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Meanings Assigned to the School: Integrative Review of National Literature

Abstract

This paper aims to understand the meanings that students, parents, and teachers, assigned to the school, through an integrative review of the last ten years of Brazilian literature (2007-2017). The search in the databases included material from BVS-Psi, SciELO, and PePSIC, using the following terms in both English and Portuguese: meaning AND school; perception AND school; “social representation” AND school. Considering the inclusion and exclusion criteria, 11 papers were selected. The meanings were classified into two categories: (a) Meanings that strengthen the bonds and (b) Meanings that weaken the bonds. Results indicate that the school is represented in several ways, and the research are predominantly conducted with students.

Keywords:
students; school; review; meanings

Resumo

Este artigo tem como objetivo compreender quais são os significados que alunos, pais e professores atribuem à escola, por meio de uma revisão integrativa da literatura brasileira dos últimos dez anos (2007-2017). A busca foi realizada nas bases de dados BVS-Psi, SciELO e PePSIC a partir dos termos em inglês: meaning AND school; perception AND school; “social representation” AND school e em português. Após critérios de inclusão e exclusão, foram selecionados 11 artigos. A análise foi categorizada a partir de duas categorias: (a) Significados que fortalecem os vínculos e (b) Significados que fragilizam os vínculos. Os resultados mostraram que a escola é representada de diversas formas, sendo a maior parte das pesquisas realizadas com os alunos.

Palavras-chave:
alunos; escola; revisão; significados

The school is an institution that, along with the family, shares the task of preparing and address children and adolescents to society. The school must contribute to the psychological development of students, teachers, family members, and managers. The school can be recognized as part of a group, or a generation, an institutional context with shared meanings which affect the personal identity of all these actors. Beyond these actors, the local community and society as a whole are also school members, and that is why the meanings, perceptions, and representations assigned to the school tend to be diverse (Campolina & Oliveira, 2009Campolina, L. O., & Oliveira, M. C. S. L de. (2009). Cultura escolar e práticas sociais: Episódios cotidianos da vida escolar e a transição para a adolescência. Educação e Pesquisa, 35(2), 369-380. https://doi.org/10.1590/S1517-97022009000200010
https://doi.org/10.1590/S1517-9702200900...
).

The meanings are created to belong to a communicative space, a culture; believing that in this space or culture other people will share such meanings (Angelo & Lins, 2017Angelo, C. L., & Lins, R. C. (2017). Alunos falam sobre a escola: do mundo dos adultos à terra do nunca. Educar em Revista, 62, 165-180. https://doi.org/10.1590/0104-4060.44134
https://doi.org/10.1590/0104-4060.44134...
). The place of the school in the students, parents and teachers' lives should be better understood, because the high evasion rates show an alarming reality, highlighting the need for interventions to rescue the meaning of school in these people's lives.

Updated information by the National Institute for Educational Studies and Research Anísio Teixeira (INEP) in June of 2017 reveals that 12.9% and 12.7% of students registered in the 1st and 2nd grades of high school, respectively, gave up school between 2014 and 2015, in Brazil. The 9th grade of the elementary school reached the third-highest evasion rate, 7.7%, followed by the 3rd high school grade, with 6.8%. Considering all grades of high school, evasion reached 11.2% of the total students in this education phase (INEP, 2017Instituto Nacional de Estudos e Pesquisas Educacionais Anísio Teixeira. (2017). INEP divulga dados os inéditos sobre o fluxo escolar na educação básica. http://portal.inep.gov.br/artigo/-/asset_publisher/B4AQV9zFY7Bv/content/inep-divulga-dados-ineditos-sobre-fluxo-escolar-na-educacao-basica/21206
http://portal.inep.gov.br/artigo/-/asset...
).

