AFFIRMATIVE ACTION STUDENTS IN THE FEDERAL UNIVERSITY OF SANTA CATARINA: TWO PROFILES

Abstract

Relating socioeconomic data, produced by the Federal University of Santa Catarina, to in-depth interviews, our study identified two profiles of affirmative action students at the Federal University of Santa Catarina (UFSC) central campus. From the Bourdiesian categories of “survivors of school superselection” and “petty bourgeoisie”, we argue that such “survivors” correspond to students originated from manual workers families who were submitted to precarious itineraries of formal education. Nevertheless, through uncertain and lonely educational investments, these students have gradually made up for their cultural disadvantages. On the other hand, the “petty bourgeois” students”, whose parents are “non manual” employees of private or public bureaucracies, were submitted to more qualified schooling trajectories, which reflect the educational strategies embodied in the ethos of such class fraction. Building on the specialized literature, the study seeks to contribute to the little explored theme of social diversity within the universe of affirmative action students admitted to the most selective career (medicine) in Brazilian higher education.