Research Conducted

The research activities and experiences of this group are two decades old, linked to the Observatory of Violence in Schools PUCPR and the UNESCO Chair in Youth, Education and Society. The group’s studies focus on human rights, outlining possibilities for prevention and intervention for violence in the school space, with the implementation of policies and practices based on human rights. The research has approached issues related to guarantee of rights, inclusive curricular practices in dialogue with diversity, emancipatory evaluation, human rights education, right to education, and teacher training. More recently, we have included in the studies some aspects of the right to education and the right to child health in contexts of child poverty to contribute to the training of education and health professionals who act in the guarantee of children’s rights.

The research projects developed emphasize the institutional violence of/at school, mainly from the curriculum and educational evaluation. The studies discuss violence in schools, bringing the triangulation between empirical data, traces of educational policies, and systematized argumentation by authors who study the theme. In the educational policies of past decades, contradictions that cross such policies and create tensions are observed, focusing on the guarantee or violation of rights in schools. The evidence of such contradictions is noticeable in political guidelines of curriculum and evaluation, that is, while curriculum guidelines adopt the principle of diversity and guarantee of rights, those related with evaluation present traits of meritocracy and standardization. The traits of these contradictions are expressed in the manifestations of subjects heard in the surveys. Thus, human rights education promoting dialogue with children’s and youth groups is a strong possibility to attribute a new meaning to school as an environment for guaranteeing rights and justice, by coexistence with diversity in curricular practices, from the perspective of critical cross-cultural dialogue.

Projects developed linked productions

The project aimed to understand the Profile of Adolescents in Conflict with Law. The source of data of this study were the records of indirect testimony and the records of violent acts perpetrated by adolescents in conflict with the law in the municipality of Curitiba, forwarded by the Public Prosecutor’s Office and the Judiciary Branch of the Curitiba Court of Adolescent Offenders to the research group, coordinated by Professor Ana Maria Eyng. The study allowed us to understand the occurrences between March 2005 and November 2006, related to 3,881 adolescents that gave their testimony. These records reflect cases of known authorship that are brought to the formal knowledge of authorities. Based on this profile, it was possible to advance the discussion in alternatives to decrease social exclusion and violence in schools, educating the students for freedom and respect in social and family life.

This project aimed to identify the constitutive elements of the social representation of teachers and students about violence in schools. The research problem was: what are the implications of the representations of public-school teachers and students about the phenomenon of violence in actions performed in the school environment? The study was carried out in the second semester of 2006 and in the first half of 2007 in seven public schools in the state of Paraná, embracing students from middle and high school. The age group of the students are: middle school 11 to 14 years old; and high school: 15 to 17 years old. A total of 9,480 students are attended in the middle and high school f all schools investigated, with 264 teachers. Based on this population, the representations of 728 students and 57 teachers about: school, student, teacher, adolescent, and violence were investigated. The study about violence in schools contributed to enhance the knowledge of this phenomenon, thus, supporting teacher training courses. Then, the understanding of this theme allows us to outline and to put in force initial and continuing training projects, aimed to cope with violence in schools. The survey about violence in schools highlighted a set of contradictory thoughts and feelings that students and professional present about the phenomenon of violence.

The general objective of project was to evaluate the process of planning, training, and implementation of multidisciplinary mediation teams in schools. The implementation of such teams, proposed in the project, is in accordance with State Regulation no. 15,075/2006. Professionals of pedagogy, psychology, social work, and law are foreseen to compose those teams. Data collection to support the implementation of mediation teams was performed in a public school that attends student of middle (5th to 8th grade) and high school, with a total of 2,005 students enrolled in the school year of 2008, distributed in the three shifts (morning, afternoon, and evening), with 68 teachers and 37 employees of the technical-administrative staff. The survey interviewed 44 teachers, 781 students, 317 parents and guardians, and 12 professionals from the technical-administrative staff, with structured interviews.

