Meanings of School Opportunity for Youth of the Popular Classes in Rio de Janeiro

Abstract: In this article, we seek to analyze the senses of opportunity that poor young people from Rio de Janeiro attribute to the school and to understand if, for these young people, school and schooling have a value in the now and/or imagined later. A total of 51 youths participated in this research, being students in elementary schools, from two public municipal schools of Rio de Janeiro, with ages between 14 and 16. Three discussion groups were made in the format of workshops. In the analysis of the meanings of opportunity and the value attributed by young people to school, the intra and intergenerational relationships established in this space were focused and the imaginary relation that these young people have with what will come after school.