As drogas no contexto da educação popular

Abstract

In current times, issues involving drugs and their users have strongly aroused the concern of society. This research aimed to understand how the drugs are being approached in the context of popular education, as well as by specialized literature and in schools located in popular context. From a methodological point of view, the research adopted a qualitative and descriptive perspective (FLICK). In this sense, the development of this study occurred through an analytical review of specialized literature and semi-structured interviews (VOSGERAU, ROMANOWSKI, 2014; MYNAYO, 2014). The units of analysis were the bibliographic material from the theoretical field of popular education and the interviews accomplished with managers and teachers of public schools in the municipality of Itapororoca-PB. The work discusses socio-historical, cultural, educational and political aspects by focusing on the scientific field of popular education and drugs. The interviews were examined according to the thematic-categorical content analysis technique (Bardin, 2016). The research found out, for example, the following: 1) most of the publications that have been analyzed address drugs critically. In this way, it was found out that the guidelines of popular education are adopted in approaches to drugs as a consequence of popular education presenting itself as an alternative to the hegemonic and repressive discourses on such subject. 2) Popular education theorists propose several didactic tools to aid the development of educational activities on drugs, such as workshops, group dynamics, games, movies. These activities require an active participation of the people involved. 3) The two schools located in popular context that have been surveyed in this study follow repressive approaches to prevent drug use. It was found out that both the content of the approaches and way as they are developed are strongly inspired by the drug war policy. It is not considered that these substances are multifactorial and their approaches should take into account the biopsychosocial factor in the context of the relationship among drugs, individuals and society. However, as there is no training to address this subject and question it, what prevails is the individual responsibility of drug users, fear and repressive practices.