Revista Brasileira de Educação do Campo
Brazilian Journal of Rural Education
ARTIGO/ARTICLE/ARTÍCULO
DOI: http://dx.doi.org/10.20873/uft.rbec.e11490
Tocantinópolis/Brasil
v. 6
e11490
10.20873/uft.rbec.e11490
2021
ISSN: 2525-4863
1
Este conteúdo utiliza a Licença Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 International License
Open Access. This content is licensed under a Creative Commons attribution-type BY
Rural young in High School: schooling experiences and
youth expectations
Karla de Freitas Alves Pinto
1
, Ruth Bernardes de Sant'Ana
2
1
Universidade Federal de Viçosa - UFV. Departamento de Economia Doméstica DED. Avenida Peter Henry Rolfs s./n.,
Campus Universitário. Viçosa - MG. Brasil.
2
Universidade Federal de São João del Rei - UFSJ.
Author for correspondence: karlaalvesp@ufv.br
ABSTRACT. This article presents the results of a research that
sought to analyze the schooling process of young students in their
first year of Higher Education from a rural school. We try to
highlight the most significant facts of the school experiences
brought by students and their expectations for the future with the
aim of understanding the meaning they attribute to the
experiences in a school located in countryside. The research
procedures were establishment observations, individual semi-
structured interviews, questionnaire and documentary study The
survey data suggest that teenagers are able to express their
opinions about classes, content and school. From the research
data, we can say that youngsters are able to express their opinions
about classes, content and school. From the interviews, we
realized that the meanings attributed to the school in the
schooling process are positive, since young people feel confident
in this institution.
Keywords: rural youth, high school, schooling.
Pinto, K. F. A., & Sant'Ana, R. B. (2021). Rural young in High School: schooling experiences and youth expectations...
Tocantinópolis/Brasil
v. 6
e11490
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2021
ISSN: 2525-4863
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Jovens rurais do Ensino Médio: experiências escolares e
expectativas juvenis
RESUMO. Este artigo apresenta os resultados de uma pesquisa
que buscou analisar o processo de escolarização de jovens do 1º
ano do Ensino Médio de uma escola pública rural. Procuramos
destacar os fatos mais significativos da experiência escolar trazidos
pelos alunos e suas expectativas de futuro, com o objetivo de
compreender os sentidos que eles atribuem às vivências em uma
escola localizada na zona rural. Os procedimentos de pesquisa
utilizados foram observações de estabelecimento, entrevistas
individuais semiestruturadas, questionário e estudo documental. Os
dados da pesquisa sugerem que os jovens são capazes de opinar
acerca das aulas, dos conteúdos ministrados e da escola. A partir
das entrevistas, percebemos que os sentidos atribuídos à escola no
processo da escolarização são positivos, já que os jovens se sentem
confiantes nessa instituição.
Palavras-chave: juventude rural, ensino médio, escolarização.
Pinto, K. F. A., & Sant'Ana, R. B. (2021). Rural young in High School: schooling experiences and youth expectations...
Tocantinópolis/Brasil
v. 6
e11490
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2021
ISSN: 2525-4863
3
Jóvenes rurales de la Escuela Secundaria: experiencias
escolares y expectativas juveniles
RESUMEN. Este artículo presenta los resultados de una
investigación que buscó analizar el proceso de escolarización de
los jóvenes estudiantes del primer año de la secundaria de una
escuela rural. Tratamos de resaltar los hechos más significativos
de la experiencia escolar aportados por los estudiantes así como
sus expectativas para el futuro, a fin de comprender los
significados que atribuyen a las experiencias en una escuela
secundaria ubicada en zona rural. Los procedimientos de
investigación utilizados fueron: observaciones del
establecimiento, entrevistas individuales semiestructuradas,
cuestionarios y análisis de documentos escolares. Con los datos
de la investigación, podemos decir que los jóvenes son capaces
de expresar sus opiniones sobre las clases, el contenido y la
escuela. A partir de la entrevista echa a los jóvenes, nos dimos
cuenta de que los significados atribuidos a la escuela en el
proceso escolar son positivos, ya que ellos se sienten confiados
en esta institución.
Palabras clave: juventud rural, escuela secundaria, escolaridad.
Pinto, K. F. A., & Sant'Ana, R. B. (2021). Rural young in High School: schooling experiences and youth expectations...
Tocantinópolis/Brasil
v. 6
e11490
10.20873/uft.rbec.e11490
2021
ISSN: 2525-4863
4
Introduction
This paper
i
presents the results of a
research that aimed to analyze the
schooling process of rural high school
youngsters in Rio das Mortes, district of
São João del-Rei, Minas Gerais, in a
school located 8 km from this city. The aim
of this study was to identify the role of
school in these people’s lives, as well as
their life perspectives in a context of
social, cultural and economic
transformations in which the
differentiation of urban and rural spaces is
reconfigured and becomes increasingly
tenuous.
