Abstract
The purpose of the study was to understand the concepts of adolescence and education that support the work – especially the work related to the schooling of adolescents – of the professionals that compose the Psychosocial Care Center for Children and Youth (CAPSi). 11 professionals who work in a CAPSi were interviewed: a social worker, a psychiatrist, two psychologists, two nurses, four occupational therapists and the coordinator. Content analysis was used for data analysis, considering some assumptions of the epistemic-methodological approach of the historical and dialectical materialism. The discussions and results show that, even understanding the importance of their work with adolescents with mental illness history, the professionals interviewed demonstrate difficulty in breaking the naturalized vision of adolescence, which understands it as a phase of conflict and neglects that it is a part of the development that is made and signified by the society itself. It was revealed that working with these adolescents makes health professionals reflect on the process of education and perceive school’s importance in the therapeutic project of the adolescents as well as the importance of the involvement of school, family and theirs so that adolescents can build, based on an emancipatory education, an own identity and autonomy.
Education; CAPSi; Adolescence; Schooling