Evasão escolar: representações sociais construídas por estudantes evadidos do Curso Técnico Subsequente em Eletroeletrônica do IFPE – Campus Afogados da Ingazeira

Abstract

School dropout affects all levels and modalities of education, including Technical Vocational Education at the Secondary Level. We aimed, in this research, to analyze the social representations of school dropouts constructed by students who dropped out of the Subsequent Technical Course in Electronics at the Federal Institute of Education, Science, and Technology of Pernambuco Campus Afogados da Ingazeira. We have constructed two theoretical categories. The first, organized into two subcategories, deals with the phenomenon of school dropouts from Vocational and Technological Education, while the latter is grounded in the Theory of Social Representations, initiated by Serge Moscovici. This research is qualitative and has been developed in two stages. In the former, we used the projective interview as a collection device, and we had 04 dropout students as participants. In the second stage, in which 03 of the students from the first stage took part, we used the episodic interview. For the analysis of the testimonies gathered in the two steps, we used the Thematic Categorical Content Analysis Technique. The results showed that the content of social representations of school dropouts constructed by students who dropped out of the Electro electronics course involves the dichotomy between theory and practice, the lack of identification with the course and the level of difficulty of the course. This representational content is linked to the factors that mobilized the dropouts, comprising institutional dimensions, external to the institution and to the student intimacy. The social portrays of evasion built by the participants call attention to the importance of the theory and practice relationship in the teaching and learning processes in the Professional and Technological Education of Secondary Level, specifically in the Subsequent Technical Course in Electronics. The results reinforce that this relationship should occur dialectically, in a mutual exchange of collaboration, since the objective of the Federal Institutes is the integral formation of the students. In response to the requirement of professional master's degrees, based on the results of the research, we developed, as an Educational Product, the documentary "In the middle of the way" to promote reflections on the phenomenon of school dropout that allows conditions to (re) think teaching in Vocational and Technological Education. The resource can be used in educational training spaces for teachers and for the school community. The evaluation of the products was conducted by two groups: on the one hand, by the participants in the research and, on the other hand, by the professors who work in the same technological axis of the research course. Both groups evaluated the documentary positively, contributed to its improvement, and made suggestions that reinforced the need for further studies. The discussion around the social representations of school dropout built by dropout students fomented in this work makes us reflect on the importance of guiding principles in Vocational and Technological Education. This study, in addition to contributing to the construction of knowledge about school dropout and developing an Educational Product that can collaborate on teacher training processes and other school actors, may raise reflections and sensitivities in the process of building public educational policies for Vocational and Technological Education, especially for Subsequent Technical Courses in order to guarantee access and permanence of students