HALF-CENTURY OF POSTGRADUATE STUDIES IN BRAZIL: FROM
HEROIC PERIOD TO PRODUCTIVISM BY MEDIATING OF A SUPERIOR MODEL TO ITS MATRICES
Dermeval Saviani 
University
of Campinas (UNICAMP)
Campinas, SP, Brasil
DOI: https://doi.org/10.22409/mov.v7i14.46475
ABSCRACT
Starting from the characterization of the university
institution and its manifestation in Brazil, this article considers, at first,
the antecedents of graduate studies in Brazil, and then examines the structure
of the Report 977/65 that dealt with the conceptualization of graduate studies
initiating the process of its institutionalization that followed with its
regulation standardized by the Report 77/69. In the third moment, it analyses
the process of implementing postgraduate studies in Brazil, which has been
configured as a new model superior to the two models from which it originated: the North American and the European. Following, it raises
the problem of the risks of the disfiguration of the Brazilian postgraduate
model represented by productivism, which leads to the examination of the
productivity-quality dilemma in graduate studies, concluding with the
presentation of strategies to avoid the disfiguration of the successful
Brazilian experience post graduate.
Keywords: Brazilian
Education. University. Postgraduate studies.
MEDIO SIGLO DE POSGRADO EN BRASIL: DEL PERIODO HEROICO AL PRODUCTIVISMO POR
LA MEDIACIÓN DE UN MODELO SUPERIOR A SUS MATRICES
RESUMEN
A partir de la caracterización de la institución
universitaria y su manifestación en Brasil, este artículo considera, en un
primer momento, los antecedentes de los estudios de posgrado en Brasil y luego
examina la estructura del Parecer 977/65 que abordó la conceptualización de los
estudios de posgrado iniciando el proceso de su institucionalización que siguió
con su regulación estandarizada por el Parecer 77/69. En el tercer momento,
analiza el proceso de implantación de los estudios de posgrado en Brasil, que
se configuró como un nuevo modelo superior a los dos modelos de los que se
originó: el norteamericano y el europeo. A continuación, plantea el problema de
los riesgos de la descaracterización del modelo de
posgrado brasileño representados por el productivismo, lo que lleva al examen
del dilema productividad-calidad en los estudios de posgrado, concluyendo con
la presentación de estrategias para evitar la descaracterización
de la experiencia exitosa brasileña de Posgrado.
Palabras clave: Educación brasileña.
Universidad. Posgrado.
MEIO
SÉCULO DE PÓS-GRADUAÇÃO NO BRASIL: DO PERÍODO HERÓICO AO PRODUTIVISMO PELA
MEDIAÇÃO DE UM MODELO SUPERIOR ÀS SUAS MATRIZES
RESUMO
Partindo
da caracterização da instituição universitária e de sua manifestação no Brasil,
este artigo considera, num primeiro momento, os antecedentes da pós-graduação
no Brasil para examinar, em seguida, a estrutura do Parecer nº 977/65 que tratou da
conceituação da pós-graduação dando início ao processo de sua institucionalização
que teve sequência com sua regulamentação normatizada pelo Parecer nº 77/69. No
terceiro momento analisa o processo de implantação da pós-graduação no Brasil
que se configurou como um novo modelo superior aos dois modelos dos quais se
originou: o norte-americano e o europeu. Na sequência levanta o problema dos
riscos de descaracterização do modelo brasileiro de pós-graduação representados
pelo produtivismo, o que conduz ao exame do dilema produtividade-qualidade na
pós-graduação, concluindo com a apresentação de estratégias para evitar a
descaracterização da bem sucedida experiência brasileira de pós-graduação.
Palavras-chave:
Educação
Brasileira. Universidade. Pós-Graduação.
Introduction
Having emerged at the end of the 11th century of our era,
the university assumed thestatus of a corporation destined to the
training of intellectual artsprofessionals, defining itself as the main space for
the development of research, which has been evident since the 17th century in
seminars composed of groups of students who gathered around a teacher (SANTONI RUGIU, 1998. p. 109). Between the end of the 18th century and the beginning of the 19th century, the university stripped itself of its
medieval crust, giving rise to the modern university. This can be illustrated
with theo case of the University of Padua which in the last decade of the eighteenth
century was still "a medieval university in a modern age", coming to
modernize only with the rule of Napoleon in the then kingdom of Italy, between
1805 and 1813 (GHETTI, 1982, p.
