TRAJETÓRIAS DE LUTA: Histórias de Evasão e Superação na Escolarização Trans

Abstract

This research examines the relationship between schooling and the experiences of trans people, focusing on the factors that lead to school dropout and, conversely, those that support persistence and forms of overcoming within educational contexts marked by exclusion. Grounded in the alarming rates of school abandonment among trans populations in Brazil, the study underscores the urgent need to reflect on pedagogical practices, public policies, and support networks that ensure inclusion. Its general aim was to analyze how schools can function both as spaces of expulsion and as spaces of resistance, by investigating the trajectories of trans students who endured institutional violence but also mobilized collective support networks, legal achievements, and social infrastructures of persistence as strategies of resistance. The specific objectives were to understand school practices that produce silencing and marginalization, to identify mechanisms of recognition that contribute to persistence, and to propose conceptual frameworks that make these experiences visible. The research employed a qualitative approach grounded in thematic Oral History, drawing on Meihy and Holanda, Alberti, and Portelli, and conducted in-depth interviews with three participants: Gabriel, a white trans man; Gaby, a Black trans woman; and Paulinha, a white trans woman and special education teacher. Their narratives were analyzed in dialogue with authors such as Berenice Bento, Judith Butler, Guacira Lopes Louro, Richard Miskolci, and Michel Foucault, articulating theories of gender, sexuality, intersectionality, and dispositifs of power. The analysis led to the formulation of the notion of “moral infrastructures of persistence,” understood as informal practices of care, solidarity, and mutual support constructed by peers in hallways, bathrooms, and school thresholds, ensuring protection and resistance within adverse environments. The findings indicate that schools structured by prejudice and lacking inclusive policies contribute to dropout, producing trajectories marked by repetition, humiliation, and abandonment; yet they also reveal that small acts of recognition—such as the correct use of a student’s social name, peer acceptance, attentive listening by teachers, and strengthened family support networks—play a decisive role in sustaining persistence. The study argues that the school experiences of trans people cannot be reduced to a narrative of exclusion, but must be understood as a symbolic arena in which resistance and invention confront institutional denial. It concludes that the presence of trans students is not an exception but an integral part of social diversity, calling for investments in teacher training, institutional policies of recognition, and curricula that affirm gender plurality. Ultimately, the research demonstrates that writing and listening to trans voices in academic spaces is not merely documentation, but a political act that expands future possibilities while affirming dignity and the right to educational permanence.