Degree and Career Choice by University Students: Themata and Representations

This article stems from a study that aims to analyze students' social representations of their studying process and their university degree. With this analysis, it was possible to examine the content and shaping of such representations and to induce dialogical taxonomies considered as themata. We understand, based on Moscovici's proposal, that the understanding of the world, and thereupon the construction of social representations is organized according to dialogic pairs, dyadic oppositions that are at times expressed in the form of maxims and metaphors. The study was conducted by means of a qualitative method, with an analysis that follows the guidelines from the grounded theory. The induction of certain themata in this specific research has resulted, among other things, in understanding the beliefs, expectations and motivations the students have, in integration with the corresponding antinomies, while understanding the tensions in them. The referred themata was defined and elaborated in terms of the three dyads: the first one, lasting/fleeting, sets out an alternation between the notion of getting a degree as a life project, its choice being a defining event, and its perception with the fleetingness typical of these times, where the degree pursued is presented as a moment, a temporary path; the second pair, effort/pleasure, presents an opposition between the need for enjoyment and the effort necessary to complete the career path. The third one, certainty/uncertainty, accounts for the contradiction between the need to plan for their professional future and the volatility that characterizes the present times.