Educação superior à distância na formação de professores : entre fios e desafios, uma experiência formativa ?

Abstract

The incorporation of higher distance education model into teacher education program was part of a far-reaching reform project initiated in the 1990s, with characteristics of the neoliberal ideology embodied in the recommendations from multilateral agencies which started guiding the policies of the governments, mainly in Latin America. Those reforms have introduced distance education (DE) as a favorable model to maximize the delivery of higher education and mitigate the lack of professional qualification of Brazilian educators. Thus, through the creation of public university consortia, the government has boosted higher education programs utilizing distance education model for the implementation of its programs. At state level, university consortia are being established aiming at teacher education. In this context, an innovative experience has bloomed under the pedagogic responsibility of the universities engaged in this initiative, in Brazil. In view of this experience, a few puzzling questions have raised: a) Would distance education, even in academic setting, be able to account for a critical-reflexive education that exceed the instrumental rationality? b) In practice, which path is being followed by universities, that one of education or the one of training? These inquiries were the major starting point for conducting this academic research in the realm of Pedagogy Degree Program addressed to the first years of Elementary School. This degree program is delivered by the Universidade do Estado do Rio de Janeiro (UERJ) in partnership with the Centro de Educação a Distância do Estado do Rio de Janeiro (CEDERJ), and implemented at the Regional Educational Technology Center (RETC) in São Pedro da Aldeia. As for the theoretical basis, the research has explored Habermas' and Freires' ideas on higher education and teacher education, respectively. Moreover, it is based on a comprehensive survey of the literature, document analysis, and research field questionnaires, interviews and observations along with participants engaged in the educational process in the RETC previously mentioned. The analysis of the main results revealed that in spite of the neoliberal demands which permeate distance education policy and the many challenges presented, distance education may be seen as a growing movement towards teacher-student education from a critical-reflexive and autonomous perspective.