The research subjects were rural
youngsters from the 1st year of high school
in a public school. The research sought to
highlight the most significant facts of the
school experience brought by the students
and, to this end, the researcher undertook
an investigation with a
plurimethodological approach – qualitative
and quantitative at the same time. The
questionnaire, as well as semi-structured
individual interviews and observations
were the primary sources for data
collection, while medical records, files,
among other student documents, were
configured as a secondary source of data
collection. The questionnaire dealt with the
socioeconomic characterization of students
and their families, on school activities
inside and outside the establishment, and
on youth schooling in its relations with
urban and rural areas. This collection
instrument was designed to cover all
students in the class, unlike the interview,
whose purpose was to address the
meanings of the school experience,
through attentive and dialogic listening –
that why it should reach a small number of
teenagers, and ensure the same proportion
among boys and girls.
This class is made up of 33 students:
17 boys and 16 girls. When the
questionnaires were filled out, 10 students
were absent; among the 23 present, three
refused to participate. One of the
youngsters who did not want to answer the
questionnaire was the one who was more
aloof and suspicious. Considering all the
classes observed, he was the most distant
with regard to teachers and subjects. The
other two who didn’t respond are
apparently influenced by that one.
Regarding the girls, they readily wanted to
answer the questionnaire and did not have
much difficulty in doing so. All showed
interest in collaborating with the research,
and some of them established a closer
relationship of friendship with the
researcher.
Individual interviews were
conducted with 12 teenagers who agreed to
participate, 6 girls and 6 boys. In order to
Pinto, K. F. A., & Sant'Ana, R. B. (2021). Rural young in High School: schooling experiences and youth expectations...
Tocantinópolis/Brasil
v. 6
e11490
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2021
ISSN: 2525-4863
5
get a greater number of young males –
with the aim of making the number of
interviewees between the sexes more equal
– the researcher had to insist a lot on the
invitation to young men, as some of them
did not really appreciate giving interviews.
We assume that the school is a place
where many teenagers spend a large part of
their lives. In fact, it is not new that many
schools are unable to attract and retain
teenagers, but it is usually in this space of
encounters and experiences that they begin
to build their life project. We share with
Leão, Dayrell and Reis (2011) the
conception that the expectations for the
future of young people refer to the idea of
achievements in the professional, affective
and school context. Such expectations
depend on a field of possibilities given by
the socioeconomic and cultural context in
which the young person finds
himself/herself. Understanding the
expectations of these youngsters allows,
above all, to comprehend the different
anxieties of those in this age group of
schooling and, at the same time, to reflect
on significant aspects of the social world in
which they are inserted (in and out of
school) in their relationships with the
prospects for the future they envisioned.
Thus, it is at school that youngsters
establish relationships that greatly
influence their life, their choices and their
school trajectory. To better fit the
teenager’s needs, the school must focus on
aspects related to the permanence of the
student and the quality of services offered.
To this end, it is necessary to be aware of
the institution’s operating conditions, the
training of teachers, the quality of teaching
materials, the reading in school work, the
participation of parents in school and at
home, and the quality of school meals
(Dayrell, 2007).
For rural young people, the school
establishment is a very important relational
territory, which allows them to experience
various exchanges, the elaboration and
redimensioning of social norms and the
constitution of ways of living life as
teenagers and students at the same time,
from sociocultural references that are
simultaneously rural and urban that are
modulated in the here and now of the
social interaction among them.
The global and the local are probably
mixed in the lives of rural young people
who managed to reach high school and
affect their immediate and immediate
projects. In this way, we seek to identify
the role of school in the lives of these
subjects and the perspectives of life in a
context of social, cultural and economic
transformations in which the
differentiation of the borders between
urban and rural is reconfigured and
Pinto, K. F. A., & Sant'Ana, R. B. (2021). Rural young in High School: schooling experiences and youth expectations...
Tocantinópolis/Brasil
v. 6
e11490
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2021
ISSN: 2525-4863
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becomes increasingly tenuous, to the
extent that these new dynamics in rural
areas should have more impact on the
younger population and those with a longer
schooling path provided by high school.
One way to investigate the teenagers’
experiences of students living in the rural
world today is to analyze how they
perceive the impacts of schooling in their
fields of possibilities in the present and in
the future. Currently, they live a trajectory
less common for the previous generation,
that is, attending high school and having a
later entry into the world of work.
Schooling of rural teenagers: contexts
and challenges
When it comes to reflecting on the
Brazilian educational system, there is a
consensus in the perception that secondary
education is the level of education that
provokes the most controversial debates,
whether because of the persistent problems
of access and permanence, or because of
the quality of education offered, or by the
discussion about its identity (Kuenzer,
2007).
The inclusion of secondary education
in the context of basic education and its
mandatory nature demonstrate the
recognition of its political and social
importance. This is a growing demand for
schooling in a context of devaluation of
diplomas due to the expansion of access to
all levels of education, including higher
education, and the economic imperative of
expanding the training of young people for
competition/insertion in the market formal
work. Secondary education represents only
the last three or four years of basic
education, but it presents difficulties when
defining policies for this stage of schooling
that has never had a very clear identity,
both in terms of access to university and
professional training (Krawczyk, 2013).
For most teachers and researchers,
young people who attend high school are
understood only in terms of their student
dimension. In this way, the condition of
student appears as a natural fact, and not as
a social and historical construction.
Regardless of gender, age, social origin or
social experiences, it is the student’s
condition (almost always in its cognitive
dimension) that informs the understanding
that the teacher or researcher builds on
these actors. The stage of life and its
peculiarities, social origin, gender and
ethnicity, among other dimensions that
constitute him/her as a young person,
should be placed in parentheses in the
name of the student’s cognitive progress.
