The roles of the school beyond the opposition school-illegalism: Stories of students from a school in a context of urban poverty in the suburbs of Buenos Aires

The aim of this article is to investigate the roles the school represents for students from a marginal neighborhood in the suburbs of Buenos Aires. Based on the "non-opposition between school-illegalisms", several student narratives collected during fieldwork between 2016 and 2019 were analyzed and expanded on. Two axes stand out in these narratives. Firstly, the school as a place that allows students to avoid the risks and dangers associated with the dynamics of illegality. And, secondly, the school as a means to enter the formal labor market away from the illegal economies. Evidencing the neuralgic role that the school represents for students who suffer from permanent school tension due to the dynamics assumed by illegal acts on contexts of urban poverty in the global South. Keywords: Young students, School, Illegalisms, Urban poverty, Educational research