Mapas jovens: mapeando Juiz de Fora pelos olhos dos jovens escolares

Abstract

This research aims to understand how young students represent and perceive the city and the school, focusing on the production of participatory cartographies in the municipality of Juiz de Fora. It is based on the understanding that youth experiences are shaped by issues of class, race, gender, and territory, which directly influence their ways of experiencing and appropriating urban and school spaces. The adopted methodology is qualitative and participatory, grounded in social cartography, involving an initial stage of broad conversations with all school classes, followed by the selection of interested students to form a long-term group. This group actively participates in discussion circles, workshops, and map-making activities, as well as accompanying the entire research process. Based on observations made through teaching practice, it is evident that young people frequently face challenges related to marginalization and exclusion within the spaces they occupy. However, they also develop creative forms of resistance, affirm their identities, and build bonds of belonging within the territories they inhabit. In this context, participatory cartography emerges as a tool for valuing youth voices and for the potential transformation of pedagogical and urban practices.