No cotidiano da escola: o pensar e agir de jovens e adultos

The necessity of the view of the Youth and Adults Education (EJA) subjects beyond of their academic failures becomes imperative for a reconfiguration of this teaching modality. Thus, the compromise of this study is to go into these subjects‘ universe, give them a voice and, therefore, understand, in general, the web of relationships between these subjects and the school. It is understood that it is not possible to figure out the means attributed by the subjects without consideration, as an essential element, the social context in which such means has been built. For the development of this study, the methodology adopted was the ethnographic research. The procedures used for the data construction were the participative observation, the semi-structured interviews with a focal group, and the individualized semi-structured interviews. For the understanding of the data constructed in the field, the content analysis technique was used, which reach the expectations of an interpretative analysis. The observation occurred mainly in the classrooms, on a public school, located in a City of Natal/RN. The interviews were taken with a sample of eight students, males and females, with 25 to 60 year-olds. Such interviews highlight that for the young adult students, the school is much more than a place to learn. They realize such space as enabler of social interaction, as well as the possibility of rising through new professional horizons and, therefore achieve a social mobility. For the older students, mainly among women, the return to the school benches brings into the learning discourse, the desire of making new friends, having moments of meeting, chatting and relaxation, finally, to forget the problems of the day by day. The school quotidian observation allows a better understanding of the action of the subjects in relationship with the school practices. Finally, it can be affirmed that seeking for the school has not only the intention to recover the time lost in the childhood. Learning remains as a secondary goal. It does not matter whether they will be retained or promoted to the next level at the end of the academic year, what really matters is to be in school.

Bag lady asleep on bench

General note: Title and date provided by Bettye Lane.

Three elderly women wearing blaick in the park

General note: Title and date provided by Bettye Lane.

Older woman on bench (loneliness)

General note: Title and date provided by Bettye Lane.

Women's March down Fifth Avenue

General note: Title and date provided by Bettye Lane.

Young woman sleeps on park bench. She is one of the thousands of homeless young women in NYC

General note: Title and date provided by Bettye Lane.

Young homeless woman sleeps on park bench in NYC

General note: Title and date provided by Bettye Lane.

Baby drinking from bottle

Inscriptions: Verso: [stamped] Photograph by Freda Leinwand. [463 West Street, Studio 229G, New York, NY 10014].

Teenage couple

Inscriptions: Verso: [stamped] Credit must be given to Freda Leinwand from Monkmeyer Press Photo Service.

Teenagers and dog take refuge from the rain in Central Park, New York

Inscriptions: Verso: [stamped] Photograph by Freda Leinwand. [463 West Street, Studio 229G, New York, NY 10014].

Girl eating sandwich

Inscriptions: Verso: [stamped] Photograph by Freda Leinwand. [463 West Street, Studio 229G, New York, NY 10014].

Teenage girl sitting on the beach

Inscriptions: Verso: [stamped] Photograph by Freda Leinwand. [463 West Street, Studio 229G, New York, NY 10014].

Human traces in urban places.

Over the last two centuries many major cities have undergone large-scale modernisation that has led to the growing sense of homogenisation associated with such locales across the globe. The fractal logic that is at the heart of so many urban settings, where the whole system is made up of parts that are identical to the whole, seems to serve in making anonymous everyday experiences. Public transport and its corresponding street furniture, if thoughtfully designed and planned, has the potential to form an integral element in the promotion of a sense of identity, interconnectedness and flow within a city. Furthermore, bus stops, benches, litter bins, curb-sides, posts and pavements, to mention a few, offer interesting cases to consider how people truly engage with contemporary urban spaces. These objects—part of routine and made familiar—are elements of daily lives that are ingredients towards visual and multi-modal experiences. In addition, these are places where individuals encounter sociality and materiality in ordinary and sometimes extraordinary ways. This paper uses a visual ethnographic approach towards exploring the human traces of routine activities that have an impact on the cityscape. An Investigation of these details found within the urban landscape lead us towards understanding how we engage with and navigate cities. This is essentially an urban archaeological study that looks to reveal how non-designed phenomenon in urban places can contribute to our image of a city, providing a reflection on homogeneity within the built environment. Our visual ethnography focuses on six major cities: two each in Britain, Europe and North America. The findings of this work illustrate through visual analyses three key characteristics: first, how urban spaces are transformed intentionally and unintentionally; second, how transformations are practical, functional, beautiful and sometimes ridiculous; third, how transformations reveal values around visual and multi-modal experiences inherent to people.