Estudantes de camadas populares em cursos universitários considerados elite: entre sonhos, dificuldades e superações.

Abstract

This study aimed to reflect on the young students of lower classes in college courses considered elite: between dreams, difficulties and overcomings. Based on the sociological perspective, the research aimed to analyze the experienced dilemmas and the overcoming strategies developed by young students of lower classes in elitist courses from higher education. This research also sought to make a brief overview about the situation surrounding the historical context of the university expansion through the democratization of higher education in Brazil and the implementation of social inclusion policies, considering that the subjects who took part in this study were young students belonging the lower classes that during the research highlighted its academic path, from the senses and meanings they were building, based on his experiences as social and academic subjects. Building on the principles of descriptive research, with emphasis on the qualitative approach, the used data collection instrument was a semi-structured interview. Data were analyzed from the instrumental of "Content Analysis". The research enabled us to know a little of the academic reality of the interviewed students and establish a dialogue with these subjects. The interview contained eight questions related to the mentioned topic above, applied to seven students of the Curso de Direito of the Universidade Federal de Campina Grande, Sousa campus. The results found in the research showed that these lower classes students faced many dilemmas to join and stay on course because of the deficiencies they had in their basic education and their financial condition. However, these facts do not interfere with the academic development of the interviewed subjects. The survey also pointed out that the courses choice on these was influenced by many factors, such as family intervention, their school life, their social status, economic conditions, and especially the personal development of the interviewed students. And that to democratize education is not only to ensure admission to the university, but to promote conditions through the development of public policies that enable an effective democratization in higher education, providing mechanisms for the lower classes of students to remain on the course and complete it with success. Interviewed students also presented their professional and personal life projects after the end of the course, they all have set plans to pursue the career in the Law area. However, as they belong to lower classes, they can not afford to keep up, so they need to get somehow to stabilize relatively well to keep dedicating to studies and achieve the desired goal. Thus, the strategy adopted by these subjects is to achieve this stability through the approval in a public contest.