1-101, 214-312).
It is also at this moment that the three major models of
university are configured that are based on the basic constitutive elements of contemporary
universities: the State, civil society and the autonomy of the internal
community to the institution.. As one or the other prevails, there is a different
institutional model. The prevalence of the State gives rise to the Napoleonic
model; prevailing civil society has the Anglo-Saxon model; and on the autonomy
of the academic community is founded the Humboldtian model. This last model based on the autonomy of the internal
community, that is, of teachers, led to the most intense development of
scientific research. With the diaspora of brains provoked by Nazism, especially
for the United States, one can credit the dominant university model in Germany
the decisive impulse that was imprinted on scientific
development that translated into a differentiated
graduate system at the American university. It can therefore be said that the university, as we know
it today, had its institutional configuration defined in the first half of the
19th century.
It is common to understand
that the university in Brazil was instituted late. Luiz Antônio Cunha (1986) in
his trilogy about the university in Brazil calls the first book, which deals
with higher education in the period that extends from the Colony to
the Vargas Era, A Universidade temporã. Effectively
"temporã" means "out of the proper
time".
The institutionalization of higher education in Brazil,
begun in 1808 with the higher education courses created by D. João VI,
continued in the Empire with the creation of law schools. The First Republic
occurred the creation of free institutions, therefore unofficial. From the 1930s onto the resumption of public prominence that became accentuated in the 1940s, 1950s and early 1960s
through the federalization of state and private institutions and with the
creation of new federal universities. In the phase of the military dictatorship, along with the
public protagonism, with emphasis on the organization of graduate studies,
there was a certain stimulus to the opening of private institutions, especially
in the form of isolated colleges. But all this period started with D. João VI and that extended until the Constitution of 1988 detects a
continuity represented by the prevalence of the Napoleonic model of university
in the organization and expansion of higher education in Brazil.
Since the 1990s, in a process that, is currently underway, a new
change emerges characterized by the diversification of the forms of
organization of higher education institutions changing the university model in the direction of the Anglo-Saxon model in the North
American version. With this the process
of expansion of public universities was halted by stimulating the expansion of
private non-profit institutions. This was the policy adopted in the eight years
of the FHC government.
Throughout the Lula
administration, if on the one hand a certain level of investment was resumed in federal
universities with the "REUNI" Program, on the other hand, the stimulus to the private sector continued,
receiving additional encouragement with the "University for All"
Program, PROUNI, aimed at buying vacancies in private institutions, which came
in handy in the face of the problem of idle vacancies faced by several of these
institutions.
The advance of the
privatization of higher education is expressed in the quantitative indexes of
institutions and students reaching a relationship of four private institutions
to a public one. In the case, however, of graduate studies, this relationship
is reversed, manifesting a clear supremacy of public institutions. But, as we
will see, through productivism also the graduate has been pressured to submit
to the logic of the market.
1. Background of Graduate Studies in Brazil
An important milestone in the trajectory of higher
education in Brazil is Decree No. 19,851, of April 11, 1931, which, published
on April 15, put into force the Statute of Brazilian Universities. We can
consider that it is with this act that the issue of university officially
begins in our country. These Statutes do not refer to graduate studies. But
among the "Ends of University Education" established in Art. 1
included "stimulating scientific research in any fields of human
knowledge" (FÁVERO, 2000, p. 159); and establishes in Art. 46 that,
"[...] university institutes should organize and facilitate the means for
conducting original research, which take advantage of skills and inclinations,
not only of faculty and student, but also of any other researchers... " (idem, p. 177). When dealing, in Title X,, of the "Diplomas and University Dignities", the
Statute stipulates, in Art. 90, the award of the title of doctor "when after the
completion of normal, technical or scientific courses, and other regulatory
requirements of the respective institutes, the candidate defends a thesis of his own", explaining, in § 1. "The
thesis dealing with this article, in order to be accepted by the respective
institute, shall constitute publication of real value on a matter of a
technical or purely scientific nature"; and, in § 2: "defense of
thesis shall be made before an examining committee, whose members must have
specialized knowledge of the matter" (idem, p. 188).
