Poverty, inequality and social exclusion and the impact of education in Brazil

Social inequality is an issue of great importance in Brazil since the Brazilian society is strongly marked by it. Research and official data have shown the relation between poverty and educational level as well as the inequality between the country poorest and richest regions. Thus, the so-called framework of social inequality in Brazil is made up of differences in education, income, regions and race, among others. Another issue which we focus on our studies and research refers to the subjective dimension of this reality of inequality expressed in the field of education. How do the subjects victims of inequality feel? How do these feelings interfere with or make up the educational process? Feelings, emotions, meanings are psychological aspects that build up during the process and characterize it. These questions are important because public policies in Brazil have been built without bearing in mind these aspects. The feelings of humiliation and social exclusion that accompany the processes of schooling, when evidenced, will surely design a new scenario. In this perspective, our thinking pleads for the urgency and importance of these studies in the field of Social Psychology. Based on official data supplied by surveys we characterized the expression at school of social inequality, i.e. what the main indicators in data of the effects of poverty, inequality and exclusion upon education in Brazil are. Secondly, we are presently conducting empirical research in order to reflect on the subjective reality of the students, trying to understand, through semi-structured interviews, the meanings and significations being constructed by young people who attended public schools, from their living inequality and social exclusion in their experiences from school to university. For this work, we will present and discuss some data related to the theoretical stage of this study, as well as preliminary data from the empirical research.