The meanings of school education for young people from working-class backgrounds

The research seeks to gather contributions from students from working class backgrounds to pedagogical practices by investigating their relationship with school knowledge. The work was based on Charlot's thinking, especially his formulations on positive reading, school failure and mobilisation for knowledge, and its main objective was to investigate what relationships primary school students aged between 11 and 15 establish with school knowledge. The material gathered in the research was divided into three categories: relationships with teachers and school; relationships with oneself; and relationships with school knowledge. The results pointed to the need for conceptual and practical revisions, as the students reported an experience with knowledge that can only be understood if turned upside down, since it became clear that they participate in teaching-learning processes and do not learn.