School and Youth participation: Is this dialogue possible?

The social participation of young people depends on the way society provides opportunities in which they can involve in participatory experiences and inform themselves about the possibilities in this field. Based on the data of a national research about the social participation of the Brazilian youth, this paper aims at discussing the role that young people school experience has fulfilled in this process Belo Horizonte Metropolitan. According to the presented data, the schools have shyly acted in this field, which seems to result both from the conceptions that guide the school organization and the social reality that narrows the political and social participation of the Brazilian young people. This paper presents data on the young people situation at Belo Horizonte Metropolitan Region and analyzes the youth representation towards the social participation demonstrated in the research. Finally, it discusses the school role inciting participatory experiences among its students.