That is why these elements of the youth
experience are not taken into account and,
when approached outside the school, the
student’s life appears as a time empty of
Pinto, K. F. A., & Sant'Ana, R. B. (2021). Rural young in High School: schooling experiences and youth expectations...
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meaning in the definition of the teaching-
learning process. In this understanding,
little is learned about the real subjects who
attend school, the multiple dimensions of
their social experience, their demands and
expectations (Leão et al., 2011).
According to Castro (2005), for
adolescents from the rural youth universe,
a challenge is the uncertainty between
“going out and staying” in the countryside,
due to the difficulties of remaining in
agriculture, the limits imposed by the
scarcity of land, the low income of families
and, consequently, the meager investment
in production. Young people live in a
dilemma between the possibility of
becoming owners of land (or of some
property) and the aspiration to live in
cities.
According to Matos (2002), the
departure of youngsters from the
countryside to the city is also due to the
search for the “modern”, which, according
to the author, characterizes the view of the
rural as backward or primitive. This vision
leads rural teenagers to desire the
“moulds” of “modern” urban youth so as
not to be seen or see themselves as
“backward” or “inferior”.
To counteract this image of
inferiority, young people often seek to
appropriate new technologies and
academic knowledge. Part of this new
appropriation of ways of being in society is
also a reflection of the loosening of
territorial boundaries, as shown in the
study by Carneiro (1998). This author
suggests that countryside and city are
increasingly interconnected, which
contributes to redefining the dynamic
between these two poles.
Carneiro (1998) also reminds us that
the media are strong influences in this
narrowing of borders, since they have an
important impact on the redefinition of
values and this can lead to difficulties in
defining the particular characteristics of a
given space. However, the author observes
that the increasingly intense exchanges
between countryside and city do not
eliminate their specific social and cultural
characteristics.
According to the study by
Breitenbach and Corazza (2019), the issue
of rural youth gained centrality, especially
because it is a category associated with the
future of the rural environment. In this
context, the social identity of the Brazilian
rural youth is built in a process of dialogue
between the rural universe and urban
spaces. Subjective aspects such as
emotional attachment and family ties have
an important influence on the permanence
of young people in rural areas. In addition,
the difficulties and uncertainties found in
rural areas and the existence of more than
Pinto, K. F. A., & Sant'Ana, R. B. (2021). Rural young in High School: schooling experiences and youth expectations...
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v. 6
e11490
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2021
ISSN: 2525-4863
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one generation on the same property
compromise the transfer of heritage and
the succession of inheritance between
generations. These factors that still figure
today as the main responsible for the
departure of young people from the world
rural.
According to a survey carried out by
Santos (2017), the rural exodus, especially
of young people, has been constant in
recent years. There are several reasons that
drive young people to the city, among
which is the lack of incentives for these
young people to remain on the family
property and develop activities there.
Methodology
To understand the school experiences
and expectations of young people, we
carried out observations of the first-year
high school classroom, in order to obtain a
more global understanding of the subjects’
interactions in the classroom, as well as
their relationship with the school in their
schooling process.
The observations were descriptively
recorded in the field diary, with the aim of
storing the impressions of everyday school
life. In some situations, the recording of
impressions after leaving the classroom
was used. The observations generated an
initial discomfort for some teachers, who
feared they were being evaluated or
judged, and for some students, because
they thought that the researcher could be a
school employee.
The questionnaire applied helped us
in the task of drawing a profile and better
characterizing the universe of research
subjects by containing the opinions,
beliefs, feelings, interests, expectations,
social origin, monthly family income and
relationship with the work and with the
school. This allowed us to bring together
school and extra-school experiences.
According to Gil (2008), a positive
feature of the questionnaire is its ability to
cover a large number of people in a short
period of time, in addition to guaranteeing
the anonymity of the subjects who answer
it. This can give more freedom in the
elaboration of responses, since there is no
concern about the possible consequences
of their statements.
We conducted individual interviews
with 12 teenagers, 06 (six) girls and 06
(six) boys. All students in the class were
invited, but in the second round a girl had
left the district to live in São Paulo. We
also carried out a semi-structured
interview, that is, one directed through a
previously established script, consisting of
open questions. Even elaborated in
advance, this script allows for flexible
organization, which gives the researcher
the possibility to expand the questions as
Pinto, K. F. A., & Sant'Ana, R. B. (2021). Rural young in High School: schooling experiences and youth expectations...
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the respondent offers information and
expresses himself with some freedom on
the topics indicated. With this type of
interview, we assume a less directive role
in the search for an open dialogue with the
intention of understanding under what
perspective the interviewee speaks and of
bringing out significant aspects about the
research topic.
General characterization of the School,
the socio-economic conditions of the
young people, their families and the
schooling of the surveyed teenagers
The school used as the empirical
basis for this research was the Evandro
Ávila State School, located in Rio das
Mortes, district of São João del-Rei, Minas
Gerais. There is no exact definition of
when this school was founded, only
accounts of various possible dates. No
records were found referring to the
Evandro Ávila State School, nor in the
school itself, nor in the Regional Teaching
Superintendence (SRE) or even in the
Municipality of São João del-Rei.
