Abstract
Based on qualitative data collected in a field research carried out in 2016 in five state public schools in Rio de Janeiro, this article examines the meanings attributed to injustice in public schooling practices and how student action in this context shapes the occupation of schools and current student experiences. The analyzes expanded the understanding of the school as a public arena, revealed the various ways in which political ties are formed, broken and maintained in the school and in occupations, and addressed the deficiencies of public schools and the policies for upper secondary public schools in Rio de Janeiro and other states. The research also revealed the uncertain and difficult associative student effort to expose education problems while living in the occupied school. The situations observed bring to light the need for a habitable public school, the ineffectiveness of the schooling offered to poor Brazilian students and young people, and the difficult struggle faced by them to ensure quality schooling and autonomy in the complex, unequal and plural context of current Brazilian society.
Sense of injustice; Fair school; Human rights; Student mobilization; Associative cunning