Dropout and first-generation in higher education in Chile. Teaching beliefs about cultural capital, trajectory and mismatch to cultural arbitrariness

Objective: To unveil the prevailing belief system in university professors regarding the configurative elements of academic dropout in first-generation students (FG). Methodology: A single case study based on interviews and the Merlino Action-Situation analysis was used. Results: The findings indicate that university professors have beliefs centered on the cultural entry deficit of the first-generation student, which accompanies him as a persistent difficulty in the trajectory and that can precipitate desertion. Conclusion: There is a conflict between the expectations of professors, anchored in their belief system, regarding how cultural arbitration should be imposed in the university and the type and amount of cultural capital that the FG student brings with him. The idea of an almost insoluble mismatch that accelerates antagonistic dialectical relations predominates. The cultural fabric that is woven between the teacher and the FG favors the pedagogical abstinence in the face of student failure.