Participation in Student’s Union: An Agenda for Discussions on Gender Issues, Citizenship and Didactics

Abstract

This work is a due to a case study conducted in three schools, two public elementary and high school and in a Educational Cooperative, in two medium-sized cities of Sao Paulo, Brazil, and of our actions in the field of didactics. It aimed to understand the importance of participation of pupils and students in Student’s Unions, for discussion agenda of motivation on gender issues, citizenship and didactics. It was developed along the lines of a qualitative research, by observing the meetings, the electoral process and the actions they undertake in schools, interviews with its members, in addition to analyzing the various school plans. The literature on the subject shows that the student movements were predominantly university movements and that the students, especially high school students, always have been seen as a threat to educational institutions, and rarely as subjects, men in women in formation, required for projects of school and to citizenship. In general, the student participation bothered and was curtailed by educational administrators even in times when legislation and educational policies encouraged. It was observed that there is interest on the part of students to participate, whether boys or girls. Meetings are moments of dialogue among all without distinction of sex. The election campaign, from the preparation of the work proposals to the presentation of it to set off the two school communities, constitutes it like important moments of learning and incorporation of a democratic culture. In schools, most members of the Unions was composed of young men; however, it was found that there has been a growing interest in girls of assuming the presidency of this organiza-tion. In the educational cooperative, at the time of the survey, although there were school director’s interests for the creation of the Union, it was not possible to achieve necessary motivation not even students for the creation of the or-ganization. The depositions showed that political participation through the Student’s Unions constitutes an important element for democratic learning, for participation in school projects, centrally at all stages of the political pedagogi-cal project, and exercise of the citizenship for both sexes.