Faculty work on Federal Institutes in the context of higher education expansion

Abstract

The present paper presents and discusses some of the results of a research conducted in 2015, which analyzed the process of rearrangement of the Federal Professional and Technical Education Network in the context of the expansion of higher education, as well as its impact on the work of Federal Institute faculty members. It sought to identify what interfered with higher-education teaching, in order to understand the conditions, advantages, problems and hindrances found by teachers in their professional exercise. Research was qualitative in nature, and used documentary research, observation and interviews as data collection tools. The study evidenced that higher-education offer in the midst of professional and technical education reform had been consolidating in the Federal Professional and Technical Education Network since 2008, by means of Federal Institutes, which have acted as higher-education expansion agents. The experience under study was the rearrangement process, also called ifetization, of the Instituto Federal do Norte de Minas Gerais [Federal Institute of Northern Minas Gerais] (IFNMG), with an emphasis on the work of faculty members in undergraduate programs. As it happened, expansion placed teachers under insufficient work conditions, as it failed to provide them the necessary means. However, faculty members were expected to have a multifunctional profile, with a view to develop multiple tasks and fill institutional gaps. Research revealed the peculiarities in teaching work conditions in the institution’s higher education programs, and also demonstrated the existence of more general conditions currently in place for these workers.