Therefore, all information was materialized
by reading blogs (from the school and the
Minas Gerais government), from the
School’s Political Pedagogical Project and
information from oral history.
At the time of the research, the
school had 423 students. Elementary I (1st
to 5th grade) had 112 students in the
afternoon, Elementary II (6th to 9th grade)
had 177 students with one class in the
afternoon and five classes in the morning.
High School had four morning classes,
with 110 students, and an evening group of
Youth and Adult Education (EJA), with 24
students. There was also an Acceleration
Class (TA) from the 9th grade of
Elementary, with a view to moving to the
1st year of High School, whose objective is
to correct the age/grade distortion and
reduce school failure – a government
program called “continuous progression”.
Most of the students at the school belonged
to the district of Rio das Mortes, but most
of them lived in other villages. The
distance between school and villages is
also variable, such as the village of
Goiabeiras, which is 4 km from Rio das
Mortes.
The school’s team of workers totaled
43 people, including teachers (permanent
and contracted), supervisors, pedagogical
coordinators, technical assistants in basic
education (secretary assistant), secretaries,
basic education service assistants
(cantineiras), technical assistants in
education basic (financial/accounting part),
librarians, director and deputy directors.
Regarding the position in the ranking
of reference schools in the state of Minas
Gerais by the Basic Education
Development Index (Ideb) of 2009,
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Evandro Ávila School occupied the
position number 492 among Minas Gerais
public schools, in a list with one total of
3,497 positions. Regarding the school’s
IDEB, in 2013 the educational institution
reached the goal of 7.6 in the initial years
of the state network, with the goal being
5.2. In relation to the final years, it also
reached the target set by the government of
4.5, but did not maintain the previous score
of 6.0, as it obtained 5.3, which means a
significant drop. In addition, the school
registered a percentage of 68% of students
who learned the proper skills in reading
and interpreting texts by the 5th grade.
Students who attended this school
arrived at 7:20 am, on foot or by school
bus. They found the gates open, entered the
school and chatted with groups of friends
in the school yard while waiting for classes
to start at 7:30 am. The school atmosphere
was relaxed, with little conflicting social
relations between students and school staff.
A large part of the families with
which young people live is nuclear, that is,
they are made up of the father and the
mother. In general, the students who
participated in the survey belong to
relatively small families (4 to 7 members)
and the vast majority are parents and two
children, live in the rural area, in the home
of their parents or grandparents, are aged
between 15 and 17 years old and all live
with family, and no young person is
married.
The analysis of the interviewees’
family situation suggests that only 10% of
the students’ families do not live in their
own home and just over half of them
(55.6%) have rural properties (land
destined for cultivation). The level of
education of the parents or guardians is
predominantly complete elementary school
and only in one case the father has a
university degree. The level of education
of mothers has an average of 28.6% in
each of the following levels: incomplete
1st degree, complete 1st degree and
complete 2nd degree. Only two mothers
have completed higher education.
The family income of 81.8% of
respondents, considering all working
adults, is no more than three minimum
wages. It is noteworthy that in none of the
valid answers the family income was
above 06 minimum wages.
Regarding the mother’s or guardian’s
profession, nine categories were listed by
the interviewees. Of the total number of
mothers who work outside the home,
21.4% work as domestic servants.
Furthermore, 21.4% are housewives. A
nursery helper mother and another cook
were also mentioned. As for the profession
of the father or guardian, eleven categories
were listed, with “retired” having 21.4%.
Pinto, K. F. A., & Sant'Ana, R. B. (2021). Rural young in High School: schooling experiences and youth expectations...
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Professions such as bricklayer, pensioner,
farmer and rural services make up the
activities performed by the interviewees’
parents.
Laura, one of the interviewees, takes
courses at SENAI, as well as private
lessons and writing lessons. Her family is
the only one that guarantees extracurricular
courses for the student's better academic
and professional performance. Lucas and
Afonso have also taken extracurricular
courses at SENAI and say they are
interested in attending others.
In this context, it is important to
highlight that in the community even
young people who seek a more advanced
level of education from
technical/professional education in São
João del-Rei continue to live in Rio das
Mortes, thus maintaining a relationship
with their family and with the rural
environment where they live.
It can be observed that the
encouragement of parents to study is
unanimous in the research. For families,
studies are of great importance to
guarantee that young people will have a
better future. It was also possible to
conclude that participation in meetings at
school are recurrent attitudes among the
parents of these youngsters.
Another issue to be considered is the
access of young people to school,
considering that each person has a
particular need according to the spatial
location of their home or work. Not
everyone has a car or motorcycle, and
commuting by public transport becomes
very important, as it directly influences the
quality of life of young people.
In rural areas, public transport is
important for families who live or work
outside Rio das Mortes, as, for some, it is
the only way they have to come and go. In
Rio das Mortes, this displacement is made
by an urban bus company that has some
units of its fleet specifically for the direct
route between São João del-Rei and Rio
das Mortes. The same company also has
buses that circulate around São Sebastião
da Vitória, Goiabeiras and Rio das Mortes.
These buses have specific schedules and
run every hour from 6:00 am to 10:00 pm.
