Educação de Jovens e Adultos (EJA): mulheres e a utopia de uma vida melhor

Abstract

The overall objective of this research was to evaluate the pedagogical practices and institutional conditions of Youth and Adult Education (EJA) in serving women at a municipal school in Fortaleza. Regarding to the specific objectives, the research aimed to understand the experiences of women returning to the classroom, based on student narratives; to examine the significance of this process for the reconstruction of their critical thinking of relation to the marks of patriarchy; and to examine the management processes and institutional actions implemented by the pedagogical coordination, concerning the demands of women. Grounded in Historical-Critical Pedagogy and a counter-hegemonic perspective, a qualitative approach was crucial, utilizing documentary research, interviews with the coordination, focus groups with twelve students, and field diary entries. The data, subjected to content analysis, reveals that the daily life of adult education pulsates with a duality: on one hand, the coldness of standardized public policies that ignore gender specificities; on the other, the "school floor" as a vibrant territory of insurgency. Thus, the return to studies reveals itself as the realization of Freirean utopia, in which the act of learning allows for the denunciation of an oppressive reality and the announcement of new possibilities for existence. For these women, education constitutes the Unprecedented Viable: the transformation of historically insurmountable obstacles into concrete actions of liberation through praxis. Beyond literacy, their trajectories represent a rupture with imposed destinies, transforming the students' accumulated resistance into collective knowledge and intergenerational protagonism. Through the lens of emancipation, adult education asserts itself as a strategy for political survival, where the pen and notebook become devices for reclaiming their own voice.It is concluded that the education of women in EJA (Youth and Adult Education) goes beyond functional instruction to constitute a profound process of subjective liberation. It is imperative that this journey cease to be an isolated act of daily courage and become consolidated as a state policy that effectively guarantees the right to autonomy and female dignity.