The socialization of students in higher education in teacher understanding

Abstract

The focus of this study is the student socialization in Higher Education in teacher understanding, as a significant social and intersubjective phenomenon in academic education. A qualitative methodology combining narrative content analysis and the theoretical inspiration of social phenomenology was used to interpret the reports. The contents were compiled from structured interviews conducted with university teachers from the Education Center of UFRN. University student socialization, in addition to being defined as a period of prolongation of the schooling of individuals until higher education, is understood as a daily process of internalization of norms, social interaction and belonging to social groups, on which the performance of teachers is crucial. However, teachers' understanding of student socialization coexists with an ambiguity: teachers respect and encourage socialization for cognitive purposes; but, at the same time, they are unaware of the reality of students' daily lives, and many distances themselves from ways of fostering affective and social academic socialization. At the same time, teachers and students are aware that they are not only solidary consociates in higher education, but also social actors and interactive educational agents. The importance of studies on socialization is that their findings could contribute to overcoming the phenomenological "invisibility" of students' common social life in the academic world. In addition to strengthening bonds of belonging and cognitive and affective meaning for teachers and students, an understanding of the quotidian characteristics of student socialization would provoke new inspirations for teaching methodologies that are also more critical, inclusive, sustainable, and participatory.