On weekends, there are itineraries until late
afternoon.
In many parts of the country,
transport companies face many limitations
in serving the rural population, the main
one being the structure of the roads, which,
for the most part, are precarious and wear
out the vehicle a lot. The stretch between
São João del-Rei and Rio das Mortes is a
highway. In this way, it is possible to see
that young people in Rio das Mortes are
not necessarily physically and spatially
isolated and that their life trajectories take
Pinto, K. F. A., & Sant'Ana, R. B. (2021). Rural young in High School: schooling experiences and youth expectations...
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v. 6
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2021
ISSN: 2525-4863
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place between the rural and urban worlds.
Thus, it is possible to conclude that they
are influenced by values from the two
cultural universes, which makes it difficult
to establish boundaries between urban and
rural elements in their ways of living their
youth.
According to the students, the
distance from the interviewees’ homes to
the city of São João del-Rei is 10 to 14
kilometers. When asked to project the
future, most youngsters (83.3%) responded
that they intend to go to college. Among
the greatest difficulties of rural youth listed
by the interviewees are the roads and their
poor conditions (within the district) and the
limited hours of public transport.
Schooling of surveyed you people
Most students (76.5%) entered
school between four and five years of age;
70% of respondents said they did their
schoolwork always or almost always and
30% sporadically. In this question about
performing the tasks, one student claimed
“laziness” as a reason for not fulfilling the
obligation and another stated that he fails
to do the task when he has doubts about it.
On a school day, 55.0% of students do
household works in an hour or less.
When asked about the reason for
going to school, 72% of young people
answered that they consider school
attendance important for their professional
future. Regarding the content taught at
school, 47.8% believe there is a balance
between useful and useless knowledge. In
addition to regular classes, students show
interest in the computer science and
cultural activities; however, most do not
participate in any extracurricular courses.
Invited to reflect on their possible choices,
47.6% of respondents answered that they
would study at a public school in the city,
23.8% would study at a private school in
the city and 28.6% would continue at
Evandro Ávila School. This seems to
signify the strong attraction that the city
exerts on many of them, more than a
derogatory judgment of the school, in
terms of the quality of education and the
social relationship within it.
Data from the 12 students who
answered the questionnaire show that the
percentage of young people who do not
consider themselves rural is 38.9%, as they
believe that young people are young
people, no matter the place. Already 33.3%
of these youngsters consider themselves
rural youngsters because they live in rural
areas. One of the young people who do not
consider themselves rural for other reasons
claimed that he “identifies” himself with
the rural area and another does not live in
the countryside.
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Regarding media and access to
culture, the average number of books that
young people have at home, in addition to
school ones, is less than twenty books, in
most answers. There were no responses
greater than a hundred books or less than
one. From the point of view of access to
new information and communication
technologies, it was possible to notice, in
the moments of interviews and in field
work, that television and the internet are
the media most used by young people. In
most of the observations, it was possible to
notice that almost all young people always
had their cell phone in their hands in the
classroom, although the school's
management team had prohibited the use
of cell phones due to excesses and lack of
attention in the subjects.
The presence of cell phones was a
constant feature. Like Silva and Pereira
(2015), we observe that, similarly to the
young people researched by these authors,
the young people from the rural school
investigated in this work also demonstrated
that this technological communication
device is very widespread in daily school
life as a mark of being young in current
society. Thus, it is impossible not to
associate the image of young people with
the use of these new communication and
information technologies.
The internet is also seen as a form of
entertainment. Facebook is the most used
social network, especially for
conversations, dating and entertainment.
Other media resources were also present in
the speech of young people. Marina, for
example, sometimes accesses the internet
on her cell phone, but commented that the
connection is very bad. Pedro explained
that, in his free time, he enjoys visiting
social networks and playing online games.
Josiane, in turn, reported that she likes to
stay at home “touching” the computer.
Lucas has already stated that he likes to
watch television. Of the young people
investigated, all had internet access,
although Vitória and João did not have a
computer and, therefore, Vitória used the
computer at her grandmother’s house and
João used the computer at school. João,
Laura and Vitória reported that they
searched for information on the internet for
school research.
Based on these data on the usages of
these media devices, it is possible to
consider that the fact of having books at
home and/or internet access does not
necessarily mean an increase in school
knowledge and culture in general. The
media allow the insertion of young people
into the technological world and provide
skills for the general use of technologies,
which can be directed towards cultural
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targets unrelated to the knowledge valued
by the school. According to the teenagers,
during the week, time is spent “from
school to home, from home to school”. The
life of young people outside of school
during the period they are attending High
School also involves work inside the home,
where they help parents with housekeeping
activities – this cannot be considered an
impediment to the execution of school
tasks, since it consists of a short period of
time compared to the daily time spent on
TV and computer. The use of social
networks, online games, television and also
the dedication to school tasks are some
very common statements among the young
people surveyed.
The average time that these students
spend watching TV and using the
computer, in a school day, was more than
four hours in more than 30% of the
answers in both cases. When asked about
how much they study at home, 45%
consider it sufficient, 25% insufficient,
20% would like to study more and only
10% consider the time they spend studying
more than enough. Those who answered
that they would like to study more and
those who think that the study time is
insufficient were asked what prevented
them from studying.
