External influences such as assets or liabilities in students’ education

Abstract

The article examines semi-structured interviews developed with subjects from different segments from four schools, elected by contrast, problematizing the influences outside as active or passive in the students’ school trajectory. It reveals that both the family’s and the neighborhood’s influence are perceived as potentiators, or not, of a greater use of the educational opportunity available. Going through the socialization models in the neighborhood, the material resources available at home, the exposure to the risk of violence and the possibility of experiencing extracurricular activities as elements that act as assets or liabilities, the interviewees indicate from the family organization, especially the school follow-up provided by it, to the infrastructure of the neighborhood as aspects to be considered.