Evasão e permanência em cursos de licenciatura da área de ciências da natureza e matemática

Abstract

This doctoral thesis investigates the phenomenon of dropout and persistence in undergraduate teacher education programs in the field of Natural Sciences and Mathematics, from a student-centered perspective that emphasizes their trajectories and experiences. It is theoretically grounded in the contributions of Vincent Tinto, Pierre Bourdieu, and Alain Coulon, articulating their concepts of academic and social integration, cultural capital, and student affiliation to understand how individual, institutional, and structural factors interact in shaping teaching education trajectoies. The research adopts a mixed-methods approach encompassing two complementary dimensions. The first involves a national mapping of academic studies on dropout, based on the analysis of 28 theses and dissertations retrieved from the Brazilian Digital Library of Theses and Dissertations (BDTD). This stage identified categories of dropout causes related to institutional, personal, and socioeconomic contexts, revealing regional and thematic connections that reinforce the persistence of inequalities in Brazilian higher education. The analyses were organized into five analytical categories inspired by the theories of Tinto, Coulon, and Bourdieu, highlighting the relationships between academic integration, university affiliation, and social and cultural capital. The second dimension focused on the perspective of persistence, through the analysis of 119 questionnaires administered to students enrolled in undergraduate programs in Biological Sciences, Physics, Mathematics, and Chemistry at the Federal University of Alagoas (UFAL), between 2016 and 2023, a period that encompasses the pre-pandemic, pandemic, and post-pandemic contexts of Covid-19. This phase sought to understand the reasons students remained in their programs, their perceptions of potential dropout factors, and the impact of the pandemic on their persistence. Qualitative and quantitative analyses were conducted using IRaMuTeQ and ATLAS.ti software, identifying key dimensions influencing persistence, such as institutional support, socioeconomic conditions, affective bonds, and sense of belonging. The findings demonstrate that persistence transcends the overcoming of individual difficulties and represents a process of resistance to the structural and symbolic inequalities inherent in teacher education. From Tinto’s perspective, social and academic integration are decisive for student success; from Coulon’s, university affiliation requires the internalization of academic norms and practices; and from Bourdieu’s, cultural capital and social origin asymmetries condition academic outcomes. The thesis therefore proposes an analytical inversion: understanding dropout through the narratives of persistence, shifting the focus from individual blame to a critical reading of institutional and structural dimensions. It concludes that addressing dropout requires integrated permanence policies that consider students’ living and studying conditions, strengthen pedagogical support and inclusion initiatives, and recognize the symbolic inequalities that continue to shape Brazilian higher education.