Resistance through participation

Brazilian students and the conduct of everyday life in schools

Abstract

After 21 years under a violent military dictatorship, institutions’ democratization processes took place in Brazil in the past three decades, starting from the Constitution of 1988. As one of the actors in the struggles for democracy, psychologists whose practices are committed to its consolidation in different contexts are constantly facing challenges due to the contradiction between government´s democratic discourses and its authoritarian practices - which tends to be increasingly constant with the rise of a far-right government to the power. This scenario demands, more than ever, that Brazilian Psychology liberates itself from uncritical conceptions to build decolonizing foundations and practices for strengthening and expanding people´s agency. Considering school as an everyday life context for people in the early stages of development, we understand this place as a privileged space for the intervention of psychologists. We intend to share in this presentation some reflections built from participatory action research on how psychologists can promote the participation of students in school. We argue that, in a context of constant attacks to people’s rights, creating conditions for children to recognize and expand possibilities of action to conduct their everyday lives, as well as producing science that supports it, is a great form of resistance and contribution Psychology can make in such dark days.