Capabilities development in students of a Technological Institute, in a context of pandemic and inequality

Abstract

The purpose of this paper is to analyze the development of capabilities during professional education, in a group of students from an institute of technology, who face different social disadvantages that became more complex as a result of the COVID-19 pandemic. We draw on Walker’s pedagogy of capabilities as well as on Nussbaum’s capabilities approach, and, in the empirical outcomes, we focus on two of them: emotional integrity and bodily integrity. The research was based on an instrumental case study. Regarding emotional integrity, the interviewees pointed out difficulties related directly to professional education. Meanwhile, with respect to bodily integrity, the students mentioned the violence and insecurity they deal with in their immediate contexts.