However, a part of their free time is
generally occupied with activities
developed in the community itself and,
although this does not offer many options,
young people seek to participate in
everything that is offered. Here are
included cultural events traditionally
organized there and the tours promoted by
the school. In the first year of the research,
for example, it was possible to witness a
march by the school with all the students in
the surroundings of Rio das Mortes. The
march was a request for “Peace” from the
school and the community due to the death
of a young man in the vicinity of the
institution. In addition, in the reports of
young people, we can see that the multi-
sport court is frequently used by the
population of this location, even in extra-
school times.
The search for cultural activities
outside the district is also a common
practice among young people looking for
alternatives such as bars and dating in
neighboring cities. In informal
conversations with the teenagers, it was
possible to notice that they like to attend
the festivals in São João del-Rei, due to the
visibility between them, as well as the
traditional festivals in the neighboring
cities.
In relation to work, 47.8% are not
working and 30.4% are looking for a job.
When asked to choose alternatives about
future expectations, 68.4% responded that
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they would like to combine university and
work. Only one youngster would just like
to work, which corresponds to 5.3% of
valid answers. In other options, one student
would like to finish their studies and
pursue a degree, while another would like
to be independent and have more
knowledge.
Meanings of School experience and
future expectations
To understand the meanings that
young people attributed to school, it is
essential to consider that they produce their
own way of seeing and valuing school,
which does not necessarily correspond to
the vision of their teachers and family
members. School life or even the
“motivation” for studies depend a lot on
individual experiences, interests and
identities that were built from the lived
reality and interactions with other people
and with the school itself.
The research presented here reveals
that, while for some students the school
represents, above all, an obligation that
parents or society impose, for others,
studying is directly related to insertion in
the labor market. In an individual
interview, Leo argues that he goes “…to
school to find a good job”. Leoni, in turn,
explains that she wants to graduate “... and
have a good job”. Thus, young people
draw plans for their professional future and
hope that the school will contribute to a
good placement in the labor market. For
many, the value of the school lies in the
fact that it is a place where they meet
friends, make friends and interact, which is
indicative of the value of the school in
youth sociability in the society in which we
live. The most common expressions of this
sociability are the games that occur in the
class-group as a whole (with or without
teacher participation) or within groups of
mixed or gender-different peers (male or
female). It is a youth culture that is
constituted in youth social relations inside
and outside the school, and that in the
school space signals the affirmation of
what it means to be young, according to
the “student’s craft” or in opposition to it.
It presents itself in the classroom as a
tension between the demands of this
“craft” and the youthful games and
“jesting”. In the researched class, the
relational atmosphere was calm, as
teachers and students showed themselves
capable of managing this tension in daily
school life when it manifested itself
openly.
The young people investigated
believe they have had many significant
experiences at school and make it clear that
they could have dedicated themselves
more, as in Marlon’s speech: “I could have
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studied more”; and in Marcos’ testimony:
“I could have studied more, but I can’t
study at home, then I don’t do good
exams”.
Regarding the reason for attending
school, they more frequently highlighted
the importance of studying to ensure a
better future, as pointed out by the young
people in an individual interview (E.I).
For a better future. (Afonso, E.I).
Because I like to study; here I take
care of myself, I acquire knowledge
that I can use later for exams, and it
gives me a basis for the job market.
(Vitória, E.I).
The survey indicated that young
people demand a school that makes sense
for life and contributes to their
understanding of reality. They claim to link
what is taught at school to their daily lives:
I prefer more dynamic classes, more
in practice, not just much in writing.
(Josiane, E.I).
Maybe teachers can conduct a class
to interact more with staff. (Felipe,
E.I).
I think the quality of teaching,
textbooks, literary books should be
improved, and the classes should be
more dynamic, because just using the
blackboard and books is very tiring.
(Vitória E.I).
These young people who attended
Evandro Ávila School built positive
representations about the school. Most of
them placed the hope of achieving better
social status and better jobs in school and
education. There is a belief that school
offers better opportunities to “be someone
in life” or to enter the labor market. In
addition, all young people show
satisfaction in studying High School in the
same institution where they started their
school careers.
According to Laura, the rural school
is not inferior to the urban schools of São
João del-Rei. In this regard, most young
people believe that the school would help
them to stay in Rio das Mortes, but the
lack of prospects for work in rural areas
drives them to create expectations of
having greater success in obtaining it
outside the district, as Laura illustrates. in
an interview in November 2015: “Staying
in Rio das Mortes is difficult because of
the career I want to pursue. Many young
people leave rural areas because they don't
have a guaranteed job throughout the year,
which leads to them leaving for lack of
options”.
Regarding parents and the value
attributed to their children’s schooling
process, young people declare that parents
participated in their children’s school life
through meetings at school, asking about
schoolwork and seeking to know about
school performance, as Vitória points in
EI: “My parents try to find out about my
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grades and how I am in my work”. The
young people indicate that the diploma is
very important for them and for the family,
since the parents believe that, without
studies, the person is “nobody”, as Josiane
points out in an interview: “... without
studying, we are not nothing".
