Quilombola youth and school education: challenges of the Quilombola Community of Macaúbas Palmito

Abstract

School dropout in Brazil is a recurring problem that compromises the development of education, so it is necessary to understand the factors that lead a student to leave the school environment. It is based on this discussion that this study aimed at the municipality of Bocaiúva, northern region of Minas Gerais, has the objective of understanding the factors that drove the dropout of young people from the Quilombola community of Macaúbas Palmito and, furthermore, identify if the factors that led to this exit are the same ones that prevent them from returning. To this end, we resorted to questionnaires, along with conversations and observations that are marked by belonging and experience in the community. We came across internal factors such as infrastructure, coexistence, and commuting conditions, and others that do not focus on the school, such as the socioeconomic conditions that push for the labor market and home care. Such aspects showed us the complexity of the concept of school dropout, and awakened the need to associate it with what we define as school expulsion, because there are motivations that start from the conditions offered/constructed by the school amidst inequalities and social discrimination.