SENTIDOS E SIGNIFICADOS ATRIBUÍDOS POR ESTUDANTES DE MEDICINA E DIREITO À SUA FORMAÇÃO UNIVERSITÁRIA

Abstract

This thesis is the result of a research to apprehend the senses and meanings attributed by medical and law school students, who entered the university in 2005, 2006 e 2007, to their higher education, in the public federal educational system context, and to understand the dimensions that are present in their relationships with themselves, their peers, their family, the university, and the society in the municipality of Goiânia. The present research, based on the theoretical and methodological principles of Vygotsky s social-historical psychology, focusing on the historical and dialectical materialism perspective, is qualitative and applies the methodological proposal of triangulation procedure: questionnaires, interviews, and focal groups. The participants of this research were 12 youngsters, aged between 18 and 24 years. A problem can just be studied through the language, by means of meanings and senses. Senses and meanings are not understood separately, because, although each of them has its specificities, one does not exist without the other, since one is contained in the other. The meaning is constructed through the subject s history and social life. In this thesis, we studied individual, concrete, and unique youngsters, who revealed the universality contained in each person, making it possible to understand them as significant individuals who act, think, and feel. According to the core meanings of this study, the participants apprehended the senses and meanings that each of them attributed to their higher education. They revealed that their trajectory is marked by responsibility and commitment. From the principal thesis, others were also pursued, such as the family is the legitimate place for educating/raising children. Overall, this thesis evidenced that the family is signified as a core institution in its processes of socialization, since it provides the youngsters with social, economical, and emotional conditions for their preparation, entrance, and permanence in the university. This thesis is organized in three parts: Young university students: socialeconomical and family dimensions and cultural-academic scenario of the participants; society and family: space of power and knowledge mediation; the academic trajectory and the knowledge attributed by the subjects to their formation.