Social function of countryside schools in current times: some notes

Abstract

In this article we recover some reflections on the social function of Escolas do Campo, in order to situate essential questions in the fight against the neoliberal vision and in the reconstruction of the purposes of schools in consonance with the social origin of the students and with the current problems of human life. It should be noted that the analyzes presented were constructed during the course of Amaral's research (2023), defended with the Graduate Program in Teaching, at the State University of Southwest Bahia (UESB), which had as its locus a Rural School located in the city. The notes are based on studies by Arroyo (2012), Bueno (2001), Caldart (2004, 2011, 2020), Fernandes (2011), Mészáros (2008), Martins and Neves (2012), Libâneo (2016), Souza ( 2018), Freire (1996) and Freitas (2019). These authors showed that the social function of Escolas do Campo cannot be detached from the challenges of the present time and from the context of the subjects of the educational action. Thus, the role of the school must be distinguished by the social origin of the students, moving away from the logic in which the interests of the capitalist system are reproduced, as it destroys the most elementary social sense and places the teaching units hostage to market norms, in which meritocracy, competitiveness, selectivity, production of results, control and achievement of goals prevail. Furthermore, it is necessary to learn from organized social movements, since they train young people to develop democratic, inclusive and cooperative forms of school organization; in addition to the experience of collective struggles for a project of social change.