Expectations of young people from public secondary education about study and work

Abstract

This article analyzes the expectations about study and work of secondary students from public schools. The main research tool was a questionnaire answered by 1363 students in the metropolitan area of São Paulo city. In dialogue with the critical theories of Althusser, Bourdieu and Passeron, and Baudelot and Establet, we started from the assumption that these young respondents have high expectations of entering the labor market and low expectations of continuing studies. However, the data revealed that the young people surveyed intend to continue studying, mainly by accessing higher education. Furthermore, we found significant inequalities of expectations and evaluation of chances related with: self-definition of race; the type of education and occupation of parents/guardians; self-definition in the class structure; current and previous experience in the labor market. Such inequalities reveal the existence of a glass ceiling that reduces the chances of entering higher education (mostly in public universities), according to the social group considered. This article shows that combining study with work is seen, at the same time, as the main difficulty and the main strategy to obtain a higher degree, considering the effects of recent policies to expand the supply of places in public and private universities.