ABSTRACT
The aim of the following study is to discuss the results of studies about the influence of social vulnerability on school inequality in big cities, carried out in two Brazilian metropolises. Those studies have resorted to ECLAC literature, as well as French and American Sociology of Education literature, in order to find references to approach a phenomenon that has recently become a research problem. According to the herein investigated studies, the territory’s social vulnerability affects educational opportunities. They have found mechanisms able to produce links between the territory’s social vulnerability and school inequality, such as relations of competitive interdependence between schools, the lack of state investment in early childhood education, social representations unfavorable to people living in these areas, and the lack of public facilities in vulnerable territories. The studies have shown that educational policy contours may foster school inequality in vulnerable territories. More experienced and better trained teachers migrate to schools located in less vulnerable territories due to the transference program legislation. Students with less socio-cultural capital, whose parents are less aware of the type of social capital valued by the school, who are unaware of their rights, and live in the most stigmatized territories such as slums, may be passed over at school enrollment times, which may hinder their access to education. In the case of students expelled from schools, this stigma may contribute to the decision-making process, since schools seem to prefer students who are better adapted to less-troubled school environments.
Keywords:
Social vulnerability; School inequality; Territory; Educational policy.