On the other side of the wall, but never on top of the wall: the ethical and political commitment of educators and social educators who work with young people deprived of their liberty at Fundação CASA

Abstract

This article aims to discuss the ways in which educators and social educators work, through non-formal education, with and adolescents in conflict with the law who comply with a measure of detention at Fundação CASA. In addition to the pertinent bibliographic study, some results of the dissertation entitled Educação privada de liberdade: um estudo das práticas pedagógicas utilizadas com adolescentes em conflito com a lei, of my authorship, defended in 2019. It also uses memory records related to my performance as a volunteer social educator in Fundação CASA units. For
this article, I have interwoven parts of identification of the research mentioned with
more recent studies, to investigate the paradox in whether some type of education is
sought within a total institution marked by state racism. The article indicates that
educators and social educators who work at Fundação CASA through non-formal
education, without an employment relationship with the institution, have consciously
opted for this activity, being part of an intentional, social and political choice,
considering that they assume as a compromise the critical presence within an
oppressive space with which they do not agree, but, as long as it exists, they intend to
create possibilities of bonds and resistances together with the young people deprived of
their freedom.