School failure: naturalization or historical- cultural construction?

Abstract This study aimed to investigate whether school failure is still naturalized. For such, the social, educational, emotional and neurological profiles of children attended to by the Extension Project “Assessment and Intervention in Children with School Failure history”, developed at a Neurodevelopment Clinic, were outlined. The medical records of 13 children were analyzed, and the SPSS Statistics 22.0 software was used. The children averaged 10.3 years, most of whom (84.6%) were male. Most children (61.5%) had complaints related to learning and behavioral problems and were prescribed psychostimulants. The population covered by the project showed characteristics which were consistent with those described by other studies in institutions such as school clinics in different parts of Brazil. It was also found that students are still held responsible for failure, to which a biological character has been attributed, hence the need for medicalization. This research demonstrated the need for further studies to investigate how school failure complaints are established.