Research

My work is fundamentally driven by a commitment to understanding and dismantling systemic barriers within science learning environments, with a central focus on equity, diversity, and identity. My research program is fundamentally concerned with a question of both scholarly and social significance: How can science education contribute to a more equitable and democratic society?

I have been used the concepts of field, capital, and habitus as a powerful framework to decode the social dynamics within educational and scientific spaces. This perspective allows me to move beyond individualistic explanations of success or failure and instead analyze how systemic forces influence aspirations, performance, and access.

My research unfolds across three interconnected strands:

Inequality, access, and distinction in Education: A significant portion of my work uses large-scale data to map how sobjetive social conditions shape educational trajectories. I have examined how social origin influences performance in standardized exams, the choice of undergraduate courses, and ultimately, the stratification of access to higher education and prestigious careers. I could empirically demonstrate that the Brazilian educational system often acts as a mechanism of social distinction rather than democratization. A similiar pattern we’ve been observing in other countries.

Conceptual and methodological development: I am deeply engaged in refining the tools of analysis for this kind of research in education. This involves critical theoretical work, such as interrogating and adapting concepts to better align with theory. Methodologically, I specialize in interpretative quantitative methods and multivariate statistical analysis. I advocate for and demonstrate how these methods are uniquely suited to visualizing social spaces (fields), uncovering relationships between multiple variables, and moving beyond positivist paradigms in educational research. This expertise allows me to construct robust indexes (e.g., for socioeconomic status or science capital) and model the complex structure of academic and scientific fields.

The social responsibility of Science Education: I argue for a science education that explicitly addresses the political and economic dimensions of scientific knowledge. This means moving beyond a neutral, fact-based curriculum to one that equips students to analyze the social implications of science, understand the forces shaping scientific authority (as seen during the COVID-19 pandemic), and participate in socio-scientific debates. The goal is to reduce alienation and foster scientifically literate citizenship.

In summary, my expertise lies in using theory combined with sophisticated statistical analysis of large datasets, to critically examine the role of science education in society. My ultimate aim is to produce knowledge that can inform more equitable educational policies and pedagogies that recognize and actively counter social inequalities.