O trabalho do tutor no contexto da reestruturação produtiva: o avanço das tecnologias e a educação a distância no Brasil

Abstract

This research discusses how the work of the tutors of distance education courses has been configured, taking into account the experience lived as tutor in the course of Pedagogy in this modality of the Federal University of Uberlândia. We start from the thesis that the work of the tutor underwent profound changes in the context of productive restructuring and was also impacted by the advance of technologies, especially in the field of distance education, without the proper support of regulation, career plan and salaries, resulting in profound Exploitation of that worker's work. This professional, who was considered as just a figure in support of the work of the teacher, today, as this study demonstrates, created fundamental importance in the process, which was not accompanied by the valorization of career and salary, as well as absent any professional regulation. The exploitation of this category by capital is added, since this worker has accumulated several functions far beyond the traditional configurations on the one hand and on the other, the exploitation of this workforce reveals the need for increased profitability in the field of distance education . The importance of this study stems from the perception that, in recent years, the implantation of undergraduate courses in the distance modality, in several public educational institutions, raised important questions related to the figure of the tutor. Being a new activity, the tutor needs to accumulate knowledge related to teaching and also master the information technologies, software, tools and programs used, language specific to the public in question, efficiency in proofreading and work. The study analyzes the importance of this work of the tutor in the teaching-learning process and bases its function in this modality of teaching to know and value his work, besides problematizing the conditions lived by this professional in the exercise of his activities. Thinking about the dimensions of the work being done by the tutor and glimpsing their contribution to the good development of the course raises several questions that are answered by the study of the work in the context of productive restructuring with the advancement of technologies and the meaning of the work of the tutor in this context , Starting in the 1990s. Thus, sub-themes explore the training, qualification and accumulation of knowledge that compose the profile of the professional who takes the tutoring in distance courses; The requirements published in edicts and how has been the process of selection of tutors; The work and assignments required of the tutor; How the work of the teacher and the tutor in the distance courses is dimensioned; How, when and by whom the work of the tutor is evaluated; And to which professional category the tutor is associated. Thus, the content of this thesis focuses on the theoretical treatment given to the issues of work in general and the work of the tutor both in the context of the Brazilian productive restructuring observed since the 1990s and in the formalization of the process of distance education. It ends by pointing out that because it is a new activity, distance learning is embedded in a complex process, with the need for revisions of working conditions, remuneration and links between professionals and working institutions.