O que queremos da escola média?A perspectiva de pesquisadores, professores e estudantes de ensino médio

the high school in brazil has been characterized by the dilemma of meeting two specific demands: preparing students to higher education and to the job market. their differentiated pathways have attended to a technical and social separation of labor, marked by the students' socioeconomic background and revealed by the low levels of access to secondary education by young people from the poorest sections of the population. several policies, disputes and articulated enterprises have been promoted by the government and by the interests of the groups involved with the issue, in order to overcome the structural and historical duality in this level of schooling. the recent adoption of compulsory secondary education in brazil incorporates reflections about the meaning, the objectives and the structure of an education that can meet a higher percentage than the 50.9% of young brazilians aged 15-17 that currently attends it. the present article examines some questions, presented by researchers from different research centers of rio de janeiro and by high school teachers and students participating in scientific initiation program, developed with high school students.