It can be
seen that the route opened by the Statute follows the system in force in
European universities that maintained research activities, as a rule in seminars directed by teachers, but as the only
instrument of formal recognition the granting of the title of doctor through
the defense of thesis without the organization of courses or regular graduate
programs leading to the obtaining of master's or doctor's degrees.
It is worth making a
differentiated mention to the Free School of Sociology and Politics of São
Paulo. Created in 1933, it was incorporated into USP as an autonomous
complementary institution in 1939, the same year it
began to count on its teaching staff with the American sociologist Donald Pierson who remained until
1952 contributing strongly to the consolidation of the institution. Thus,
although its Statute does not refer to postgraduate courses or to awarding
academic titles, under these favorable conditions, the Division of Graduate
Studies was created in 1941, which hosted the first Graduate Program in Social
Sciences in Brazil.
It was in this Program
that Florestan Fernandes obtained the title of master
with the research A organização social dos Tupinambá, published in1949. References to graduate studies and doctorates are also
included in Articles 71, 76 and 77 of the Statute of the University of Brazil
(now UFRJ), approved on June 18, 1946, as well as in Article 9 of Law No. 3,998 of December 15, 1961,which created the
University of Brasilia (CURY, 2005, p. 8-9).
Finally,
our first Law of Guidelines and Bases of National Education (LDB), promulgated
on December 20, 1961, when dealing, in Art. 69, of the courses to be taught in
higher education institutions contemplated, in point b) the courses
"graduate, open to enrollment of candidates who have completed the
undergraduate course and obtained the respective diploma". Here is the
provision that led to the then Minister of Education and Culture, Flávio Suplicy de Lacerda, the referral
to the Federal Council of Education of a Ministerial Notice requesting
pronouncement defining and verifying the possibility of regulation of the
aforementioned postgraduate courses. And the answer to this notice was the
preparation and approval, by the CFE, of Legal Opinion nº 977/65 reported by Councillor Newton Sucupira
approved on December 3, 1965, approved by the Minister on January 6, 1966 and
published in the Official Gazette on January 20, 1966. There began the process
of institutionalization, at the national level, of post-graduate studies in
Brazil.
2. Structure of Legal Opinion nº 977/65
With the title "Definition of Graduate Courses"
the Legal Opinion, after an introduction in which it reports to the Minister's
Notice, develops the following topics:
2.1. Historical origin of graduate studies
According
to the Opinion, both the name "graduate" and the "system"
originate from the structure of the American university comprising the college
or Undergraduate School, which
corresponds to our Graduation, and the Graduate School, corresponding to our graduate program. And he points out that graduate school in the
United States is a product of German influence representing the culmination of
Germanic ancestry over The American University.
2.2. Need for graduate studies
A graduate education's need stems from the enormous
development of science in all its branches making it impossible to master it
only in undergraduate courses. Therefore, in all countries, the tendency to
introduce post-graduate studies is manifested, observing that France does not
refer to undergraduate and graduate studies, but organizes higher education in
three staggered cycles, the third cycle being that of doctorate. Finally, the
opinion highlights that in Brazil graduate courses "hardly exist" in
regular operation, imposing, therefore, the urgency of their implementation.
2.3. Graduate concept
To conceptualize the graduate program, the opinion begins
by distinguishing between the lato sensu and stricto sensu graduate studies to conclude that stricto sensu graduate
studies are of "academic and pure research", while lato sensu "has
an eminently practical-professional meaning"; stricto
sensu "confers academic degree" and lato sensu
"grants certificate". And it presents the following definition of
graduate studies in the strict sense: "the cycle of regular courses in secuimento to graduation, systematically organized, aiming
to develop and deepen the training acquired in the scope of graduation and
leading to the achievement of academic degree".
