Abstract
This article is the result of an exercise of problematization about secondary education in today’s context, considering the massification of this education level and how it is often seen by young students as an education that lacks meaning. We build on empirical research on the subject, as well as on a few important works that focus on the crisis of authority and how it extends onto the school and teachers, with the resulting generational tension. Then, we reflect on the different meanings school has been associated with due to the social, cultural and political changes that have been occurring. We consider school’s massification process and students’ frequent perception of a lack of meaning in school as one of the questions that can explain the tension in the school environment. With regard to the outcomes of this situation, we point that in spite of the universalization of access to education, the expansion of education offer, the increase in the schooling period, and the progressive loss of authority by teachers combined with tensioned generational issues in school, we find reasons to believe we are at the verge of building new meanings for both school and secondary education. We view this crisis situation as an activator of other, new school configurations pervaded with value for both teachers and young students.
Secondary education; Youth; School