JOVENS/ADOLESCENTES, GÊNERO E SUCESSO ESCOLAR

Abstract

The main purpose of this research is to examine the symbolic dimensions that permeate the construct of educational sucess of young/adolescent/females in high school To be more specific, this research examines the construct of education sucess in the feminine universe of adolescents as an option of insertion in the social universe. Thus, it analyzes the mediations between the historical context, theoretical production and issues yhat are significant to the achievement of high grades by adolescent females in high school. This study reveals a process in course of resignificance of women s role in society, indicating the need to rethink educational sucess in the direction that gender category assumes significance. The insertion of adolescents in current society is overlapped by a set of economical, social and political factors that create and re-create new needs, expectations and give formal education a new dimension, as an important element in the process of social ascent and professional sucess. A qualitative approach based on the investigation and analysis of life histories from young/adolescent/females studying at High School s last grade in private and public schools in Goiana, was used. The theoretical focus considers that education system organization, familiar system, cultural patterns, and macrostructural phenomena resulting from society s historical process. Along the life histories, the young/adolescent females presented reports that confirm the theories of social class habitus and ethos formation as fundamental to a reality that is processed on the basis of objective and subjective constructs, turning educational sucess into a strategy to social insertion. This life project inserts itself in the current and historical process of determining social roles because of changes in the political and economical settings that modify themselves and pursue hegemony in human societies.