In July 2021, at the invitation of the professors from the State School Prof. João Batista Curado (located in the city of Jundiai, state of São Paulo, Brazil). I taught a lecture on The Incontestable Relationship between Studies and the Construction of the Life Project. The lecture was dedicated to high school students.
Thus, as mentioned in the SCENT project blog post. A continuation of this initiative was being planned by Professor Denito since 2021. Happily, chapter 2 of this initiative was virtually carried out on the last day of March 30th with the State School Lavínia Ribeiro Aranha (located in the city of Jundiai, state of São Paulo, Brazil).
Following the objective created in 2021, the lecture initially provided a broad perspective of my study trajectory, which encompasses Elementary and Higher Education, Graduation, and Post-Graduation. Thus, the proposal was to encourage students to discuss the importance of studies in the personal and professional trajectory and the relationship between studies and the life project. Figure 1 A shows the art created to publicize the lecture on social networks. Figure 1 B shows the summarized information about my master's education period, one of the first slides (both cases, information in Portuguese).
Interestingly, the same effect occurred during this second lecture as in the first lecture held in 2021. The lecture was as expected in its first part, which then considered information about my study trajectory. Nevertheless, from the moment we started an "open conversation" about the importance of studies in the personal and professional trajectory. The online meeting was also transformed, and everyone present, both students and teachers, began to interact.
The discussions, i.e., questions and answers were as diverse as possible. However, inevitably much has been said about the COVID-19 impacts. The years of the pandemic and the consequent demand for social isolation led students to reconfigure their lifestyle, causing a series of changes, especially in the socio-emotional sphere. In this way, many students expressed how the life project in the personal and academic scope was configured in a perception of being unreachable. It was possible to identify in these young students statements such as: “I don't have a life project” or “I don't know what I want out of life”.
However, despite there being a certain feeling of powerlessness in the face of the challenges of the modern world. The meeting ended up being very productive. Aspects such as the appreciation and use of knowledge historically constructed about the physical, social, cultural and digital world to understand and explain reality were presented.
In the same way, the importance of the diversity of knowledge and cultural experiences was highlighted. In the context of appropriating knowledge and experiences that allow them to understand the relations of the world of work and make choices aligned with the exercise of citizenship and their life project, with freedom, autonomy, critical conscience, and responsibility.
In total, 80 people were present, including professors and students, and the lecture had an hour of content and half an hour of open conversation. With Professor Denito (highlighted in figure 2 in the top left), we are planning further activities with other schools in the Jundiai region.