2.4. An example of graduate studies: the American
Considering
incipient our experience of graduate studies, the opinion will seek guidance in
the North American experience, noting the distinction between master's and
doctorate degrees as two levels that, although hierarchical are relatively
autonomous, are therefore not the prerequisite master's degree for the
doctorate. Thus, there may be careers, such as medicine that, in the United
States, have a doctorate but do not have a master's degree. And, of course, it
is possible to obtain the master's degree as a terminal degree without
ascending to the level of the doctorate. Both the master's and the doctorate
involve studies and exams that extend in a much longer time than graduation
and, for admission, there is rigorous intellectual selection. In the doctorate
it is always required thesis. In the case of the master's degree, a
dissertation, memory or essay may be required, or the
exams provided may be considered sufficient. In any case, both for the master's
and for the doctorate in addition to the thesis or the dissertation, memory or
essay are required a certain number of courses, participation in seminars and
research and a series of exams, including sufficiency in foreign languages. But
in all activities the student will always have the assistance and guidance of a
teacher.
2.5. The
graduate program in the Law of Guidelines and Bases
After to
delineate the characteristics of graduate studies, the Legal Opinion begins to
deal with the provisions of this subject in the Law of Guidelines and Bases,
which is embodied in Article 69 in which three categories of courses are
distinguished:
a)
graduation, open to the candidates who have completed the collegiate cycle or
equivalent and obtained a classification an assessment.
b) graduate,
open to the registration of candidates who have completed the undergraduate
course and obtained the respective university degree.
c)
specialization, improvement and extension, or any others, at the judgment of
the respective educational institute open to candidates with the preparation
and requirements that may be required.
Analyzing this point Newton Sucupira
understands that the provisions of letter “b” corresponds to the stricto sensu graduate program,
since it is limited to candidates who have already completed the graduation
while the specialization, improvement and extension courses, provided for in
point “c”, do not necessarily imply the completion of the graduation.
2.6. Postgraduate studies and the Statute of the
Magisterium
Considering,
on the one hand, the Ministerial Notice that asked the CFE to define the
Graduate Courses provided for by the LDB and also its regulation and, on the
other hand, his own understanding that the regulation is necessary under
penalty of the "inevitable abastardization of
the degrees of Master and Doctor"; and given that Article 70 of the LDB
limited the regulation to courses that confer privilege for the exercise of
liberal profession, the rapporteur then uses the Statute of the Magisterium
which, by Article 25, it was the responsibility of the CFE to, within 60 days,
conceptualize and fix the characteristics of graduate courses. A certain
regulation could be established on that delegate’s basis.
2.7. Definition and characteristics of the Master's and Doctorate
Finally, in view of the Ministerial
Notice and the determination of the Statute of the Magisterium, Newton Sucupira concludes his opinion by defining and fixing the
characteristics of the Master's and Doctorate courses.
It clarifies that it is a question of indicating only the master beacons so as
not to impair the necessary flexibility of the graduate program in order to
preserve the margin of initiative of the institution and the student in the
organization of their studies. And, after some considerations, the result of
the Opinion is in sixteen conclusions which are then fully transcribed:
1) The graduate
program referred to in article 69 of article 69 of the Law of Guidelines and
Bases consists of the cycle of regular courses in follow-up to graduation and
aimed at developing and deepening the training acquired in undergraduate
courses and lead to obtaining an academic degree.
2) The graduate
program will comprise two levels of training: Master and Doctorate. Although
hierarchical, the master's degree is not an indispensable condition for
enrollment in the doctoral course.
3) The master's
degree can be seen a preliminary step in obtaining the doctor's degree or as a
terminal degree.
4) The doctoral
program aims to provide broad and in-depth scientific or cultural training,
developing the research capacity and creative power in the different branches
of knowledge.
5) The research
doctorate will have the designation of the following areas: Letters, Natural
Sciences, Human Sciences and Philosophy; professional doctorates are[1]called according to the
corresponding undergraduate courses. The master's degree will be qualified by
the undergraduate course, area or subject to which it refers.
6) Master's and
doctoral courses must have a minimum duration of one and two years
respectively. In addition to the preparation of the dissertation or thesis, the
candidate must study a number of subjects related to his area of concentration
and related domain, undergo partial and general examinations, and tests that
verify the ability to read in foreign languages. At least one for the master's
degree and two for the doctorate.
7) The area of
concentration means the specific field of knowledge which will constitute the
object of studies chosen by the candidate, and by related domain any matter not
belonging to that field, but considered convenient or necessary to complete its
training.
8) The
establishment must offer a varied list of materials so that the candidate can
exercise his option. The subjects, preferably, will be taught in the form of
monographic courses of which, whether in lectures or in seminars, the teacher
will develop, in depth, a determined subject.
