Múltiplos olhares sobre a evasão escolar na educação profissional: desafios e perspectivas

Abstract

The work aims to reflect on the multiple approaches that involve the processes of school exclusion, resuming some discussions found in the academic literature about the multiple variables that interfere in the training trajectory of young people who abandon definitively or temporarily a certain level or modality of education. Conceptually, school dropout is defined as a complex, multifaceted, multicausal phenomenon, associated with different factors, whether individual, social and/or institutional. It is a threat to the educational reality of several countries and in Brazil it is a common and persistent phenomenon at all levels of basic education, also reaching higher education. From the challenges and perspectives posed in this debate, a survey is made of the different meanings found for the term school dropout, in view of the material, political, relational and subjective dimensions that involve the break with a given educational context. The term evasion is characterized by the definitive removal of a student from a certain educational offer due to multiple social, economic, family, institutional and personal factors, which are mutually reinforcing. The concept is often attributed a meaning that blames the individual who, for multiple reasons, definitively interrupts his trajectory in a certain educational offer. So, the term “dropout” refers to individual issues of academics, which largely contributes to exempt the institution and the respective educational system from any responsibility for this phenomenon. However, it is necessary to be clear that despite the significant influence of external factors, it is necessary to discuss the institution's role in this course abandonment process. In this sense, the dissociation between the democratization of access, through the expansion of vacancies offered by the public system, and the viability of students' permanence, constitutes a limiting factor in their expectations of success. Exploring these different approaches, some meanings found will be presented and the strategies and possible institutional perspectives for coping with school dropout in professional education will be problematized. Considering the historical and social aspects that make up the outlined conceptions, the laws that regulate student assistance and the provision of professional education are discussed based on the contrast they promote in relation to the researched reality, and their implications on the actions and projects developed, in the in order to know, detect risks of occurrence and/or minimize the evasion rates. Some practical alternatives, methodologies and policies are pointed out, considering how the school deals with this challenge and the way in which professionals guide their educational and pedagogical practices, in order to enable changes in the analyzed contexts. In summary, it is worth mentioning the indispensable role of the school in providing conditions for permanence, developing effective policies and strategies, providing opportunities for dialogue and follow-up to understand the real needs demanded. In an attempt to establish a new look at the issue, it is argued that school dropout is not determined exclusively by the subject's personal decision, but presupposes effective pedagogical and assistance monitoring, aiming at improving learning and the production of information that subsidize the identification of the signs of evasion and the creation of prevention mechanisms.