Abstract
This article aimed to study the relationship between political participation and territorial rooting among residents of a Quilombo located at the Ribeira Valley area (SP). The project was carried out within the Scientific Pre-Initiation Program of the University of São Paulo, and aimed to facilitate students of technical education in public schools to develop a complete research project, thus contributing to their scientific studies. During the program (that lasted for 12 months), students participated in all stages of the research: from the initial formulation of the issues investigated to the presentation of the project to the community leaders, including community visits to perform observations and interviews, interpretation of the data collected, and a final visit to the community in order to present the research results. Students and teachers were able to reflect about the relationship between the school and traditional communities in the region and achieved a significant improvement in educational activities. We conclude that the inclusion of Psychology in the high school curriculum has a formative value, both for the interdisciplinary possibilities that it presents as for the reflections on the relationship between the participants, their school and their physical, social and cultural environment that it favors.
Environmental Psychology; Quilombo; Place Attachment; High Schools