9) The candidate
for the Master's degree requires a dissertation, on which it will be examined,
in which it reveals mastery of the chosen theme and systematization capacity;
for the degree of Doctor it is required defense of thesis that represents
research work importing in real contribution to the knowledge of the subject.
10) The Master's
and Doctorate studies program will be characterized by great flexibility,
leaving ample freedom of initiative to the candidate who will receive
assistance and guidance from a director of studies. will invite the program,
above all, of seminars, research work, laboratory activities with the active
participation of students.
11) The same
postgraduate course may receive graduates from various undergraduate courses,
provided they have a certain affinity. Thus, for example, the master's or
Doctorate in Public Administration could be admitted bachelor's degrees in Law
or Economics; in Biology, Doctors or graduates in Natural History.
12) For enrollment
in postgraduate courses, in addition to the diploma of the undergraduate course
required by law, institutions may establish requirements that ensure rigorous
intellectual selection of candidates. If undergraduate courses should be open
to the largest number, by their nature, graduate studies must be restricted to
the fittest.
13) In
universities, research or academic post-graduation should be the object of
central coordination, covering the entire area of science and letters,
including those that are part of the basic cycle of professional faculties.
14) doctoral
candidates will be entrusted with teaching tasks, without prejudice to the time
allocated to their studies and research papers.
15) It is advisable
that the graduate program be done on a full-time basis, at least regarding the
minimum duration of the courses.
16) Postgraduate
courses must be approved by the Federal Council of Education so that their
diplomas are registered with the Ministry of Education and can produce legal
effects. To this do, the Council will lower standards by setting the criteria
for the approval of the courses (BRASIL, 1965, p. 84-86).
These conclusions are, in fact, configured as master becomes
indicating the way the implementation of graduate studies in Brazil should be
regulated. Thus, this Legal Opinion nº 977/65 is undoubtedly the initial
milestone of the institutionalization of graduate studies in Brazil. Its
importance is therefore undeniable to the point of being generally considered
as the "founding text of systematic graduate studies in Brazil"
(CURY, 2005, p. 18). But the regulation itself occurred with CFE Opinion No.
77/69, also authored by Newton Sucupira, approved on
February 11, 1969, which established the "Accreditation Standards of
Graduate Courses", explaining in the sole paragraph of Article 1:
"The graduate courses that deal with these standards are those that confer
the degrees of Master and Doctor in the form defined by Legal Opinion nº 977/65
of the C.F.E.". After indicating the documentation that must accompany the
application for accreditation and the conditions of building, financial
capacity, the proof of the high qualification of the faculty, the resources and
equipment according to the nature of the courses, the existence of an updated
and selected library, are resumed with some variation and terminological
update, in Article 13, in twelve sections, the conclusions of Opinion nº 977/65.
Article 15 provides for the establishment of a committee of experts for
on-the-spot verification of the operating conditions of the course to be accredited. And Article 17 determines that the
accreditation will be valid for five years, and renewal is up to date.
It can be
seen, therefore, that the proper object of Opinion No. 977/65 was the
conceptualization of graduate studies, while the object of Opinion No. 77/69
was the regulation of the implementation of graduate studies. From then on and
throughout the 1970s, the process of opening and expanding graduate programs in
Brazil was triggered, constituting the heroic period, because
infrastructure conditions and bibliographic materials were provided at the same
time that the programs were opened and
graduate activities began.
3. Graduate studies and its
configuration in Brazil: a newmodel?[2]?
On the conceptualization of graduate studies
it is worth remembering that graduate courses are understood, literally, as
those that take place after graduation. It can be seen, then, that Sucupira, in Opinion No. 977/65, recognized the distinction
between lato sensu and stricto sensu graduate
studies and interpreted article
69(c) of LDB No. 4,024/61 ("specialization, improvement and extension
courses or any others") as corresponding to the lato sensu that, in the LDB standard, would not be requiring the
completion of the graduation. Well, then, it would not be graduate courses. It
is then worth noting that it is possible to offer specialization, improvement,
and extension courses in the form of graduate or not. In case they are graduate
will be open to candidates who have completed the graduation and will focus on
the lato sensu
modality. In the Brazilian context, the distinction between lato sensu
graduate studies and stricto sensu graduate studies became common.