School failure and dropout are challenging situations that happen in the school that must be addressed by education and public policy. Evasion and dropout are different situations, which should be explained for a proper understanding of school failure. Evasion can be understood as an escape to perform another activity, i.e. the student leaves the school and no longer returns to that specific environment (Silva & Araújo, 2017Silva, F. R. B., & Araújo, R. M. de L. (2017). Evasão e abandono escolar na educação básica no Brasil: Fatores, causas e possíveis consequências. Educação Por Escrito, 8(1), 35-48. http://doi.org/10.15448/2179-8435.2017.1.24527
http://doi.org/10.15448/2179-8435.2017.1...
). A school dropout, in turn, happens when the student leaves the school environment, but returns later (INEP, 2017Instituto Nacional de Estudos e Pesquisas Educacionais Anísio Teixeira. (2017). INEP divulga dados os inéditos sobre o fluxo escolar na educação básica. http://portal.inep.gov.br/artigo/-/asset_publisher/B4AQV9zFY7Bv/content/inep-divulga-dados-ineditos-sobre-fluxo-escolar-na-educacao-basica/21206
http://portal.inep.gov.br/artigo/-/asset...
). Evasion and dropout result in a social problem because of the implications for society as a whole. Therefore, the factors which contribute to the incidence and maintenance of these problems in the school environment must be identified and confronted so that more and more teenagers conclude basic education (Auriglietti & SchmidlinLöhr, 2014Auriglietti, R. C. R., & SchmidlinLöhr, S. (2014). Evasão escolar: Causas, consequências e alternativas - O combate à evasão escolar sob a perspectiva dos alunos. Caderno: Os Desafios da Escola Pública Paranaense na Perspectiva do Professor PDE, 01, 1-21. http://www.diaadiaeducacao.pr.gov.br
http://www.diaadiaeducacao.pr.gov.br...
).

For a while, school failure was blamed almost exclusively on the student. However, institutional factors and educational practices are known to contribute to this reality, such as class councils, which allow students with low learning rates to move forward without actually learning. Although there is no consensus on the definition of school failure, it has been understood from age / grade distortion, failure, dropout and learning disabilities (Pezzi & Marin, 2017). However, aspects such as the teacher's role, curriculum, school management, and teacher-student relationship are intervening factors of school failure and need to be reevaluated to prevent the evasion (Forgiarini & Silva, 2008Forgiarini, S. A. B., & Silva, J. D. (2008). Fracasso escolar no contexto da escola pública: Entre mitos e realidades. Secretaria de Educação do Paraná: Dia a Dia Educação, 1-27. http://www.diaadiaeducacao.pr.gov.br/portals/pde/arquivos/369-4.pdf
http://www.diaadiaeducacao.pr.gov.br/por...
).

When school failure happens, the relationship between family and school may become conflicting. Parents' expectations and beliefs interfere with understanding the role of the school. They can blame the school for their children's difficulties and behavior, and hold the institution accountable for the students' professional future and sometimes to education as a whole. Parental representations are opposite to the school's narrative, which assigns the difficulties exclusively to the student. The school does not perform effective actions to approach the reality of the students and their parents, and just demand complementarity in the children's education (Saraiva & Wagner, 2013Saraiva, L. A., & Wagner, A. (2013). A relação família-escola sob a ótica de professores e pais de crianças que frequentam o ensino fundamental. Ensaio: Avaliação e Políticas Públicas em Educação, 21(81), 739-772. http://doi.org/10.1590/S0104-40362013000400006
http://doi.org/10.1590/S0104-40362013000...
). The representations of the school, created by the actors (parents, students, teachers, managers, staff), are present in the understanding of the problems in the school education system. When these representations are mistaken, especially concerning poor student performance, they may undermine interest in the school. Besides, successive failures and evasions may lead to school dropout (Nunes et al., 2014Nunes, T. G. R., Pontes, F. A. R., Silva, L. I. da C, & Dell’Aglio, D. D., (2014). Fatores de risco e proteção na escola: Reprovação e expectativas de futuro de jovens paraenses. Psicologia Escolar e Educacional, 18(2), 203-210. http://doi.org/10.1590/2175-3539/2014/0182732
http://doi.org/10.1590/2175-3539/2014/01...
).

The consequences of evasion in the student's life are many. The process of accountability for life in society, in the personal and professional perspective, and the context of citizenship can be damaged, as well as the awareness of the rights and duties in society. Another consequence is the restriction or barrier to access positions that require education level. Both evasion and dropout represent the difficulties of continuity and permanence of children and teenagers in school, and the accomplish of basic education (Pezzi & Marin, 2017).