Laura was one of the young people
who attended activities that expand school
education, such as the writing course and
courses offered by SENAI in São João del-
Rei. She stands out for having the mother’s
support and encouragement to attend such
activities. According to the girl, being
successful in the tests is not enough and,
therefore, she seeks complements for her
training outside of school:
Laura: In the morning I have class,
right? In the afternoon there is class,
in the evening cursinho, Thursday I
have writing class in São João; then I
stay there.
Researcher: Do you do SENAI in
São João?
Laura: No, I’ve already stopped; it
was just a vacation course; as I had
nothing to do on vacation, so I went
and did it.
Researcher: What do you do in the
afternoon?
Laura: I do the assignments; I review
the contents and write the
compositions I have to do.
The students stress their desire to
finish high school and continue their
studies, as this is an achievement for them
and for their families. Learning new things,
understanding the subject, applying and
relating what they have learned, leaving
the routine with more practical classes,
being able to do the tasks and calculations
and being valued, these are aspects the
young people most mentioned to justify
their taste for school life.
Learning biology. Practical biology
classes are pretty cool. (João E.I)
We’ve got the same teacher for
Philosophy and Sociology. This is
excellent because he talks to the
whole class, so he listens to what we
think. (Luana E.I).
The teenagers aspire to continue their
studies at universities, but representation
about the role of the school is also linked
to another type of expectation: making
friends and getting along with people.
These young people state they like going to
school because of their friends and express
dissatisfaction with the boring dynamics of
some classes. They want a change in the
curriculum, with insertion of more
practical classes that arouse a taste for
study, and claim for teachers able to
interact with the youth universe.
University level education was
shown to be a more present expectation
among the young people investigated (83%
of the students); however, there are
exceptions, as in the case of Afonso, who
intends to attend a professional course
before and does not know if he will attend
university; and Vanessa, who, at first, does
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not want to go to university, but to take
courses related to theater and cinema.
None of the young people investigated
declared that they are at school because
they were forced or at the insistence of
their parents, except for one who declared
he “comes to school because he has to do”.
Of all the students interviewed, most
would like to combine work and studies
after high school. Some students would
like to work after completing high school
or graduation.
When asked to reflect on their
expectations for the next ten years and on
what students would do to be
professionally successful, the teenagers
argue that they want to study more, attend
college and get a good job.
For the future, the young people
aspire to leave Rio das Mortes and study in
São João del-Rei or other neighboring
cities, in order to graduate from a college,
guarantee a good job, have better living
conditions and, therefore, help the family.
When asked what they would like to do if
they stayed in Rio das Mortes, one young
man says he would like to open a store
near his home in Goiabeiras, and another
would like to play soccer in the rural
championship. The rest intend to build
careers outside the district. The young
Vanessa, during our research, moved to
São Paulo in search of her dream of being
an actress.
Conclusion
This research ratified trends or
dynamics identified by other research on
rural and urban youth. In addition, this
study sought to broaden the focus,
identifying that certain segments of rural
youth have characteristics much more of
their age group than of their specific rural
group, as they consume goods and
products common to urban youth, advance
in schooling in relation to their parents and
have access to the new communication
technologies of the computerized world.
In fact, we are witnessing today the
non-agricultural rural world. This
perspective introduces new elements in the
way of looking at the rural and urban
worlds and the way in which they relate.
Between urban centers and rural areas, the
trend of relationships of complementarity
continues (Ferrão, 2000).
The blurring of boundaries between
countryside and city and the departure or
permanence of young people in rural areas
are issues that go beyond the desire to
“stay or leave”: they are also linked to an
assessment that young people make about
the countryside and that leads them to see
their perspectives, conflicts, difficulties
and challenges.
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The district is just a few kilometers
from the city. The school is well-regarded
and offers a good structure, good teachers
and adequate materials, unlike perhaps
most schools in various regions of Brazil.
This shows the effort of the state of Minas
Gerais to increase access to basic school
through high school for a public relatively
far from the urban perimeter.
One of the central concerns of this
research was listening to these young
people and identifying points of view
about their lives inside and outside school,
in relation to the immediate and immediate
social and geographic context that
reference their daily experiences. This
allowed us to understand a way of living
youth composed of generalized leisure
activities in Brazilian society, such as the
use of the internet to participate in social
networks, the habit of watching television
programs and attending a rural school
establishment, youth territory where
properly school learning intersects with
diverse youth sociabilities, constituting
over there a way of appropriating the
school that does not differ from the urban
world.
The conversations with the young
people made it possible to identify that
their expectations fluctuate, as they say
they want to “improve their lives” and “be
someone in life”, but they do not see how
to make this happen in rural areas; they
show commitment to the family and the
feeling of belonging to their place of
origin, but they do not fail to express that
they feel attracted to life in the city. This
shows the general difficulty of Brazilian
society in guaranteeing well-defined
programs for the insertion of young people
from popular sectors into the world of
work, and the specific form taken by this
lack of programs in the lives of rural young
people, who, throughout the history of
Brazil, live the tension between “leaving or
staying”.
From the speeches of the young
people, we realized that the process of
schooling in high school is positive, as
they feel comfortable at school and are
eager to enter university. The survey data
also suggest that young people are able to
talk about classes, contents, school and
could be important partners in reflecting on
the educational project intended for them.
Most of the young people
interviewed demonstrated to be satisfied
with the public school where they studied.
