Abstract:

In contemporary society, dominated by scientific rationality and technology, the school of postmodernism seems to generate disenchantment in the pursuit of knowledge for some schoolchildren, but at the same time, develop incentives, valued skills, to promote the return of other students who had abandoned their studies. Receive new audiences who want to certify and validate their skills or pursuit a degree, students who left school or lost interest or economic difficulties and the way for social legislation.
In Portugal the return to school for adult students is a phenomenon that has marked the last 5 years. In 2005 was created the New Opportunities Program which aims to qualify the Portuguese population at school, housed in a measure the European Commission that will ensure that in 2010 85% of the European Union population with 22 years of age will have completed the 12th grade. It is intended for people over 18 who do not have the 9th grade and / or wish to complete secondary education. Their skills acquired and developed throughout life, and can produce knowledge and skills may be recognized through the process of Recognition, Validation and Certification of Competencies (RVCC) basic (9 years) or secondary.
This program seems to put into practice the ideas of the learner as central subject of their training process, promotion of experiential knowledge, recognition of learning, skills acquired during their personal and professional path.
In 2006 when the reorganization of higher education through the implementation of the Bologna Process, the “Basic Law of Portuguese Education System” established the right of access to higher education for people over 23 years (M23) or who have not completed secondary school, with order to attract new public schools and ensure equal opportunities for access to this level of education and in the context of lifelong learning.
The IPL has been receiving more and more students who have away from school for over 10 years, students who completed the RVCC and entered a degree.
Who are these students? Why did they leave school? Why did they return? What do they seek? How is this experience of returning to school lived?
It intends to present a research project in the field of anthropology on the social trajectories of students returning to school entered into the New Opportunities and M23, mostly with origins in the countryside where his parents held low-education, to the RVCC and take the 1st cycle of Social Education or Social Services at the Polytechnic Institute of Leiria. The main objectives of this research are to:

- Identify and characterize the public policy around lifelong learning;
- Know the way of life and the reasons for the (re)entry into the academic life;
- Know what the school does to these students in terms of (trans)formation and cognitive identity.
- Understand the expectations of academic success impact in their social and professional worlds;
- Identify their plans for life after the acquisition of new learning.

Keywords:

social trajectory, lifelong learning, education and identity.