Psicologia Escolar na Educação Superior: um estudo a partir de demandas apresentadas por coordenadores de cursos de graduação

Abstract

The School and Educational Psychology has been conquering new spaces for both acting as a research field and, among them, we highlight Higher Education, where countless possibilities for intervention are presented. According to the critical perspective in School Psychology, all the actors involved in the educational process must be considered, as well as the social, political, economic and cultural context in which it occurs. In this sense, this perspective brings important contributions to the extent that it provides theoretical and methodological support for the development of the educational process. Thus, this study had the general objective of knowing the demands presented by coordinators of undergraduate courses and analyzing them in the light of School Psychology in the critical perspective. The specific objective was to point out some possibilities of performance of school psychologist with coordinators of undergraduate courses. The qualitative research was carried out based on the analysis of the responses obtained through an online questionnaire sent by email to the coordinators of the 77 undergraduate courses offered by a public institution of Higher Education in the state of Minas Gerais. We obtained 28 answered questionnaires, analyzed through content analysis, comprising two thematic axes: “Presentation of the demands” and “Possibilities for the school psychologist to work with course coordinators”. Axis 1 presents the topics: “Academic questions from students”; "Emotional issues of students"; "Demands in relation to teachers" and "Demands in relation to the role of coordinator". Axis 2 covers the items: “Coordinators' conceptions about the work of the school psychologist”; “Student monitoring” and “Teachers: interpersonal relationships and continuing education”. Demands related to the organization of studies, gaps in high school, relationships with teachers and their didactics constitute the topic “Academic issues of students”. The subsequent topic, “Emotional issues of students,” involves topics related to students' mental health, such as depression, anxiety, stress, among others. Then, the item “Demands in relation to the teachers” presents the demands regarding the most recurrent teachers with the coordinators of the courses, among which the work overload, the conflicting relationship between colleagues and the teacher illness stand out. The topic “Demands in relation to the role of coordinator” brings up several issues raised by the coordinators regarding the work in the coordination, such as the lack of preparation to assume the position, the work overload, institutional bureaucracies and the lack of support and time to deal with the most diverse demands of students. In Axis 2, the item "Coordinators' conceptions about the work of the school psychologist" shows that most coordinators participating in the research are unaware of the work of the school psychologist and recognizes the need for the professional's performance in the context of the university. In the topic “Student monitoring”, we point out some possibilities for School Psychology to work with the student body in an institutional and contextualized way. “Teachers: interpersonal relationships and continuing education”, the last item of Axis 2, addresses the role of the school psychologist in relation to these issues, presented by the coordinators as important in the educational context. An important participant in the training of university students, the course coordinator has the possibility of mediating this training in different ways. We defend here a way that, when listening to and understanding demands from students, teachers and technicians, seeks to respond to them through an auspicious partnership with the school psychologist, together with other segments and instances of the institution.