A implantação do ciclo de humanidades na UTFPR: percepções da comunidade acadêmica

Abstract

The Federal Technological University of Paraná (UTFPR) was created in 2005 by Law N. 11.184/2005. However, before becoming a university, it underwent several transformations, having first been the Schools of “Aprendizes Artífices”, founded in 1909. One of the hallmarks of its more than century-long history is its focus on technical training. In this context, the debate on humanistic training has been constant at the institution, with an important milestone being the obligation for 10% (ten percent) of the course load to be made up of subjects from the humanities cycle (UTFPR, 2022b). Considering that bachelor's degrees and technologists prevail at UTFPR, this percentage has generated a series of debates about its feasibility. In view of this, the following research problem was established: what are the perceptions of course coordinators, teachers and undergraduate students at UTFPR regarding the contribution of the humanities in the training process of the institution's students? The aim of this study was to investigate these perceptions of humanities training in undergraduate courses. To this end, this research is based on the relevance of the humanities to higher education, based on the studies of various authors, among them, Snow (1995), Gallo (2000), Said (2007), Kagan (2009), Morin (2010), Paviani (2014), Kohls (2019). The methodology adopted was a case study, with a qualitative approach. For data analysis, we used Discursive Textual Analysis (Moraes; Galiazzi, 2016). Data collection involved questionnaires administered to 103 teachers, 30 coordinators and 134 students. Twenty students were also interviewed, selected from among those who answered the questionnaire. The structure of the work was organized into five chapters. Firstly, the methodology is presented; then, in the second and third chapters, the theoretical basis is explored; in the fourth chapter, the process of implementing the humanities cycle is investigated, among other aspects of the institution; and, in the last chapter, the results of the research are presented. Initially, we started from the hypothesis that, although provided for in the regulations and curriculum of UTFPR's undergraduate courses, the humanities are often perceived by the academic community as a mere formality. However, the perceptions of the UTFPR academic community regarding the implementation of the humanities cycle indicate different positions. This occurred both within each group of the community and between them. There were course coordinators who pointed out that the implementation would be an opportunity to broaden students' humanities training, but others questioned the effectiveness of the humanities cycle. As for the teaching staff, some saw the humanities cycle as positive for students' social training, while others pointed out that it would overload the curriculum. Finally, some students showed an interest in the humanities subjects as a way of debating ethics, politics and other social issues. Other students, on the other hand, considered these subjects to be of little relevance. In summary, given the relevance of the humanities to student education, in addition to establishing standards, communication about the importance of humanistic education needs to be addressed broadly in the institution, on all campuses, involving the entire academic community, going beyond institutional recognition in its documents.