Violence and social suffering in the school context: a case study in Porto Alegre, Rio Grande do Sul, Brazil

Abstract

The study aimed to analyze the violence and social suffering in a school in Porto Alegre, Rio Grande do Sul, Brazil, from the teachers’ discourse, seeking to understand how the violence has been part of the relationships in the school context. It was a qualitative case study with 23 semi-structured individual interviews and a focus group with the teachers, contextualized by a one-year participant observation in the school and community. A thematic analysis of content resulted in two analytical categories, entitled “Macroviolence: repercussions of structural violence at school” and “Microviolence: the (co)production of violence in school relationships”. The findings pointed how the wide context of social exclusion and restriction of rights and opportunities (macroviolence) in which the school is inserted is reflected in the daily production of violence in relation to students (microviolence). Those relationships root in a process of stigmatization and devaluation of the students, as well as the feeling of impotence and the verticalization of actions by the teachers. Despite the scarcity, alternative approaches to the reality of the students showed the importance of actions in schools to be considered and agreed from the perspective of the community and its territoriality, seeking to face violence and social suffering.