Quando a morte alcança a escola: vivências e experiências de atravessamentos sobre morte e luto no ambiente escolar

Abstract

There are several types of losses throughout human development. The processes of loss accompany human beings from birth and each human being attributes different meanings to these losses, depending on their experience and existential experience. Among the various types of human losses, there is death. Physical death signals the suffering and perishing of the body, demarcating the end of its biological activities. Inviting people to discuss losses is inviting them to observe the demarcations on finitudes, on the processes of mourning and on the order of the irreversibility of such a reality. Thus, this invitation tends not always to be accepted by people, institutions, society, etc. This research proposes to extend this invitation to people and to a school institution, understanding education as a powerful human and social institution as a locus of manifestation of subjectivities that intertwine in a tangle of meanings, in which losses and the processes of mourning appear. In view of the above, the objective of this research is to reveal the experiences of school actors about the crossings of various types of losses, including loss through death and the processes of mourning in the school environment of a municipal school in the city of Goiânia-GO. To achieve the intended purpose, there are three specific objectives: (i) to understand the meanings about losses as a natural process of human reality, death as a reality and mourning as a response to feeling; (ii) to understand whether the dialogue about losses, death and mourning is allowed in the school environment; (iii) to uncover how school actors experience the experiences of mourning in the school environment. The methodological approach is close to the phenomenological method, as it seeks to understand the subjective experiences of the subjects that make up the school space in their singularities and meanings, opting for the qualitative approach, with an exploratory objective, having as a procedure the bibliographic and empirical research, which used as a technique for obtaining data the narrative interview. The results showed that all the school actors interviewed have experiences with the theme of “loss”, focusing more on loss through death and the grieving process. Dialogues about death and mourning do not occur in the school environment, even though the school realizes that this is a topic that appears, but chooses to silence these themes so as not to have the need to discuss them. When there is some type of dialogue, it is brief and objective. The results also showed that mourning impacts people's lives in different ways: for some, it causes a change in routine, while for others, it can cause a lack of hope. People have a certain rejection of the topic of death and mourning, often because they do not know what comes next in terms of the dynamics of what to do for those who are left behind, and some doubts arise, such as, for example, how to continue with the routine, with life after the death of someone significant; and that spirituality is present when narrating about losses, death and mourning. Therefore, through this study, it is understood that the themes of “loss, death and mourning” appear in the school space, but do not find safe places to remain. As a consequence, school actors use their own internal resources to deal with their pain andvulnerabilities in the face of their mourning for death and losses arising from the breakup process