One way of doing this work, preventively, is by understanding which is the meaning and the representation of the school that parents, students, and teachers have. A reflective look at the representations of freedom, authority, teaching, learning, transmission, and construction (Freire, 1996Freire, P. (1996). Pedagogia da Autonomia: Saberes necessários à prática educativa. Paz e Terra. ) allows comprehension of what are the elements that strengthen or weaken the process of attachment between the school main actors. Therefore, this study aimed to understand the meanings that students, parents, and teachers assign to the School, through an integrative review of the national literature.

Method

The method applied was the integrative literature review. This is a specific method that summarizes the past of empirical or theoretical literature to provide a broader understanding of a particular phenomenon, enabling both a summary of studies already published and the search for new knowledge (Botelho et al., 2011Botelho, L. L. R., Cunha, C. C. de A., & Macedo, M. (2011). O método da revisão integrativa nos estudos organizacionais. Gestão e Sociedade, 5(11), 121-136. https://doi.org/10.21171/ges.v5i11.1220
https://doi.org/10.21171/ges.v5i11.1220...
).

Search Strategy

The search for articles in the databases and the analysis of those that were selected took place on December 2017. The databases accessed were: Virtual Health Library - Psychology Brazil (BVS-Psi), Scientific Electronic Library Online (SciELO) and Electronic Journals in Psychology (PEPSIC). English descriptors with the Boolean operator AND were used to search for the studies: meaning AND school, perception AND school, “social representation” AND school; and the same terms in Portuguese. These descriptors were used to access studies that brought different meanings assigned to the school, from different motivations, perceptions, and interpretations. Also, they were included to understand if these attributions are related to the consolidation and breaking of bonds between students and school, and how this happens. The terms parents, students and teachers were not included in the study to not restrict the search. The descriptors were chosen to answer the question “what are the meanings/representations of the school for parents, teachers, and students?”

After searching each database, the following inclusion criteria were used: scientific article; available online; open-access; publications in Brazil; from the last 10 years (2007 to 2017); articles that address the theme: meanings or representations assigned to the school by students, parents or teachers. The exclusion criteria were dissertations and/or theses; books; non-open access articles, studies that did not address the main theme. All duplicate articles were excluded. The abstracts from the pre-selected articles were read, which helped to include or exclude them in this study, seeking greater validity of the searching method.

Study Selection

The first step was to identify the studies. After applying the inclusion criteria, duplicate publications were discarded based on their titles. Then the researchers read the abstracts and excluded those that did not have the theme as their main objective. Finally, for eligibility, the studies were read in full and the exclusion criteria were applied.

Information Collect Process

The studies that met the inclusion criteria were analyzed descriptively and qualitatively, in chart form (Chart 1), according to the following selected categories: (a) year of publication and authors, (b) objectives, (c) design, (d) instruments and (e) participants. Chart 2 presents the main results from the articles analyzed regarding the meanings assigned to the school.

Chart 1
Summary of the analyzed articles

Chart 2
Summary and overview of the meanings assigned to the school

Risk of Bias Between Studies

The search was performed by two independent judges, trying to obtain greater information reliability (Pasquali, 2010Pasquali, L. (2010). Instrumentação psicológica: Fundamentos e práticas. Artmed.). When divergence happens, a third reviewer must be consulted (Zoltowski et al., 2014Zoltowski, A. P. C., Costa, A. B., Teixeira, M. A. P, & Koller, S. H. (2014). Qualidade metodológica das revisões sistemáticas em periódicos de psicologia brasileiros. Psicologia: Teoria e Pesquisa, 30(1), 97-104. https://doi.org/10.1590/S0102-37722014000100012
https://doi.org/10.1590/S0102-3772201400...
). In this study, there was a consensus between the two judges, so it was not the necessary intervention of a third judge.

Results

The initial search showed 3,817 publications in October 2017. Applying the inclusion and exclusion criteria, 38 articles were selected. After reading the abstracts, 20 were excluded, and seven were duplicated. In the end, eleven studies met the grounded criteria and the purpose of this study (Figure 1).

