This article discusses the effects of extending the duration of school education among the working class, focusing on the specific case of two generations of steelworkers from the ABC region of São Paulo: those who were students at the end of 1970s and those at school at the end of the 1990s. Field research was conducted in the Mercedes-Benz factory, using direct observation, archival research and 52 biographical interviews. The prolongation of school education among working class youngsters is experienced ambivalently by parents and children alike. The hopes for career advancement nurtured by these youngsters have failed to materialize, despite the increase in schooling. Furthermore, the difference between the school experiences of parents and children seems to have led to a series of conflicts between the two generations.
Steelworkers; Schooling; Generations; Work; Transmission