EDUCAÇÃO PROFISSIONAL UM INSTRUMENTO DE TRANSFORMAÇÃO SOCIAL? UM ESTUDO DE CASO A PARTIR DO CURSO DE MECÂNICA DO CAMPUS PELOTAS DO IFSUL

Abstract

This dissertation responds to the following question: What contributions does professional education make to social transformation? To respond, a bibliographic review was conducted of authors who look at education, the world of labor and social transformation to understand the structural relations of interdependence among the themes. An evaluation was conducted of the curriculum for a course for mechanical technicians, to see if there is content that assists students to develop critical thinking. In addition, data was analyzed from a study conducted at the Pelotas campus of IFSul that traces the socioeconomic profile of high school, technical and technological school students in 2008. For this study, we only used the data concerning the students in the mechanical technician course. The paper concludes that although professional education attends the target public at which it is aimed, it does not contribute to social transformation. It is clearly understood that the role of education in this process is important, although daily action is needed to revive and reinforce the awareness that there are other components (distribution of land and income), which support this process and that the reality marked by the advance of neoliberalism and the loss of humanistic values, will only be transformed through the action of organized men and women who collectively believe that another world is possible