High school students and higher education: clarifying the modus operandi of the grantees in the Institutional Program of Scholarships for Undergraduate Research (Programa Institucional de Bolsas de Iniciação Científica - Pibic)

This study deals with policies for the training of basic education researchers and the reframing of its context; focused, empirically speaking, on Brazil’s Institutional Program of Scholarships for Undergraduate Research (or, in Portuguese, Programa Institucional de Bolsas de Iniciação Científica Pibic -EM) from the Federal University of Santa Catarina (Universidade Federal de Santa Catarina - UFSC), within the Junior Scientific Training. The modus operandi of the research subject is analyzed with an emphasis on the selection processes and in the motivations for subscribing or dropping-out of the program. A case study is carried within UFSC, which involves the Pibic-EM, and in ten public institutions in which 46 subjects donated interviews, among advisors, grantees, co-supervisors/educators in the school and program intitutional coordinators. The aspect guiding the selection of grantees was the verification of a habitus and of a show of dispositions more inclined to the academia. Among the motivations pointed for dropping-out are:the limited value of the grant; the need to work to finantially support their family; their family’s expectations regarding their academic trajectory; excessive school activities, and their poor performance in school.

Keywords:
selection processes; student’s drop-out; supervision; high school; Pibic