Twenty-sixth International Conference on Learning

Abstract

Professionalism is conceived by Bourdieu as a form of symbolic capital possessed by the agents or occupants of a profession providing them with access to the specific profits that are at stake in the field. It secures their dynamic participation and prevalence in the “game” of stakes, interests and power carried out within their work field contributing to the social recognition and empowerment of their social prestige. When adults pursue higher academic studies in prestigious schools, they aim, among other things, to gain benefits related to future outcomes in their work and to be empowered in their fields of action. The way they capitalized these studies depends on their already acquired institutionalized cultural capital, on the correlation of forces in their power-driven, autonomous, dynamic, in nature, but also vulnerable field, and on the position they hold or claim in it. Adult graduates from Technological Educational Institutions (TEI) seek to acquire a bachelor’s degree from homologous University (UNI) prestigious faculties. This university degree is a means of certifying their scientific competence and ensuring their professional autonomy, while at the same time contributing to the enhancement of their professional and social prestige. Based on the above reasoning, in 2018, we conducted 7 in-depth interviews with adult TEI graduates who pursued their academic studies in faculties with higher social status. The findings illustrated a strong association between the participants’ motivation and the strengthening of their professionalism by ensuring the requirements for their professional and social advancement and the reinforcing of their symbolic capital.