TERRITORY, LANGUAGE, AND EXCLUSION: THE SCHOOL AS AN IDENTITY STAGE IN THE URBAN PERIPHERY

Abstract

This article analyzes the school in the urban periphery not merely as a space for teaching and learning, but as an identity stage and a microcosm where the social, economic, and cultural tensions of the unequal city are manifested and reproduced. The study investigates the critical interconnection between three central elements: the student's area of territory of origin, the language they use (sociolects and slang), and the mechanisms of exclusion operating in the school's daily routine, seeking to understand how this dynamic shapes student identities. The theoretical framework mobilizes Critical Geography (Milton Santos, Rogério Haesbaert) to conceptualize the peripheral territory as a space of power and resistance; the Sociology of Education (Pierre Bourdieu) to discuss the concepts of habitus and Linguistic Capital; and Sociolinguistics (Marcos Bagno) to demystify linguistic prejudice as a tool for social exclusion. The analysis demonstrates that the school, by demanding strict adherence to the standard norm and imposing a hidden curriculum that negates the culture and experience of the peripheral territory, operates a symbolic violence. The student is forced to negotiate a dual identity, where the correction of their speech is perceived as social punishment and a denial of their origin. Prejudice against language and the stereotyped view of the "peripheral body" contribute significantly to silencing and the feeling of non-belonging, thus reinforcing the reproduction of inequality. It is concluded that transforming the peripheral school into a truly inclusive space requires the recognition and legitimation of territorial and linguistic diversity. This implies training teachers as critical mediators and adopting pedagogical practices that use the cultural capital and voice of the periphery as starting points for emancipation and identity affirmation. The struggle on the school stage is, in essence, a struggle for the validity and dignity of the peripheral identity.