A vivência da escolha profissional para universitários de Natal-RN que desistiram de seus cursos

Abstract

University evasion assumes increasing dimensions over the years and affects the whole society. Published research data indicate that university students attribute this phenomenon to factors such as the quality of teaching, their own socioeconomic conditions and professional choice. In order to understand specificities of processes of academic-professional choices, together with decisions of dropping out these choices and to evaluate repercussions of these experiences on participants intrapersonal dynamics, we have used Vygotsky's historical-cultural theory. More specifically the concepts of experience (translation for Russian word perezhivanie) and dramatic collisions, which can lead to qualitative changes and development of Higher Psychological Functions. In addition, we are equally based on the theoretical concept of "power to act", issued from Activity Clinic general theoretical framework. These conceopts have been used into the context of professional choice among young studenets. Regarding methodological aspects, individual interviews were conducted based on the establishment of a welcoming clinical position on the part of the researcher in relation to the participants, conduct according to the clinical-qualitative methodology proposed by the clinic of the activity. The participants came from the village of Natal / RN, were at least 18 years old and had a biographical history of having dropped off one or more undergraduate courses. The number of interviews was defined based on the spontaneous demand of university students who, after disclosure of the research in social networks, showed interest in participating, and also through the "snowball" method, through indications of the participants themselves. These interviews were recorded, transcribed and passed through a clinical-interpretative analysis, according to the theoretical and epistemological framework of the study. The results point to the choice of academic-professional courses motivated, especially, by the entrance in the higher education, facilitated by the Unified Selection System - SISU. This led, in some participants, to lack of identification with the chosen formations. Culminating, therefore, in dramatic experiences; reevaluations and withdrawals justified by lack of identification, deficiency in the teaching-learning process, incipient construction of professional choice and impossibility of reconciliation between study and work. The differential of this study was to glimpse the phenomenon of university evasion from the perspective of the development of the Higher Psychological Functions. Thus, the contribution of such experiences in the development of the personality of the participants was perceived through the construction of new learning and the expansion of their awareness and world view.