Public policies, youth and social inequalities: a discussion about ProJovem Urbano in the city of Belo Horizonte (Brazil)

• Autor(a) principal: Leão, Geraldo
• Data de Publicação: 2012
• Outros Autores: Nonato, Symaira Poliana
• Tipo de documento: Artigo
• Idioma: por
• Título da fonte: Educação e Pesquisa
• Texto Completo: https://www.revistas.usp.br/ep/article/view/47911
• topic: Jovens; Educação; Políticas públicas; Youth; Education; Public policies

This paper discusses some of the outcomes of a qualitative research carried out between 2009 and 2011 which investigated the trajectories of young participants in the Program ProJovem Urbano (National Program for Youth Inclusion) in 2009, in the city of Belo Horizonte, state of Minas Gerais, in Brazil. The attempt was to understand the experience of juvenile status by the program participants based on their schooling and previous jobs as well as their projects for the future, with the purpose of comprehending the meanings and impacts of the program for them. In the first phase of the research 103 questionnaires were applied with the aim of depicting a brief socioeconomic profile of students. After the initial data survey, two classes were selected and observed. Later on, 10 students were selected to undergo a semi-structured interview. The research revealed that most participants were female, Black, young people in precarious conditions of work or unemployed and with a limited sociability in relation to other sectors of the population. It was evident that social inequalities play a central role in the trajectories of these youngster's lives, with outstanding impacts in their current experiences and in the expectations regarding their future. Based on this common ground, it was possible to realize that there is a variety of experiences which are the starting point from where different meanings and motivations are produced in relation to school education, which also defined the relationship they established with the program. Generally speaking, the search for a school certificate was the main interest of participants.