Universidade Popular Comunitária: a construção dos conhecimentos por meio das experiências simbólicas.

Youth and Adult Education (EJA) is formed, in its majority, by students excluded from the educational system. They seek an education that guarantees their right to learn how to learn. The Popular Community University (UPC) emerged to be this other educational offer. Through the symbolic experiences of the students and the community, the UPC sought to build an innovative project for the education of young people and adults from the outskirts of Cuiabá, in Mato Grosso. On this scenario, this article aims to address some of these experiences, through bibliographic research, official documents, conversation wheels and studies presented in the master's thesis of this author, developed in 2019 and 2020. The results indicated that the work with the students' life stories contributed to improve their learning, besides the elevation of self-esteem and criticality of this public. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]