Challenges and tactics of women when becoming pedagogy students

Abstract

The aim of this paper is to study and raise questions about the challenges of affiliation for women in higher education at a federal public university located in northeastern Brazil, especially in the first year of the
Pedagogy course. As an excerpt from a qualitative study, according to Delory-Momberger, this work consists in
describing and analyzing the narratives of two female students on the academic course, using the biographical research interview procedure. In the analysis we used the notions of affiliation, according to Coulon, tactics, according to Certeau, and relationship with knowledge, according to Charlot. The results show us that women in higher education differ in their repertoires, their support networks and whether or not they are able to get involved with the opportunities offered on the course, and what they need to face the challenges of becoming
university students, which, if not interrupted, produces the meanings to their training which, as the two research participants point out, are fundamental to expanding their ways of relating to the world, to others and to themselves. In this way, we believe it is important to have educational policies in universities that cover gender issues and allow students to have experiences, in the sense used here, so that they can develop their affiliation process in an education that allows them, above all, to reflect on (and to change) their place in the world.