Picturing school failure: A study of diversity in explanations of educational difficulties among rural and urban youth in Brazil

This is a study of school failure among Brazilian dropouts and grade repeaters at the elementary school level. It is an ethnographic study using interviews as the chief means of data collection. The study was limited to two settings in Brazil: one rural and one urban. It examined perceptions of difficult youth and school failure from the point of view of 187 participants: politicians, the school administrators, parents, and the youth themselves. The youth\u27s perceptions of their school failure formed the basis of the analysis of failure as a socially constructed issue. The evidence indicated two lines of explanation. One located the problem within the students: youth\u27s lack of discipline as the basis of exclusion and expulsion. The other located the problem in interaction between student and school: teachers lack of interest and knowledge and its relationship with their lack of understanding of the youth\u27s culture; discrimination as a real issue, which should not be overlooked; and the government\u27s lack of attention to schools, which results in poor school performance. The data suggests that clear policies about student discipline and teacher\u27s ethics are necessary to promote positive changes in the Educational System