In addition, the students established a
trusting relationship with the professionals’
efficiency, with the quality of teaching and
with the curriculum. However, they would
like the teaching method adopted at the
school to introduce more practical and
stimulating lessons.
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Despite demonstrating satisfaction,
many students, when reflecting on how
much they studied during their school
career, stated that if they could change
what they experienced at school, they
would study more, make less mess and try
to achieve better performance in the
subjects. In addition, young people still
face difficulties in the schooling process:
in the domestic space, they feel attracted to
the computer, to the detriment of books
and notebooks.
The young people interviewed also
feel the challenge of combining the needs
of the present with the prospects for the
future, and this is intertwined with the
tensions of school life: studying and not
studying, paying attention in class and
expressing themselves through
conversation or mess. The clash between
the long-term objective and the more
immediate strategies is common, so that, at
times, they oscillate and turn now to this
priority, now to that one.
On the other hand, young people
claim that many hours are dedicated to TV
and the computer, but they use it more as a
form of entertainment and, in few cases, to
seek information related to knowledge
valued by the school and that the time
dedicated to studying at home is
insufficient. When presenting the reasons
to justify the restricted time in studies, the
students explain that they find it difficult to
understand the statements of the activities
and that they are unable to develop what is
requested, in addition to facing the lack of
meaning in some subjects. The presence
of the computer at home allows this media
resource to be used for entertainment and
virtual sociability, while young people seem to
resist its use for specifically school purposes.
In this way, the school, which in the past had to
compete with television, must now also
compete with the computer and the cell phone.
This leads us to reflect that current society
seeks to make more time available to young
people from popular sectors, protecting new
generations from premature entry into the labor
market, but they are unable to use part of the
time available at home for school learning.
This indicates that solving the problem of low
performance involves offering a full-time and
quality school, and encouraging the use of
these media for scientific and philosophical
knowledge.
The most significant experiences in
the school career were the teachers, the
friendship relationships, the income in the
subjects, the jokes made by friends and the
skills and learning acquired. Young people
perceive the value of a dialogical
relationship of friendship and respect
between students and teachers as a gain in
school life.
The issue of friendship was
mentioned as being fundamental to the
schooling process. At times, the school
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enabled and encouraged the students to get
connected through gymkhanas, cultural
and literary fairs and group work.
However, at times, there was a certain
separation of groups of friends due to the
students' disposition or the affinities in the
classes.
We know, however, that school is not
the only place for young people to
socialize, as they attend other spaces linked
to sports, religion and the representative
community council, in addition to
socializing with friends.
The relationship with teachers is
another issue strongly remembered by
young people. Participants say they have
positive and negative experiences with
teachers. About positive relationships, they
mention the teacher’s efficiency in
promoting learning and good relationships
with students. Regarding negative
experiences, they point to situations of
punishment and embarrassment.
Factors such as generational
differences and relations of affirmation and
power are intertwined in the teacher-
student relationship. It is noticeable that
the teenagers value dialogue with teachers
very much. In some moments, young
people demonstrate that they need
someone to listen to them or give them
advice, but in others they ask for a
delimitation for the definition of spaces.
Our impression is that teachers feel
compelled to maintain order in the
classroom when students push the
boundaries. As a result, they end up putting
pressure on students (sometimes with
threats or taking concept points) and
excessive pressure and exaggeration of
these lead to a rupture in the dialogue.
Almost all of the 1st year students
continued at Evandro Ávila School. For
them, completing high school can
represent a moment of victory and
conquest. This moment is seen by them as
the passage to yet another stage,
configuring itself, then, as the possibility
of progressing to university.
The school-effect is more easily
revealed in the relational climate that
animates the investigated school. We did
not find any youngster hostile to it, as an
expressively dialogic climate was
noticeable during the observations.
Although with differences in relational
dynamics inside the classroom, the school
seems capable of dealing with everyday
tensions, solving and containing the
conflicts that may arise.
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i
This paper is based on the dissertation entitled
“Jovens Rurais do Ensino médio: Experiências
escolares e Expectativas juvenis”, presented at
Education Master Program at São João del-Rei
Federal University on February 2016, being
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Article Information
Received on January 27th, 2021
Accepted on May 04th, 2021
Published on July, 12th, 2021
Pinto, K. F. A., & Sant'Ana, R. B. (2021). Rural young in High School: schooling experiences and youth expectations...
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2021
ISSN: 2525-4863
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Author Contributions: The author were responsible for
the designing, delineating, analyzing and interpreting the
data, production of the manuscript, critical revision of the
content and approval of the final version published.
Conflict of Interest: None reported.
Article Peer Review
Double review.
Funding
CAPES.
How to cite this article
APA
Pinto, K. F. A., & Sant'Ana, R. B. (2021). Rural young in
High School: schooling experiences and youth
expectations. Rev. Bras. Educ. Camp., 6, e11490.
http://dx.doi.org/10.20873/uft.rbec.e11490
ABNT
PINTO, K. F. A.; SANT'ANA, R. B. Rural young in High
School: schooling experiences and youth expectations.
Rev. Bras. Educ. Camp., Tocantinópolis, v. 6, e11490,
2021. http://dx.doi.org/10.20873/uft.rbec.e11490