DIFFERENT BACKPACKS, SHARED DREAMS: THE PATH OF INCLUSION IN PUBLIC SCHOOLS

Abstract

School inclusion in contemporary Brazil requires moving beyond the rhetoric of formal equality toward an agenda of educational justice, in which the right to learn is linked to belonging, dignity, and the protection of singularities. This article examines the challenges and possibilities of the public school as a space of resistance, care, and recognition, using the metaphor of “different backpacks” to describe the plural trajectories that students carry into the educational environment. Through a qualitative and bibliographic approach, it discusses how exclusion operates silently through homogenizing practices, excessive medicalization, fragile intersectoral articulation, and the absence of attentive listening. The study argues that inclusion extends beyond enrollment and depends on meaningful participation, contextual pedagogical mediation, and affective bonds that support learning. It concludes that constructing an inclusive school requires breaking with normative paradigms and committing collectively to diversity as an ethical and political value.