Estudar à noite e trabalhar de dia: desafios de quem deseja prosseguir com os estudos no Instituto Multidisciplinar da Universidade Federal Rural do Rio de Janeiro em Nova Iguaçu.

Abstract

It is pressing the need for greater social inclusion of students who articulate the working day routine and formal education at night time, aiming to have better opportunities living conditions with improved labor market opportunities. Due to the extreme social relevance of this issue, this research seeks to understand the challenges of students enrolled in Higher Education courses in the evening at the Instituto Multidisciplinar, Universidade Federal Rural do Rio de Janeiro, highlighting the process of democratization of access and permanence of youth from the lower social classes pursing four undergraduate programs. We describe policies for access and retention of students in nighttime undergraduate programs of Pedagogy, History, Mathematics and Administration, in order to contribute to the discussion of the actual effectiveness of these courses to the democratization of Higher Education. The methodological approach chosen was the qualitative research focus on case study. In this research, key persons of the staff of the university were contacted, and 361 questionnaires were applied and 39 students were interviews alone or in group in all four undergraduate programs. The results related to social factors that impose the obligatory character of work confirmed that the young taking evening programs at the Institute of Multidisciplinary generally have difficulties to manage his/her life in order to fulfill the social, family, education and work requirements. The young studied usually has a profile of socioeconomic vulnerability. The results also show in a few speeches some challenges of reconciling night programs with daily work activities. Therefore, the results also reveal the need for more resources to be allocated to students with the profile of socioeconomic vulnerability. Despite the heterogeneous profile of students in this research, the results also indicate that many students take advantage of night educational programs, considering them an opportunity to continue their formal education by conciliating it with their work daily activities. Their option for taking these undergraduate programs can lead to the teaching profession in fields like Mathematics, History and Pedagogy. This option is attractive to these students due to the easier access to the public university entrance in these fields which are less competitive. Although the teaching profession in our society does not bring high social prestige, have an undergraduate diploma is for many young people, a possible trajectory of social mobility. Thus public policies need to better serve the youth of this population segment who wish to study and work in education.