Institutos federais e desenvolvimento regional: a governança colaborativa para a efetividade da política pública de educação profissional e tecnológica

Abstract

The Federal Institutes of Education, Science, and Technology constitute a public policy of Professional and Technological Education present throughout Brazil, offering free, regionally distributed, and vertically integrated professional training. Although their legislation establishes that they should act as agents of regional development strengthening local productive, social, and cultural arrangements through teaching, applied research, innovation, and technological extension, different diagnoses point to weaknesses in the articulation of campuses with territorial organizations, especially in small and medium-sized municipalities. Thus, this thesis was guided by the following research problem: how can the Federal Institutes contribute more effectively to regional development through collaborative governance with other local organizations? The general objective was to propose the use of collaborative governance as an institutional strategy to encourage and strengthen the articulation of the Federal Institutes with public, private, and social actors, thereby expanding the territorial impact of the public policy of Professional and Technological Education. From a theoretical perspective, the research integrates the concepts of human capital, education for economic development, endogenous regional development, and collaborative governance. The study is applied in nature and follows a qualitative approach, structured in two stages: a bibliographic and documentary review of policies, regulations, and institutional practices, followed by the collection and analysis of data from Federal Institutes across the country. Between 2022 and 2024, 202 interinstitutional cooperation initiatives were identified, and five cases were selected for in-depth analysis. In these cases, an evaluative framework called the Collaborative Governance and Regional Incidence Index (I-GCIR)—developed as part of this thesis—was applied. The results show that the Federal Institutes have the potential to act as permanent structures of the State within the territory, especially when there is clarity about the public problem, a consistent institutional design, shared leadership, and co-production with local partners. As a technical product, a guide was developed containing models, strategies, and reference structures to support interinstitutional articulation, aiming to strengthen collaborative practices, expand the impact of actions, and contribute to sustainable regional development.