Construction of the Dispositions of Institutional habitus in the Academic Field

Abstract

This paper describes the main phases of development of an Institute of Chemistry in relation with national policy from the academic field. Its history begins with a proposal to meet the demand for chemistry teacher education and goes on to become a major c center for research, education and extension. Throughout iits 50 years of history, the Institution has faced numerous challenges by adopting strategies that have established and revealed its inst itutional habitus. To this end, we use some of René Kaës's concepts about the development o f groups and institutions, highlighting mainly the origins, expectations and covenants that und erpinned its foundation, and the entire process of itts expansion and institutionalizatiion. Our main focus, also interpreted based on the theory of Piierre Bourdieu and followers, is the establishment of its institutional habitus, i.e., how it interprets and organizes its institutionall teaching, research and extension activities within the context of th e academic field. The e peculiarity of the process has been the mismatch between internal and external pressures. Even though presenting the results of a case study, in general, our methodology can imp rove the understanding of institution's development in relation with educational policy.