Figure 1.
Diagram of the flow of selection of the articles

The integrative literature review surveyed the years of publications, study objectives, design, instruments applied and participants. The results are presented in Chart 1.

In general, the objectives of the selected studies were: (1) to present the process of recovering school, the reasons for this return and the meanings of school in adulthood (Ramos & Stella [E10], 2016Ramos, E. T. de, & Stella, C. (2016). Significados da escolarização para alunos da educação de jovens e adultos. Psicologia: Teoria e Prática, 18(2), 189-207. http://doi.org/10.15348/1980-6906/psicologia.v18n2p189-207
http://doi.org/10.15348/1980-6906/psicol...
); (2) to understand the meaning of school and schooling in different social classes (Passos & Gomes [E6], 2012Passos, G. D. O., & Gomes, M. B. (2012). Nossas escolas não são as vossas: As diferenças de classe. Educação em Revista, 28(2), 347-376. http://doi.org/10.1590/S0102-46982012000200016
http://doi.org/10.1590/S0102-46982012000...
); (3) to investigate the meaning assigned to the school by students and parents (Marques & Castanho [E5], 2011Marques, P. B., & Castanho, M. I. S. (2011). O que é a escola a partir do sentido construído por alunos. Psicologia Escolar e Educacional, 15(1), 23-33. http://doi.org/10.1590/S1413-85572011000100003
http://doi.org/10.1590/S1413-85572011000...
; Lima et al. [E2], 2008Lima, R. D. C. P., Colus, F. A. M., Gonini, F. A. C., Mokwa, V. M. N. F, & Petrenas, R. D. C. (2008). Qualidade e saudosismo: Representações sociais de pais sobre a escola. Psicologia da Educação, 27, 31-51. http://pepsic.bvsalud.org/scielo.php?script=sci_arttext&pid=S1414-69752008000200003
http://pepsic.bvsalud.org/scielo.php?scr...
); (4) by young people diagnosed with ADHD (Rangel & Loos [E4], 2011Rangel, E. de B. Jr., & Loos, H. (2011). Escola e desenvolvimento psicossocial segundo percepções de jovens com TDAH. Paidéia, 21(50), 373-382. http://doi.org/10.1590/S0103-863X2011000300010
http://doi.org/10.1590/S0103-863X2011000...
); (5) by young people in psychosocial risk and social vulnerability situations (Matos et al. [E1], 2008; Leite et al. [E9], 2016Leite, F. M., Pessoa, M. C. B., Santos, P. dos, Rocha, G. F, & Alberto, M. P. (2016). O sentido da escola: Concepções de estudantes adolescentes. Psicologia Escolar e Educacional, 20(2), 339-348. http://doi.org/10.1590/2175-3539/2015/0202983
http://doi.org/10.1590/2175-3539/2015/02...
), besides presenting the relationship between meaning, object, legitimacy and semantic spaces (Angelo & Lins [E11], 2017Angelo, C. L., & Lins, R. C. (2017). Alunos falam sobre a escola: do mundo dos adultos à terra do nunca. Educar em Revista, 62, 165-180. https://doi.org/10.1590/0104-4060.44134
https://doi.org/10.1590/0104-4060.44134...
); (6) to understand the meaning of school experiences and the relationship with students' life projects (Klein & Arantes [E8], 2016Klein, A. M., & Arantes, V. A. (2016). Projetos de vida de jovens estudantes do ensino médio e a escola. Educação & Realidade, 41(1), 135-154. https://doi.org/10.1590/2175-623656117
https://doi.org/10.1590/2175-623656117...
); 7) to analyze school as a cultural context and existential support for young people (Campolina & Oliveira [E3], 2009Campolina, L. O., & Oliveira, M. C. S. L de. (2009). Cultura escolar e práticas sociais: Episódios cotidianos da vida escolar e a transição para a adolescência. Educação e Pesquisa, 35(2), 369-380. https://doi.org/10.1590/S1517-97022009000200010
https://doi.org/10.1590/S1517-9702200900...
; Brenner & Carrano [E7], 2014Brenner, A. K., & Carrano, P. C. R. (2014). Os sentidos da presença dos jovens no ensino médio: Representações da escola três filmes de estudantes. Educação & Sociedade, 35(129), 223-1240. https://doi.org/10.1590/ES0101-73302014143847
https://doi.org/10.1590/ES0101-733020141...
).

