(In)discipline and violence in schools: a case study

Abstract

This article draws on the results of an ethnographic study on indiscipline and violence in schools, conducted in a public school of São Paulo municipal system.2 This case study examines how the school dealt with these phenomena, which have become the frequent object of school complaints and acquired relative prominence in research and publications of the field. Its objective was to identify factors capable of producing discipline and minimizing violence, as well as to obtain more clarity on the processes through which this order can be produced. We did the inventory of the educational actions and interventions that led to the transformation of an institution characterized by high rates of violence and indiscipline into a school that, in five years, came to be considered highly prestigious by the school community. Attention to the needs of the different school segments, collective and solidarity work, curricular organization, and support for students with learning difficulties contributed to prevent social inequalities from turning into school disadvantages. Research findings are accompanied by theoretical reflections, which seek to translate what we captured in the study into more comprehensive terms.