Dropout or mobility: the concept and the reality in a licentiate degree

Abstract: Considering the significant dropout of students in the first year of the Sciences - Licentiate Degree of the Federal University of São Paulo and the socio-political scenario of the expansion of higher education in the country, we problematize the use of the concept of avoidance to refer to this premature exit. Through action research, with the participation of students and researchers, we collected data, from 2011 to 2016, in online questionnaires and field diaries. Our results indicate an inadequacy or a permanent need for conceptual precision in relation to the invariant "evasion" component, since the early departure of students was not only a result of the abandonment of the commitment to the studies due to school failure. Differently from what is described in part of the literature and in institutional actions at various levels, students, considering mobility, precarious conditions and work-related pressures, change their options of study preventively.

Keywords:
School dropout; School mobility; Academic vulnerability; Socio-educational conditions