Therefore, the objectives of the studies highlighted the perception of students regarding school. Only one study [E2] discussed the parents' representations regarding school, and another one the family and schooling issues [E6]. These findings guide to the need to conduct studies that analyze the meanings of school for parents, students, and teachers simultaneously.

Most of the studies found was a qualitative study (10). This methodological model seems appropriate to study this main theme, because it allows the analysis of perceptions and representations [E9], and can be considered significant methodological support since the structuring of knowledge is always a constructive-interpretative production (Rey, 2002Rey, F. G. (2002). Pesquisa qualitativa em Psicologia: Caminhos e desafios. Pioneira Thomson Learning.). On the other hand, there is a shortage of quantitative studies and/or studies of mixed-method, capable of inferring and correlating variables, such as learning levels and school perceptions, or future expectations concerning the education.

The results also point out that most of the selected articles used individual and group semi-structured interviews, as well as questionnaires and observations field for data collection. Considering that they are mostly qualitative research, these instruments are suitable for the method selected. Besides, nine of the 11 studies were carried out with students or alumni (children, adolescents or adults) and one study was conducted with parents. Only one theoretical study was found. Although there are researches conducted in this context, a large part investigated the students' perception of the school, excluding parents and teachers from the sample.

In this scenario, future studies that present the perception of the three groups in common (parents, students, and teachers) are needed to reveal different meanings and representations of the school context, allowing more specific and effective interventions to keep and reinforce bonds.

Chart 2 presents the main results overview and the meanings assigned to the school in each of the analyzed studies, revealing potential factors of strengthening or weakening of the bonds.

Discussion

The results indicated different meanings assigned to the school. Some meanings may contribute to the strengthening of the student's bond with the school. Studies indicate that school can interfere with the development of positive bonds with students producing exclusion, dropout, and evasion.

The selected studies were divided into two broad categories to better understand the analysis and discussion of the results: (a) Meanings that strengthen bonds, emphasizing the positive aspects, and (b) Meanings that weaken bonds - try to understand what can be done to improve specific situations.

The most important aspects that contribute to strengthen the bonds were: assertive communication, consideration for the students' singularity, presence of parents, the teacher's attitude, and appreciation of life context. The highlighted aspects that contribute to weakening the bonds were: uncertainty regarding school, the “meaningless” school, high rates of failure and low motivation, disconnected relations between student, school, and society, and background inequality. The subcategories mentioned were organized by the authors, considering the findings and the prevalence of these themes in the studies.

Meanings that Strengthen the Bonds

Assertive Communication

The meanings assigned to the school that strengthen the bonds are related to the school's role. The positive aspects were the flexibility and the school's involvement concerning the communication with parents, thus establishing a positive relationship [E6]. In this context, education goes beyond the physical environment. When it steps in the students' lives, playing an essential role, the school is no longer seen as an institution that only reproduces the dominant ideology (Freire, 1996Freire, P. (1996). Pedagogia da Autonomia: Saberes necessários à prática educativa. Paz e Terra. ).

Family-school communication is a fundamental point that needs to be improved. School's speech draws attention to the education of children at home, while the family wants to interact and learn more about their child's daily life at school (Saraiva & Wagner, 2013Saraiva, L. A., & Wagner, A. (2013). A relação família-escola sob a ótica de professores e pais de crianças que frequentam o ensino fundamental. Ensaio: Avaliação e Políticas Públicas em Educação, 21(81), 739-772. http://doi.org/10.1590/S0104-40362013000400006
http://doi.org/10.1590/S0104-40362013000...
). The beliefs and expectations of both contexts regarding student education need to be better understood to make communication more assertive.

