Revista Psicologia Política
On-line version ISSN 2175-1390
Abstract
CARVALHO, Isabel Cristina de Moura; MEDAETS, Chantal and MEZIE, Nadège. "A lesson so very strong": learning, school and ritual in times of occupation. Rev. psicol. polít. [online]. 2019, vol.19, n.45, pp.244-260. ISSN 2175-1390.
This article is based on a concept of learning as a significant immersion in a lived experience, having as empirical reference the secondary movement of occupation of public high schools in Brazil, particularly the occupation of schools in Porto Alegre, RS. The occupation of schools is analyzed as a social movement that promoted the initiation into politics for many of the young people who engaged in it. Victor Turner's (1974) concepts of structure, antistructure, communitas, and liminality are evoked to account for the intensity of this experience which, from our point of view, bears analogy with a rite of passage to militancy and autonomy related to citizenship and adult life. In dialogue with a group of authors who work with the notion of learning as ontogenesis, formation of the person, continuity and engagement with practical and community life, we are interested in learning from the experiences of young people. The learning here will be identified as the processes of self-understanding and contextual understanding of the world, from the direct participation in the group of colleagues, in the social movement of occupation and in the space of the occupied school. In the face of the polarization between the communitas experience of the occupied school and the "normal" school, we discuss the different learning regimes within the educational processes engendered by both the formal education system and the experiences of participation in social movements, case of occupation.
Keywords : occupied schools; student movements; learning; communitas.