The reconciliation of motherhood and academic life: a contribution from public management combating university retention.
Name: NAYARA CRISTINA BRITO DIAS
Publication date: 19/10/2021
Advisor:
Name |
Role |
|---|---|
| MARIA AUXILIADORA DE CARVALHO CORASSA | Advisor * |
Examining board:
| Name |
Role |
|---|---|
| MARIA AUXILIADORA DE CARVALHO CORASSA | Advisor * |
| MARILENE OLIVIER FERREIRA DE OLIVEIRA | Internal Examiner * |
Summary: The search for better qualification to enter the job market leads people to the university environment. However, some factors interfere in the student`s trajectory and can lead to a delay in completing their studies. For example, being a mother and attending college has been pointed out by the literature in national and international spheres as something that adds difficulty to the lives of university students, who end up accumulating numerous other functions, such as professional, housewife, among others. Considering the many demands maternity brings to student-mothers, this study analyzes which tools can be adopted by the Federal University of Espírito Santo (UFES) to improve the academic performance of student-mothers in undergraduate courses, in order to avoid student retention of this public. It is assumed that there is interference of issues associated with motherhood regarding the delay in the studies of student-mothers. In theoretical terms, the study is anchored on the understanding of retention as a step prior to dropping out, causing harmful impacts to students, to the educational institution and to society as a whole. The research used a qualitative exploring research approach, with data from multiple sources, such as: literature review on the effects of motherhood on the education of student-mothers; Student Rhythm Reports referring to students entering in face-to-face undergraduate courses at Ufes from 2015/1 to 2019/2, to analyze university retention by gender; semi-structured questionnaire applied to female students with one or more children who had entered courses at the Center of Human and Natural Sciences in the same period, to record the difficulties experienced by them, as well as map measures that can be implemented at Ufes to assist in the academic life of these female students; websites and documents of federal public universities listed on the Ministry of Education Portal. The analyses were performed from the organization of these data in graphs and tables and interpreted based on content analysis. The results indicate that actions aimed at student-mothers are scarce in Brazilian federal public universities and, according to data obtained directly with the students participating in this research, it is important that universities in general and the UFES, in particular, act to change this picture, since the conditions of these students, given the multiple tasks they perform, impose difficulties to the continuation of studies, which can lead to dropout and contribute to further intensify inequalities between genders.
