Abstract
This article examines the expansion of undergraduate and graduate programs in Brazil, characterizing the convergences and divergences between the two educational levels in the last 15 years. This is a document study based on data available on the websites of the Ministry of Education and the Coordination for the Improvement of Higher Education Personnel (CAPES). Undergraduate studies in social work are currently offered by 575 institutions, distributed among Brazil's five geographical regions, particularly in the Southeast and South. These institutions are for the most part private and provide both classroom-based and distance learning formats. Graduate studies programs continue to expand at a different pace. They are primarily linked to public institutions, with classroom-based teaching and a higher number of PhD holders among their professors.
Highlights
This article examines the expansion of undergraduate and graduate programs in Brazil, characterizing the convergences and divergences between the two educational levels in the last 15 years
With respect to the commercialization of education[4], it is important to mention the constant and growing pressure of businessmen in the sector to eliminate barriers to market expansion, i.e., education should be treated as any other market, regulated by “neutral” market rules and “free trade” (SIQUEIRA, 2007). This means the incorporation of various sectors traditionally maintained and regulated by the State as part of the social and subjective rights of citizens, and the fruit of years of struggle and victories within the sphere of the General Agreement on Trade in Services (GATS), and its organization based on the rationale of profit, supply and competition, characteristics of liberal thought of the “free” market (SIQUEIRA, 2007, p.148)
The overwhelming expansion of the privatization of professional training in social work at the undergraduate level in Brazil, since the 1970s, has been boosted by private distance education course (TRINDADE, 2015, p. 253). This predominance noted by Trindade is reflected in the analysis of the type of administrative organization of the IHEs that offer undergraduate courses in social work: they are mostly private (91.65%) and located in the Southeast (34%) and Northeast (27%) regions of Brazil
Summary
ABSTRACT – This article examines the expansion of undergraduate and graduate programs in Brazil, characterizing the convergences and divergences between the two educational levels in the last 15 years This is a document study based on data available on the websites of the Ministry of Education and the Coordination for the Improvement of Higher Education Personnel (CAPES). The historical background of the evolution of the profession is examined and, especially, the new formats in the contemporary context (expansion of undergraduate studies in social work through distance learning and traditional graduate studies programs) Understanding this expansion process in professional training requires setting the profession within the historical evolution of society. In regard to the Social Work courses created between 1964 and 1985, there was a predominance of private institutions of higher education (19 linked to the private sector and five with a religious affiliation) (Table 1)
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