Estima de lugar de jovens quilombolas: repercussões para a política intersetorial de saúde e educação

Abstract

This research investigates the place esteem of quilombola youth and its implications for intersectoral health and education policies. Conducted in the Quilombola Community Três Irmãos (Croatá/CE) and at the Quilombola School Luzia Maria da Conceição, the first quilombola school in the state education network of Ceará, the study is grounded in Environmental and Social Psychology, in the concept of place esteem (Bomfim, 2010; 2013), and in counter-colonial perspectives (Nego Bispo; Beatriz Nascimento). This is a qualitative action-research study conducted with ten seniors (12th-grade) students, using focus groups, Affective Maps, photographic records, and the flânerie method. The analyses integrated narratives, graphic representations, and field observations to understand how young people perceive and experience their territory and how the School Health Program (PSE) does or does not address their needs. As the technical product of the research, an Illustrated Guidebook for students was developed, collectively constructed through listening sessions, walks, photographs, and meetings with the youth. The guidebook values local knowledge and lived experiences in the territory, inviting reflection on health from the vantage point of body, land, affect, and quilombola identity, strengthening the articulation between education and health within the scope of the PSE. The findings indicate that place esteem is shaped by ancestry, traditional knowledge, and community experience, but also by challenges such as precarious infrastructure, barriers to accessing rights, and the absence of culturally contextualized intersectoral actions. The school emerges as a space of resistance and mediation of knowledge, although it faces tensions related to curricula that are insufficiently aligned with quilombola realities. It is concluded that more effective intersectoral policies must recognize quilombola knowledge and practices, strengthen youth leadership, and articulate health and education with the territory, culture, and history of the community, valuing collective identities and ancestral memory.