O caráter performativo das ocupações estudantis

Abstract

The article analyzes the high school student occupations of schools that occurred in 2015 in the state of Sao Paulo, as a reaction to the school reorganization proposal that aimed to close 94 schools and the compulsory transfer of 311 thousand students and 74 thousand teachers. A bibliographic research and a theoretical analysis of the occupations was carried out, highlighting their performative dimension.. This key of analysis is supported by authors such as Ernesto Laclau, Chantal Mouffe and Judith Butler, who emphasize the relational and contingent character of identities, and the importance of the body in the current grammar of social conflicts. The conclusions indicate that the school occupation movement was a performative act in three dimensions: in the emergence of the subjects (the high school student identity that emerged with the occupation); in the way of presenting some educational demands (the production of new scholar practices that materialized the desired changes); in the inversion of administrative subjection by the creation of another visible, vibrant and active “student body”. The occupation movement went beyond the traditional and established channels of demand foreseen by representative democracy, becoming a disruptive movement, with a strong transgressive content in relation to the instituted powers and, therefore, triggered strong repression by the State. At the same time, they configured spaces for the production of new forms of education and school life with more freedom, autonomy and meaning, embodying criticisms that young people have been making for many years regarding public policies and the models of schooling that are offered to them.