The lato sensu courses assume the forms of improvement and specialization
and constitute a kind of extension of the graduation, because they aim at an improvement
(improvement) or deepening (specialization) of the professional training
obtained in the corresponding undergraduate course.
The stricto sensu graduate program organized under the forms of
master's and doctorate, has its own objective, distinct from that of the
undergraduate program and is therefore considered as the graduate program
itself. In this condition, unlike undergraduate courses that are focused on
professional training stricto sensu graduate
studies turn to academic training focused on the goal of researchers training.
Therefore, the lato sensu graduate program has as a
defining element teaching because it is this that determines the objective to
be achieved, entering the research as
mediation to achieve the recommended objective. In opposition, the defining
element of stricto sensu
graduate is research, which determines the objective to be
achieved for which teaching competes as a mediation intended to provide the
requirements for the development of research that will be the touchstone of the
intended formation.
Due to the above is that preference was given to the term program instead of course for stricto sensu graduate
studies. The reason for this distinction lies in the fact that the term course binds directly to teaching and its center is a
cast of subjects that students must attend.
Now, that is the specific characteristic of lato sensu graduate studies. On the other hand, stricto sensu graduate programs,in addition toteaching, involves research as a central element. Hence, the
adoption of the programa term
program to include both teaching and research
activities.
This distinction was also enshrined in the text of the
new LDB, of 20/12/1996,which reserves the programa term
program for the graduate
program stricto sensu using the term course for
the graduate program lato sensu,as stipulated in Article44:
Higher education
will cover the following courses and programmes: I- sequential
courses...; II - undergraduate...; III - graduate programs, including master's and doctorate programs,
specialization courses, improvement and others, open to candidates graduated in
undergraduate courses and who meet the requirements of educational institutions
(bold mine) (BRAZIL, 1996).
It should be noted that in this LDB there is no longer
the ambiguity contained in point “c” of article 69 of the previous LDB, because
in the current LDB, both for the "master's and doctorate programs"
and for the "specialization, improvement and other courses", it is
explicitly stated that they are open to candidates graduated in "undergraduate
courses".
It is therefore important that the proposal for a course
of improvement or specialization is justified as a result of the advancement of
knowledge resulting from the development of research in the area in question,
whose results affect the profile of the corresponding profession. In this case,
the lato sensu postgraduate course will be
proposed to ensure the assimilation of procedures or results of the advancement
of the research, by the professionals in the area in reference, adjusting their
profile to the changes operated in the profile of their profession. Stricto sensu
graduate programs, in turn, are
justified in view of the very advancement of knowledge, that is, the
development of research in some area, contributing directly to this purpose.
The conceptual abstract question was clarified, the
following is how graduate studies were configured in Brazil.
The graduate model adopted in Brazil deliberately
followed the experience of the United States, as evidenced in the text of Legal
Opinion nº 977/65. It is based on this experience that the organizational
structure of our stricto sensu graduate
program focused on two levels, the master’s, and doctorate degrees. Both of them would include the study of a
set of subjects related both to the area of concentration,
that is, the field of study chosen by the candidate, as well as to the
related domain, that is, the area of knowledge complementary
to that chosen by the student. The study program should be completed with the
writing of a work resulting from research, the dissertation, for the master's
degree, and the thesis, for the doctorate. Thus,
the organization of the studies is quite clear with well-specified tasks,
including the figure of a mentor foreach of the students.
However,
if the organizational structure was inspired by the American model, the spirit
with which the implementation of the programs took place was largely influenced
by the European experience.
It is
interesting to note that in the United States the fundamental education
prevailed, under the influence of the idea of new pedagogy, the objective of
socialization of children and young people justified by the discourse of
encouraging the autonomy and initiative of students, with the domain of
systematized knowledge in the background; and at the higher level, the students
tended to be placed before a very defined organization with tasks guided by the teachers. Conversely, in
Europe, basic education systems were organized under the traditional conception
inherited from the Enlightenment which placed as its main objective the domain
of systematized knowledge; consequently, students who entered the university
tended to expect a degree of maturity and intellectual autonomy that dispensed
with teachers, a direction or even a more direct orientation. And, especially
in graduate studies, which was fundamentally constituted by the doctorate, it
was expected that the candidates would conceive and perform for themselves
their own work being the advisor more an examiner and the president of the
examination benches than someone who directed and directly interfered in the
definition and development of the doctoral study theme. Thus, while the North
American university experience places a certain emphasis on the
technical-operative aspect, in the European experience the main emphasis is on
the theoretical aspect.
