Politecnia no Instituto Federal de Educação, Ciência e Tecnologia Catarinense – Campus Sombrio

Abstract

This paper aimed to investigate how professionals and students of the Federal Network of Professional, Scientific and Technological Education understand the concepts of integral and polytechnic education, again included in the formulation of public policies for Professional Education. The term “polytechnic”, strongly present in the education debate since the eighties of last century, weakened during the period in which policies for Professional Education in Brazil followed the neo-liberal bias in the nineties and the first third of this decade. Nowadays this concept reappears and returns to the debate on public policy for high school and Professional Education exactly in the moment that reframes the Federal Network of Professional, Scientific and Technological Education. The case study was opted that was conducted with students and teachers in Computer Technician Course, built in the modalities integrated, subsequent, concomitant and PROEJA, from Catarinense Federal Institute of Education, Science and Technology, in Sombrio municipality, in Santa Catarina. The research is qualitative, both in the collection, and in the analysis and discussion of the data. The data were collected through questionnaire and documentary analysis. The data presentation was done through frames and graphs. This research aimed to verify that the concept has not been mentioned at the current documents from Catarinense Federal Institute of Education, Science and Technology and the Campus. Only one quarter of the teachers who participated in the survey know that educational concept, while the students who participated in the survey do not know that concept. The understanding of what should be the goals of technical education is different for students and teachers, since for these, the technical courses should allow fast entry into the labor market, while those had declared that technical education should provide continuity of study for entry into undergraduate.