Students’ Singularity

The school was also understood as an essential part of students' life projects, as a part of the human formation process, and this influences the meaning that each student assigns to the school [E8]. The school is recognized as a place of socialization and as a source of social and affective support, which promotes resilience and promotes challenging, not threatening experiences [E1]. Another responsibility of the school should be to consider the subjectivity of each student, stimulate self-confidence and cooperate in shaping their personality.

Presence of Parents

Another important result was the involvement of parents and/or family members in the school setting. In this context, it is unquestionable that the presence of parents can stimulate their children's freedom of decision and responsibility [E2]. Family involvement in the school not only improves student performance, but also the whole family relationship (Saraiva & Wagner, 2016Saraiva, L. A., & Wagner, A. (2016). Os estudos sobre a Relação Família-Escola no Brasil: Uma revisão sistemática. Educação, 39(esp), 114-124. http://doi.org/10.15448/1981-2582.2016.s.21333
http://doi.org/10.15448/1981-2582.2016.s...
). The benefits of parental participation increase the relevance of studies and reinforce the positive aspects of the school environment. Parents, in turn, feel more benefited as conflicts with school decrease, and the sense of well-being increases (Cavalcante, 1998Cavalcante, R. S. C. (1998). Colaboração entre pais e escola: Educação abrangente. Psicologia Escolar e Educacional, 2(2), 153-160. https://doi.org/10.1590/S1413-85571998000200009
https://doi.org/10.1590/S1413-8557199800...
).

Teacher Attitude

The feelings and the sense of well-being in the school environment are, sometimes, left in the background. They can reflect the pleasure of going to school, strengthens student permanence and contributes to reducing evasion. The attitude of teachers can actively favor this process, as they create expectations (positive or negative) in each student and can influence the failure or the success of academic life [E10]. Investing in the continuing education of teachers is also important so that classes can be more dynamic and establish a relationship between the lectures and the experiences lived by students, making dialogue and exchanges in the classroom easy, and result in a sense of permanence in the classroom [E9].

The Appreciation of Life Context

The necessity to relate the school context with the student's social context has also received an important meaning since the school-society relationship contributes to the construction of student subjectivity [E3]. Therefore, what students learn from their experiences and what they live casually in the school context cannot be neglected, but considered, from the singularity of each student.

Meanings that Weaken the Bonds

Uncertainty Regarding School

The meanings that interfere in strengthening the bonds between students and school are varied but mostly refer to the school's role. An ambivalence of meanings assigned to the role of the school by parents, students and/or teachers can be seen in the studies' results. One of the studies [E2] provides an example of this. The article reports that parents see the school as an institution responsible for tracing the social trajectory of their children, and should offer possibilities for professional, economic and family growth, include them socially. This research adds that failure to meet this expectation generates frustration and difficulty in communication between parents and school. Another aspect described by the studies was the school's difficulty in dealing with student differences. Besides, the construction of a more democratic environment within the school requires a collective effort [E5]. Studying and being at school does not make sense, for some students. On the other way, for other students, a school can be existential support [E7].

The “Meaningless” School

One study [E5] reveals the speech of some students who indicate the school as something worthless, which serves only to ruin students. This perception of school weakens the bond with students and leads to believe that the only possible solution is a dropout. In this context, it is necessary to strengthen this relationship, helping the school to have a significant value in the students' lives. The activities performed obtain higher significance when they are more than obligations and are related to the student's social life. Education must perpetrate personal knowledge so the learning process achieves meaning and importance (Reis, 2012Reis, R. (2012). Experiência escolar de jovens/alunos do ensino médio: os sentidos atribuídos à escola e aos estudos. Educação e Pesquisa, 38(3), 637-652. http://doi.org/10.1590/S1517-97022012000300007
http://doi.org/10.1590/S1517-97022012000...
).

