related to public education policies, the autonomy to carry out activities and the school self-management established by them. It allowed us to understand the place of young people in exercising citizenship, in the fight for the right to free, quality public education.