Relational structures of exclusion of higher professional education in Brazil: culture, money and family

Abstract

Abstract This paper analyzes dropout, understood as a process of exclusion, of students from two courses from a Brazilian professional higher education institution based on Bourdieu’s sociology. We mapped the students’ relative social positions based on the prosopographic approach and on the statistical techniques of Multiple Correspondence and Cluster Analysis. Data on the trajectories and capitals of 110 alumni from two courses with a high dropout rate were gathered. Eleven interviews were then conducted with students in different social positions. High dropout rates were associated to the fact that students come mainly from high fractions of the lowest social groups and from low fractions of the middle class. Besides cultural and economic capitals, students’ family configurations were found to influence the formation of the four subgroups of students identified. Social positions conditioned the retention strategies adopted by the students and exclusion trends were also affected particular social interactions experienced.