DAYCARE UNIVERSITY AND THE PERMANENCE OF STUDENT-MOTHERS:

THE VOICES OF STUDENTS FROM THE PEDAGOGY COURSE AT THE UNIVERSIDADE FEDERAL DO MARANHÃO

Abstract

This research deals with reception and challenges faced in reconciling motherhood and academic life in higher education, whose objective is to understand university daycare as a possibility for undergraduate mothers to stay and access their children's education. We used bibliographic and documentary research with the aim of substantiating, through scholars in the field, the history of university daycare in Brazil and student assistance for student mothers in higher education. From this, we used semi-structured interviews to better understand the reality of students on the Pedagogy course at UFMA, in which five undergraduate mothers were interviewed. As a result, it was found that socioeconomic vulnerability and the lack of family support are among the causes of academic dropout, considering that a large proportion of undergraduates who enter university end up abandoning their studies after becoming mothers. In this way, the urgency of university daycare as an educational space for children and support for mother-students during higher education is observed.