A escola do bairro que samba: a cátedra do samba na cidade de Guaratinguetá

Abstract

This dissertation investigates the samba schools of Guaratinguetá-SP, with emphasis on the Bonecos Cobiçados Samba School, as educational spaces and producers of popular knowledge. Based on a qualitative approach grounded in sensitive listening, the research analyzes samba-enredos (theme songs), historical records, field observations, and interviews with members of the school. The study starts from the premise that samba, as a popular cultural manifestation, holds pedagogical potential and articulates memory, identity, and territoriality. The city of Guaratinguetá is presented as a territory of symbolic tensions between institutionalized sacredness and popular religiosity, where carnival emerges as a powerful form of expression and resistance. The Bonecos Cobiçados Samba School is understood as a popular cátedra (chair), a space for collective formation, community strengthening, and the construction of subjectivities. The dissertation articulates concepts such as geopsychic place, community, and popular knowledge to highlight the value of knowledge emerging from carnival culture. Finally, the study reaffirms the importance of institutional recognition of samba schools as places of knowledge and points to the challenges encountered in the context of Guaratinguetá.