The Peer Group's Agency in a Brazilian School

Author(s)

Toledo, Cinthia Torres ; de Carvalho, Marilia Pinto

• Document type: Journal article
• Source: BOYHOOD STUDIES-AN INTERDISCIPLINARY JOURNAL; v. 13, n. 2, p. 16-pg., 2020-12-01.

Abstract

Black working-class boys are the group with the most significant difficulties in their schooling process. In dialogue with Raewyn Connell, we seek to analyze how the collective conceptions of peer groups have influenced the school engagement of Brazilian boys. We conducted an ethnographic research with students around the age of 14 at an urban state school in the periphery of the city of Sao Paulo. We analyzed the hierarchization process between two groups of boys, demonstrating the existence of a collective notion of masculinity that works against engagement with the school. Well-known to the Anglophone academic literature, this association is rather uncommon in the Brazilian literature. We have therefore attempted to describe and analyze here the challenges faced by Black working-class Brazilian boys to establish more positive educational trajectories. (AU)

• FAPESP's process: 17/23325-3 - School achievement, gender and race: the pupils agency at middle school
• Grantee: Cinthia Torres Toledo
• Support Opportunities: Scholarships in Brazil - Doctorate