Possible choices: Narratives of university students

Abstract

Based on an ethnographic research carried out in the city of São Paulo (SP), the article addresses the issue of educational choices in higher education. The narratives of four university students are analyzed, focusing on three processes of choices among students-the decision to enter in higher education, the choice of the course and the institution. The purpose of the article is to show the negotiations carried out by the students, constituting possible choices. As a background, is the argument that the conjuncture of expansion of higher education in the 2000s and 2010-in its ambivalences and contradictions-allowed such choices to enter the field of possibilities for new agents, namely, students who are the first generation of the family to attend higher education.