High Rates of Failure and Low Motivation

Some studies have found high failure rates (46.9% [E2] and 48% [E4]), expulsion (19% [E4]) and compulsory transfers (28% [E4]). These rates may be related to the weakness of the bond between the student and the school, reported by students with some difficulty in school. These individuals also showed negative school-related emotions, revealing hurt feelings about teachers' behavior by giving prejudiced adjectives to some students. Also, they verbalized that parents are called to school only to deal with indiscipline, poor grades and inattention [E4]. The teacher's role takes on a central part because it is no longer just a content communicator and becomes an agent of change in students' lives, cause encourages them to be citizens and to think critically, and to use the contents learned at school in different daily situations (Bulgraen, 2010Bulgraen, V. C. (2010). O papel do professor e sua mediação nos processos de elaboração do conhecimento. Revista Conteúdo, 1(4), 30-38. http://www.conteudo.org.br/index.php/conteudo/article/viewFile/46/39
http://www.conteudo.org.br/index.php/con...
).

Disconnected Relations Between Student, School, and Society

The experiences of each student must be respected. The school curriculum and daily life need to consider and respect these unique experiences, and not exclude them. Also, the school needs to understand that it is inside a context that interacts with society, and therefore, it is part of the construction of each student subjectivity [E3]. The school's functioning and routine show how these elements still play an important role in the students' subjective experience [E3]. There is no single institution (school) that fulfills a specific role (transmitting content), that is, the school will always be in dialogue with the society demands that go through socio-historical issues.

Background Inequality

Finally, one of the studies highlighted the aspects of education in different social classes, where teaching happens unevenly. When the education system treats the different equally, it maintains this distinction, weakening the student-school bond [E6]. This situation also happens when the school follows a “model” and tries to fit all students in it, regardless of their singularities, producing a moralizing discourse and maintaining inequalities. The learning process is also influenced by the school's perception of the family, often naming it as “broken families”. The school needs to consider cognitive, social, affective and cultural aspects, and accept that students have prior knowledge from their previous relationships, and is part of a family system that has its own culture (Júnior et al., 2015Oliveira Júnior, I. B., Moraes, D. A. F. de., & Coimbra, R. M. (2015). Família “margarina”: As estereotipias de famílias na indústria cultural e a des/re/construção de conceitos docentes. Revista HISTEDBR On-line, 15(64), 266-279. https://doi.org/10.20396/rho.v15i64.8641941
https://doi.org/10.20396/rho.v15i64.8641...
).

Final Considerations

The results of this research suggest that, in recent years, some studies have investigated the meanings assigned to the school by students. These studies used, predominantly, the qualitative design to understand the phenomenon.

The findings of the studies understand that a school is an indispensable place, which has many positive and negative meanings. The positive meanings listed were: a necessary place to learn, to develop, to exercise autonomy and responsibility, “to have a future and be someone”, among others. Negative meanings were also attributed: hostile place, that does not accept differences, that "have no purpose", that plays a moralizing role, among others. Rethinking the meanings of the school context can help to design interventions to strengthen the bonds between school and student, as well as between school and family, to avoid evasion or school failure.

The steps developed in this field, so far, need to walk beyond the curriculum, and the old school model that should no longer holds today. The school is still recognized, mainly, as an institution that does not effectively interact with students, and is not prepared for diversity and innovation. The school's role must be reconsidered as an institution integrated into a social and political context. This institution has to undertake ethical responsibilities not only for education but for students and teachers. On the other hand, it is necessary for the family to effectively participate in the education process of their children because it seems that they do not know their commitment as a family.

This study has limitations regarding the chosen databases. Future studies may broaden the search on different bases, as well as review international and empirical studies. The authors suggest including other descriptors, such as beliefs and expectations. Future studies should also investigate whether there is a correlation between the meanings assigned to school and variables such as evasion, failure, prejudice and symptoms of mental disorders, for example. Psychology can take a critically reflective position concerning the meaning of school for students, parents, and teachers.

Providing meetings to training and dialogue between the three groups can contribute to the strengthening of bonds, and facilitate the understanding of the teacher's role in the student dropout process. It is necessary to work with all school agents to develop and promote a more critical and changing education, establishing more coherent meanings to the school.

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Publication Dates

  • Publication in this collection
    02 Sept 2020
  • Date of issue
    2020

History

  • Received
    19 Mar 2018
  • Reviewed
    30 Aug 2019
  • Accepted
    04 Sept 2019
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