Stranger in the nest: unequal strategies, unequal contexts, unequal elite institutions

• Grant number: 16/16981-9
• Support Opportunities: Scholarships abroad - Research Internship - Post-doctor
• Start date: February 01, 2017
• End date: January 31, 2018
• Field of knowledge: Humanities - Education
• Principal Investigator: Afrânio Mendes Catani
• Grantee: Ruy de Deus e Mello Neto
• Supervisor: Natasha Kumar Warikoo
• Host Institution: Faculdade de Educação (FE). Universidade de São Paulo (USP). São Paulo , SP, Brazil
• Institution abroad: Harvard University, Cambridge, United States
• Associated to the scholarship: 14/26481-8 - Between dream and reality: ProUni fellows' strategy to labor market in São Paulo and Pernambuco, BP.PD

Abstract

This work aims to comprehend the strategies adopted by the Programa Universidade para Todos (ProUni) graduates' inside a reality influenced by the new possibility of the access to Higher Education. Observing the role of this level of education in the lives of the students that, due to their familiar histories and social and economic inequalities, would not have this opportunity, this project aims to characterize how low-income young people adapt their strategies for entering the labor market. Starting from the premise that there are significant differences between the accumulated capitals (cultural, social and educational) of ProUni scholars' and other students enrolled in private Higher Education Institutions. Also assuming there would be greater variation between profiles according to geographical region of Higher Education Institutions. In such a way this research aims to investigate and build a more detailed understanding of the conditions that produce and maintain, or not, the poverty of these individuals. That is, investigate through an empirical analysis, centered on the Symbolic Boundaries concept, this work will seek to understand how a low-income population, facing an alleged possibility of equal conditions for educational opportunities, builds their self-perception and sets in motion new strategies targeting the labor market. For that purpose, I conducted depth interviews subdividing into two main groups of respondents: 15 ProUni graduates' from Catholic University of Pernambuco's Law School and 15 ProUni graduates' from Mackenzie Presbyterian University's Law School in São Paulo. Thus, we will highlight the differences between how ProUni graduates identify themselves (and their peers) in both states, pointing out the specific strategies adopted by each group in order to adapt to the labor market. (AU)