POR QUE OS QUE FICAM, FICAM? A PERMANÊNCIA ESCOLAR DE JOVENS SERTANEJOS NO ENSINO MÉDIO

Abstract

The central focus of this investigation is on young people from a small town in the interior of Bahia, who are high school students, and their relationship with school and the future. To this end, our main objective is to understand the arguments constructed by the students to remain in high school based on their interactions with the school, educational policies, and socio-political and cultural contexts. This is a qualitative research study with an ethnographic perspective, conducted in a public high school in the state of Bahia, located in the municipality of Jussara, in the interior of Bahia state. Data collection instruments included participant observation, recorded in an observation diary; semi-structured interviews with sixty students; and document analysis: student files, school regulations and political-pedagogical project, the Bahia State Curriculum Reference Document, and statistical panels from the Basic Education School Census. The construction of the concept of youth was based on classical and contemporary sociological perspectives, and school retention was based on the studies of Vincent Tinto, analytically adapted to the specificities of Brazilian basic education. The results highlight the diversity of youth in the Sertão region, indicating how the condition of youth is experienced unequally depending on geographic origin. They also point out that, among the main arguments of the students for remaining in school, the completion of high school is seen as a means to enter higher education, a technical course, or the job market, with schooling being the necessary path to achieving their future goals. Furthermore, policies, strategies, and programs at the federal, state, and local levels act as contributions to the social and academic integration of the student, adding conditions such as expectations, support, feedback, involvement, and learning. This thesis argues that school retention in rural high schools is not a passive event of flow, but a life project mobilized by strategies of resistance and youth protagonism, demonstrating that retention is based on what we propose as a multidimensional anchoring triad: the pragmaticmaterial dimension (food security and aid), the symbolic-subjective dimension (school as a territory of protection and sociability), and the prospective dimension (social mobility via ENEM and diploma). This study contributes to the guidance and adoption of micro-public educational policies aimed at youth and school retention.