School violence in Brazil: Questions for psychology and education

Abstract

This article discusses the fundamental questions surrounding the phenomenon of school violence. It starts from an understanding of the role of culture, historicity, and the social model in psychological development to an understanding of how these instances are fundamental for understanding this phenomenon as challenges for the formulation of public policies in education. The central argument is that cultural instruments are important allies for psychological development, especially for the acquisition of an argumentation capacity that allows students to deal with the various disruptions that surround contemporary society. Psychological conflict, in this perspective, is understood as a dialectical process that serves to the emergence of new meanings to existential dilemmas. This vision is the starting point for the analysis of the set of scientific literature on school violence, its characteristics and the set of public policies present in the Brazilian education system. Finally, it is argued that there is a need for more creative and plastic teaching and learning methodologies, which allow students to appropriate cultural instruments to transform the pain or to escape the oppression that many are subjected to. It is hoped that this article will contribute to the debate for new public policies centered on creativity as an essential element for education.