We
know the weight of European influence on Brazilian intellectuals, especially in
human sciences area. And this fact is important understand the trend that
eventually prevailed in Brazilian graduate school. In fact, the implementation
of the graduate program took place from the master's degree. And although
students were to attend certain subjects, teachers generally assumed a
reasonable degree of autonomy of the master's students hoping that they would
define their own object of investigation and, continuous act, choose the
appropriate advisor to accompany them in their research. This is one of the
explanatory factors of the long time destined to the realization of the
master's degree linked to the expectation that students should produce a
breathless work, in practice equivalent to a doctoral thesis. This did not
cause major problems in the initial phase when, in view of the pent-up demand
and there is still no doctorate, teachers already with reasonable intellectual
maturity and a good experience in the higher teaching degree were accessed.
After, however, this first phase was verified on an increasingly generalized
scale that, while the advisor expected the student himself to independently
choose the theme of his dissertation, formulate the problem, define the
theoretical approach, delimited the object and established the methodology and
respective procedures of analysis, the master's student felt aimless and spent
a lot of time without meeting these expectations of the advisor, which made him
seek the help of other teachers, go through the most found readings or field
observations until he could find, but after much expenditure of energy and
time, the object of study that would give rise to his master's thesis.
It is in the face of this situation
that the pressures for the reduction of time have arisen with the tendency to
secondary the master's degree, dispense with the requirement of a dissertation
or even eliminate this stage of stricto sensu graduate studies. I understand that this referral
can jeopardize the particularity of brazilian
graduate studies that allowed it to constitute one of the richest and most
consistent graduate experiences. And this richness comes, I believe, from the
fusion between a very articulated organizational structure, derived from
American influence, and the commitment to ensure a satisfactory degree of
theoretical density, resulting from European influence. To avoid the risk
pointed out by preserving the particularity of the Brazilian experience, it is
necessary to keep in mind the specificity of
stricto sensu graduate
studies, whose objective is training researchers.
However,
if the primary objective of stricto sensu graduate is the formation of the researcher, the
central element around which it should be organized is research. And as stricto sensu graduate studies are organized at two levels,
master's and doctorate degrees, it is concluded that the first level has the
meaning of initiation to the researcher's education, reserving the
consolidation function at the second level.
Thus, although it is desirable that
the initiation take place already at the undergraduate level, it does not seem
reasonable to inscribe it as a mandatory requirement already in this first
stage of higher education. The so-called
scientific initiation in undergraduate
courses has the purpose of familiarizing the student (the future professional)
with scientific research, which does not imply the realization, by each of the
students, of a specific and complete research project.
In the case of the master's degree, however,
the required initiation will be done by carrying out a complete research work.
For most students it will be, in fact, the first research work that he
completes, including all the steps involved in the type of investigation
initiated, culminating in the writing of the dissertation with a logical
structure appropriate to the readers' full understanding of the subject
treated.
Thus understood, the master's thesis supposes a relatively
simple work, expressed in a logically articulated text giving an account of a
particular theme. It is distinguished from thesis, a denomination reserved for
the work of the doctorate, since thesis means position, suggesting that the
defense of a thesis is the defense of a position in the face of a given
problem. The thesis presupposes, consequently, the requirements of intellectual
autonomy and originality, since these are conditions for someone to express
their own position on a given subject. Such requirements are not required in
the case of the master's degree. It is assumed, rather, that it is the
completion of the master's degree that will provide the fulfillment of these
requirements, since, having carried out, with the support of the advisor, a
complete research work, this exercise will allow him to acquire a theoretical
and practical domain of the process, thus achieving the desired intellectual
autonomy that will provide him with the original formulation of new research
objects. Thus, while for the master's degree intellectual autonomy and
originality constitute a point of arrival, for the doctorate these requirements
are at the starting point as preconditions for the realization of the final stage of the
researcher's training process.
