GALIOTTO, Claudio Gonçalves Mendes. Youth protagonism and creative imagination in Gaston Bachelard: lived experiences from an educational project. Master’s Thesis (Master’s Degree in Human Development) – University of Taubaté, Taubaté, 2024.
Available on: https://deposita.ibict.br/bitstream/deposita/776/2/dissertacao_protagonismo_juvenil_claudio_galiotto_final.pdf
Abstract: This research stems from an internship carried out during the Psychology course on the acquisition of social and educational skills in high school adolescents who took part in the “Young Protagonists” educational project, which uses active methodologies in education. In addition to the acquisition of these skills, there was an effect on the expression of creativity and autonomy in the young people, who took the lead in learning and in coping strategies in everyday life. Objective: The focus of this research is therefore on deepening this effect, taking as its object of study the phenomenon of the expression of youthful protagonism, from the perspective of Gaston Bachelard’s creative imagination. The reflections are based on the premises of youth protagonism, understood as the action of adolescents to build their autonomy, their creative, constructive and supportive participation in the solution of real problems in social life, and creative imagination as the imaginative activity of a consciousness that understands, feels and signifies the experience of novelty. These premises underpin this work, which aims to understand, using the phenomenological method, the meanings of the experiences lived by the adolescents taking part in the Young Protagonists Educational Project, in relation to the expression of youth protagonism. It is therefore a phenomenological, exploratory and qualitative study and is configured as a cross-sectional study. Twenty students took part in the research who: i) were in secondary school, ii) were in the 9th year of elementary school, or iii) had just finished secondary school. Method: The instrument used to collect the data was a documentary analysis of primary sources produced by the institution in relation to the students. The Drawing-and-Story Procedure (D-E) with a Theme was also used at three points in the research: at the beginning, when the student joins the educational project at an intermediate stage and at the end of the project. To organize and analyze the data, Giorgi’s phenomenological method was applied, which is developed in four stages: 1) general reading of the material, 2) definition of units of meaning, 3) expression of the meanings of the units, and 4) formulation of a synthesis of the units. Results: The results show that the students are deeply dissatisfied with the school environment, indicating a problematic relationship with this environment, which generates physical, psychological and ethical-political suffering. In addition, the lack of socialization and respect in the school environment contrasts with the growing need to promote good encounters and strengthen bonds between adolescents. The negative perception of teaching methodology highlights the disconnect between the education system and the needs of students, undermining the relevance of the current model. School spaces are seen as hostile and exclusionary, which diminishes the students’ power to act. However, through meetings held in the space where the educational project is developed, the teenagers have imagined a possible future, recreating the school in an experience of openness to novelty. The expression of youth protagonism therefore emerges as a need to strengthen affective bonds and increase the adolescents’ power to act, pushing them to imagine and create new possibilities for dealing with the challenges arising from the processes of isolation, exclusion and discrimination.