Expectations of high school young and adult students towards the school and their relation to the discipline of biology: an experience in a public school of Rio de Janeiro

Youth and Adult Education (EJA) is a basic education modality which constitutes a space with distinct characteristics of regular education. Such characteristics are due to the public which it is destined to: individuals with education delay who seek the completion of elementary education to keep in the race against exclusion in our competitive society. This study aims to understand the expectations of youth and adult students from a teacher’s experience and establish a connection with the curricular options of this modality of education. Thus, this paper discusses the history of EJA and the diversity of its public. The diversity and expectations of students from this modality of education will be analyzed through texts produced by them, analyses that guided the elaboration of two activities carried out in the classroom. The paper defends the importance of the teacher’s consideration on her/his aims, as well as the school’s and students' goals, with regard to Biology teaching, to adopt curricular options. One concludes the materials produced should consider the specificities of EJA and its public, besides contributing to the understanding and use of scientific language and to build an emancipative pedagogy which is, indeed, socially transformative.