Lower classes and public university: the sense of school experience by students entering the University of São Paulo through InclUSP

• Grant number: 10/20872-4
• Support Opportunities: Regular Research Grants
• Start date: April 01, 2012
• End date: September 30, 2014
• Field of knowledge: Humanities - Education - Fundamentals of Education
• Principal Investigator: Debora Cristina Piotto
• Grantee: Debora Cristina Piotto
• Host Institution: Faculdade de Filosofia, Ciências e Letras de Ribeirão Preto (FFCLRP). Universidade de São Paulo (USP). Ribeirão Preto , SP, Brazil

Abstract

Researches on affirmative action policies in higher education in Brazil are recent. On the other hand, researches on entrance and continuation in college courses by students from the lower classes begin to emerge from 1990 and emphasize the experience of students to discuss the difficulties and possibilities of this presence in higher education. These studies investigate the processes and the practices that make extended learning paths possible in low-income segments. The researches also tend to look mostly at the cultural breach caused by the difference between the educational and the familiar world, and the suffering caused by this. Otherwise, some studies have pointed the necessity to pay attention to different meanings that the university experience in public institutions may have for students from lower classes. In this way, the objective of the research is to investigate the personal meaning assigned to the school experience, there included the university experience, by students came from lower classes, who entered in a prestigious public university that have just adopted a policy of affirmative action. More specifically, it will analyze the meaning of school experience for students that entered the University of São Paulo through InclUSP (USP Social Inclusion Programme). (AU)