Sortuz (Nov 2024)
Being a scholar in a law school in Brazil
Abstract
This qualitative research was structured as an observant participation in an atypical group of full-time professors in a law school in Brazil. It aimed at analyzing the formation of a professional identity in the group of scholars. We conducted 24 narrative interviews with members of the group. They were recorded in video (25.4h). We use the dramaturgical method (Goffman) to make sense of the interviews, paying special attention to the analysis of the symbolics elements of distinction (Bourdieu) mentioned by the interviewed professionals when speaking about their views on the career and their description of their own “taste” (for clothes, hobbies, music, etc.). We labeled their professional identity as “shy” because it is based on the constant need of social justification. This identity was built in a conflictual interaction with “practical” professors and around the ideas of vocation to work and the value of a certain academic lifestyle.
