69 CC BY-NC Культурно-историческая психология 2021. Т. 17. № 3. С. 69—76 DOI: https://doi.org/10.17759/chp.2021170310 ISSN: 1816-5435 (печатный) ISSN: 2224-8935 (online) Cultural-Historical Psychology 2021. Vol. 17, no. 3, pp. 69—76 DOI: https://doi.org/10.17759/chp.2021170310 ISSN: 1816-5435 (print) ISSN: 2224-8935 (online) Introduction This paper discusses the role of psychology in pro- moting student participation in everyday decisions in Brazilian public schools. This discussion occurs in a po- litical and social context marked by socioeconomic in- equalities and power relations, which permeate the en- tire history of the Latin American continent and make it difficult to achieve genuine democratization of institu- tions such as schools. This unequal power relations have its origin in the fif- teenth century, a period in which European navigations arrived in America and began exploratory colonization. According to Quijano [14], this period establishes a new pattern of world power; the modern/colonial Euro cen- tered capitalism, which is based on two axes: the con- struction of the idea of human races, in an attempt to justify the exploitation and genocide of native people, as well as of African people brought to America to be en- slaved; and the new social hierarchy of labor, which links labor and the social role to this supposed race. Thus, wage-earning labor is reserved for white people. In con- trast, Black and Native American people can be exploit- ed by slave labor and subjected to all sorts of violence for almost four centuries. This process culminated in different consequences for the constitution of Latin American countries be- cause even after the end of slavery, native and freed black people were not the target of public policies to include them as citizens [16]. Instead, the liberation of black people was a threat for power elites, which op- pressed them for centuries. Consequently, they chose to bring European workers to occupy wage-earning positions and whiten the Brazilian population, leading black people to a growing exclusion [1]. Pockets of pov- erty were formed, which gave rise to the well-known Brazilian «favelas». In these places, poor (and predomi- nantly black) populations live without adequate hous- ing, sanitation, culture, education, leisure, etc., until the present time [11]. From Interpsychological to Intrapsychological: Developing Students’ Agency J. Meireles Pontifical Catholic University of Campinas and UNIFIEO University Center, São Paulo, Brazil ORCID: https://orcid.org/0000-0002-0570-0407, e-mail: jacmeireles@gmail.com R.S.L. Guzzo Pontifical Catholic University of Campinas, São Paulo, Brazil ORCID: https://orcid.org/0000-0002-7029-2913, e-mail: rslguzzo@gmail.com This paper starts from the contradictions that permeate the Latin American democratic context to dis- cuss how psychology can contribute to expanding students' agency in public schools located in vulnerable contexts marked by poverty and social exclusion. The contributions of Cultural-Historical Psychology and German Critical Psychology are articulated to substantiate the importance of building participatory spaces for human development. The authors were inserted in a public school from the year 2015 to the year 2017, holding class assemblies with primary school students. The content discussed in these meetings was re- corded in field diaries, from which three narratives were selected for analysis. The first narrative deals with a discussion of physical education activities; the second presents a student sharing his suffering in the face of bullying as he cries in class; the third reports a discussion about the theft of a pencil. It is concluded that guided by critical perspective, psychology can contribute to the strengthening of subjects, collaborating to the expansion of their agency. Keywords: student participation; agency; cultural-historical psychology; German critical psychology; school democratization; child development. Funding. This paper presents some of the results of a Doctoral thesis. The doctoral research was funded by the Coordina- tion for the Improvement of Higher Education Personnel (Capes — Brazil — Process number: 88887.148338/2017-00). For citation: Meireles J., Guzzo R.S.L. From Interpsychological to Intrapsychological: Developing Students’ Agency. Кul'turno-istoricheskaya psikhologiya = Cultural-Historical Psychology, 2021. Vol. 17, no. 3, pp. 69—76. DOI: https://doi. org/10.17759/chp.2021170310