Territorialities and meanings about school

Abstract

This research is part of the macro-project "Phenomenological Explorations on the School", from which various themes have been defined to delve into the web of meanings of the educational scenario. In particular, the research presented here sought to "Understand the territorialities that are constructed in the school scenario, from which meanings are given to the school". As already indicated, the method used is phenomenology (Van Manen, 2016) from the narratives of the school life journeys of 8 participants, who from their life stories about their journey through school, build different views around it. The analysis was constructed from the thematisations of the narratives around the object of study: (the school as a territory) and then the in-depth description of these themes is elaborated. In this way, the presence of territorialities in the school was confirmed in this research, as the students assigned different meanings and values to school spaces, which make them be seen as spaces of discipline and control or as scenarios of autonomy and freedom, impacting these visions, the behaviours they develop in front of other students and other members of the educational community; In the former, students are quiet and reserved, and in the latter, the dynamics and dialogues are much more open, developing exchanges, building languages and cultural structures around places that they perceive as their own; territorialities that in turn influence the meanings that students attribute to the school.