The research project focused on the millennium development goal of quality basic education for all and decree no. 6,094, of April 24, 2007 establishing the Plano de Metas Compromisso Todos pela Educação. The survey aimed to analyze the potentialities and weaknesses of social policies to reduce social inequalities, for greater social inclusion and guarantee of the rights of children and adolescents in the fulfillment of quality basic education for all in public schools. The research was carried out with: 583 students, 21 managers, 376 parents, 52 employees, and 44 teachers from seven municipal public schools and two public state schools located in Curitiba, these schools were choose because they are located in a high vulnerability neighborhood.

The survey results show contradictions in the subjects’ interpretation about rights and coexistence in school. The survey was carried out between 2010 and 2012, comprising 14 public schools in seven municipalities in the State of Paraná, Southern Brazil (Araucária, Almirante Tamandaré, Campo Largo, Colombo, Curitiba, Pinhais, and São José dos Pinhais), seven schools from the municipal schools system and seven schools from the state school system. The selected schools were located in neighborhoods characterized by great social vulnerability, populous, poor, with precarious infrastructure, and located in the uptown. In the data collection, 489 students (children and adolescents), 51 teachers, 24 managers (deans and pedagogues), 47 technical-administrative staff and 148 guardians of students were heard by structured interviews.

The collection of students’ testimonies about rights, justice, and coexistence was performed with the Délphi method. The scripts of the second phase were based on the systematization and analysis of data collected in the first phase. The collection of testimonies included young students of basic education and higher education. The basic education sample was composed of 420 students in the first phase and 443 students in the second phase. In both phases, students from the two last years of high school from 12 public primary schools provided their testimony. In higher education, 607 students were heard in the first phase and 413 in the second, covering 14 university courses.

The study was carried out under the cooperation agreement between the Inter-American Children’s Institute (IIN), a specialized body of the Organization of American States (OAS) on childhood and adolescence, the Marist International Solidarity Foundation (FMSI), the Paraná Association of Culture (APC) and the Pontifical Catholic University of Paraná (PUCPR). The research was carried out in the entire American continent, addressing the study of six programs developed in four countries. Its central purpose is to analyze the contributions of programs developed in the state and civil society in different American countries in order to guarantee children’s rights, acting in the prevention and eradication of violence in their daily life. Data were obtained with individual testimony from 301 participants distributed into three groups: 131 children and adolescents (aged between 10 and 18 years); 94 parents and guardians called as family members and 76 managers, educators, and professional operators called as team.

Research Conducted

1. PROJECT – THE ANALYSIS OF THE PROFILE OF THE ADOLESCENT IN CONFLICT WITH THE LAW. (2005-2006)

2. PROJECT – REPRESENTATIONS OF PUBLIC-SCHOOL TEACHERS AND STUDENTS ON THE PHENOMENON OF VIOLENCE IN SCHOOLS (2006-2007)

3. PROJECT – PSYCHOPEDAGOGIC AND SOCIAL MEDIATION IN THE SCHOOL SPACE (2008-2009)

4. PROJECT – GOOD QUALITY BASIC EDUCATION FOR ALL: POLICIES AND PRACTICES IN THE CONTEXT OF PUBLIC SCHOOLS ( 2009-2010)

5. BASIC EDUCATION OF SOCIAL QUALITY FOR ALL: POLICIES AND PRACTICES IN THE CONTEXT OF PUBLIC SCHOOLS ( 2010-2012)

6. PUBLIC POLICIES, HUMAN RIGHTS, JUSTICE, AND VIOLENCE IN SCHOOLS (2013-2016)"

7. PROJECT – GUARANTEE OF RIGHTS IN THE DAILY LIFE OF CHILDREN AND ADOLESCENTS: CONTRIBUTIONS OF PROGRAMS DEVELOPED IN THE STATE AND CIVIL SOCIETY IN THE INTERNATIONAL SPHERE (2016-2018)