The aim of this paper is to compare, through a case study, the social, economic and cultural characteristics between teacher education students and Law students, an area historically more selective and that, therefore, holds greater social value. It aims to characterize the social differences of these undergraduate programs within a college, despite the expansion of higher education in Brazil. The literature highlights that the growth in enrollment has led to a stratified "democratization", by which more selective careers continue being elitist, whereas the others become more accessible to students from disadvantaged social backgrounds. This exploratory project applied questionnaires to students of both groups in their first and second terms at a private college located in the Federal District. The results indicated that prospective teachers come from less privileged socioeconomic strata and hold less cultural capital, unlike the group of Law students. Furthermore, the total direct and indirect education costs of the former was about 50% of those of their Law colleagues. As a result of their low income, teacher program students were granted more scholarships. Therefore, people with higher socioeconomic status tend to apply and to enroll in higher prestige programs and colleges. These differences tend to be magnified by educational inflations, i.e., the devaluation of the diploma due to the increase in the number of graduates. As a consequence, they tend to obtain higher level occupational positions and earnings, maintaining differences in social mobility. As for prospective teachers, this work discusses implications of recruiting lower socio-economic status students, whose education costs and return are both relatively lower.
Higher education; Schoolteachers; Social stratification; Educational democratization; Education costs
