COLONIALITY IN SOCIO-EDUCATIONAL SCHOOLS: A CRITICAL LOOK AT THE CONSTRUCTION OF NEW PATHS
Socioeducation; socio-educational school; coloniality; decoloniality.
This research has as its central theme the socio-educational school. Little known and little discussed in the field of geography, this school is present within socio-educational units, and exists according to a legal parameter that punishes adolescents who commit offenses, ultimately, with the deprivation of liberty. In other words, adolescent offenders can, according to the Law, lose their liberty and be interned in confinement spaces, and in order to guarantee their right to educational provision, there are specific schools within these spaces. The socio-educational school has some specificities that translate into problems. Julião (2016) discusses the systematic difference between being a school “in prison” and a school “of prison”. Being a school “in prison” reflects, for example, on the dynamics of functioning and the emotional state of adolescents. On the other hand, difficulties also arise because it is not seen as a school “of prison”. The lack of specific educational policies regarding the structuring and organization of content is, in itself, an obvious issue to be reflected upon. The “track” school model that often contributes to the exclusion of these adolescents is replicated in the socio-educational environment. Thus, we observe an inadequacy of young people complying with socio-educational measures to the education offered to them. Analyzing from theories that discuss coloniality, the aim is to investigate the socio-educational school and seek to understand how the dominant model of education is put into practice in a space of deprivation of liberty. The erasure of their identities as groups and individuals is one of the forms of violence that these young people suffer in relation to colonized education. However, the other side of the coin of the cultural imposition of coloniality in the formation of these individuals makes these same young people commit violence against other groups, such as women, homosexuals and religions of African origin. Therefore, based on the idea that socio-educational schools are structured based on an exclusionary and violent institutional model, this study aims to observe and reflect on the marks of coloniality present at Colégio Estadual Irmã Terezinha de Barros (CEITB), located at Centro de Socioeducação Irmã Asunción de La Gándara Ustara (CENSE VR) in Volta Redonda, in the interior of the state of Rio de Janeiro. The research is qualitative in nature and the methodology used includes a bibliographic review on deprivation of liberty, socio-education, coloniality/decoloniality, and decolonial education. The methodological procedures also include the analysis of legislation related to the topic and participant observation of daily school life, which is the field of this study, made possible by my work as a teacher at the school.