ABSTRACT
Brazilian universities have an increasingly diverse student population. These include adult students who enter higher education not directly after finishing high school but years later, standing out older than their classmates. Their living conditions and the possibilities of permanence at these institutions differ from those of younger students, a situation that requires investment in studies on this specific group. In this direction, this article analyzes the meanings of the entry process, the challenges faced in the relationship with colleagues, and how undergraduate students over 40 years old experience teaching and learning practices at the university. The statements of three students over 40 years old who participated in a research intervention methodologically outlined in reading and writing workshops were submitted to a discourse analysis based on Bakhtin's dialogical theory. In their speeches, the students reported how they have faced the tensions involved in the university discursive field, highlighting the conflicts with younger colleagues, the appropriation of new information technologies and the learning provided by participation in the academic-university environment.
Keywords:
Adult undergraduate students; higher education; reading and writing workshops