Psychology and the Construction of the Democratic School

Abstract

SUMMARY This text refers to the conference presented by the author at the opening of the XV CONPE, promoted by ABRAPEE, in July 2022. In the first part, the main conceptions about the role of the school in capitalist societies and their impacts on the practices developed are presented. We sought to understand whether the school represents a space for the performance of educators committed to the formation of critical and transformative citizens. Next, data are presented on the Brazilian educational reality, marked by the contradictions of a dualistic system and divided between privatist and publicist interests. In the second part, the concept of democratic school is analyzed from three dimensions: quantitative (school for all and permanence), qualitative (function and quality of teaching) and internal relations (collective work). Finally, it is argued that Psychology can have a fundamental contribution to the construction of the democratic school, provided that some conditions are assumed by psychologists: interdisciplinary action with educators, basically preventive work directed to educational planning and the overcoming of conservative theoretical conceptions, as the Medical Model.