In a statement:
considering that stricto sensu graduate
program is intended for the training of the researcher; considering that
the master's degree has the task of carrying out the initiation of students in
view of their assumption of the condition of researchers; considering that this
initiation implies the performance of a complete research work, it is concluded
that it is inconceivable a master's degree without a dissertation.
In view of the above, I understand that wanting
to reduce the time of master's degree by giving up the dissertation is to
obtain the reduction to the price of its mischaracterization. It is necessary,
therefore, to remove certain alternatives that, in view of the objective of
reducing the time of training, nod with the organization of master's courses
without dissertation, as occurs in the United States. In fact, this type of
master's degree would be mischaracterized as a stricto sensu graduate
degree, being assimilated to specialization courses, members of the lato sensu graduate program, since it would tend to
subordinate academic to professional training, giving up the objective of
training researchers. In fact, it seems that it is precisely the admission of a
distinction between a kind of professional master's degree and an academic
master's degree that explains the existence, in the U.S., of a master's degree
without a dissertation alongside the master's degree with dissertation. It is
therefore worth considering that, in the Brazilian case, the alternative to
master's degree with dissertation would not be the master's degree without a dissertation
or even the professional master's degree, even with a dissertation, but
specialization courses.
Then, it defines the time necessary to complete master's degree
from the understanding of its nature and objectives and not the other way
around. And since, as it turned out, the central point of the master's degree consists of the dissertation, it is from the
dimensioning of the time required to carry out the dissertation that it is
necessary to define the duration of the master's degree. And this time can only
be defined to the extent that it has some criteria for characterizing the
dissertation itself. And it was in the search for such criteria that I
elaborated the text, the basic monograph as a regulatory idea of the master's thesis (SAVIANI, 1991). The idea
was to think of the dissertations as focusing on relevant topics not yet
sufficiently explored, and it was up to the master's student to carry out a
survey, as complete as possible, of the available information, organize them
according to appropriate logical-methodological criteria and write the
corresponding text that would allow agile access to the subject. The existence
of these basic monographs would enable a more experienced researcher to
perform, from the primary information already properly organized, far-reaching
synthesis that would be unfeasible or would require excessive time without this
preliminary work of das the basic
monographs.
This
proposal supposed that the faculty would
identify the themes, approaches and moments of Brazilian education that are open,
establishing a broad program of production of basic monographs in which
master's students would be engaged for the purpose of preparing and their dissertations
which they would be starting as researchers, while contributing to the
advancement of knowledge in educational field. As can be seen, the proposal
implies the existence of lines of research in which teachers develop, in an
articulated way, their own research projects. As the prevailing practice was
that the professors, after carrying out their doctoral research, started to
guide the students' research without, however, developing their own projects,
it was difficult to implement the program of production of basic monographs as
proposed. Paradoxically, in the current situation when these conditions have
been fulfilled with the creation, in most programs, research groups and the
development, by professors, of their own research projects, that proposal is
forgotten and it is the very existence of the master's degree, as a graduate program, which is threatened.
The
strategy of producing basic monographs in each graduate program would be a
simple way to ensure, for most students, the initiation of their training as
researchers since it would offer precise alternatives for the realization of
dissertations, saving them time and energy by immediately involving them in a
real research process. With the theme of the dissertation defined from the
beginning, it would be possible to size the duration of the master's degree, which
in principle would be in three-year range. Given its initiation character
involving the need to take courses, I consider it neither feasible nor
desirable to reduce the time to below the indicated deadline. However,
successfully completed this stage of initiation, the doctorate could be strongly
focused on carrying out the research, which would enable its completion, as the
experience has shown, within 30 to 36 months. Thus, the total time of the
researcher's training would be around five to six years, a term that would
fatally end up being destined for the doctorate if, in the event of extinction
of the master's degree, the entire process of formation of the researcher was
attributed to him.
Solving the question of time through a
consistent organization of studies, it would be possible to preserve and even
deepen and strengthen the rich experience of Brazilian graduate studies. This,
merging the organizational structure of the American model with the theoretical
density from European influence, produced a new model, certainly better than those.
This perspective, however, does not clearly outline the horizon of our graduate
studies. On the contrary, the current situation is home to the disarticulation
trend of the successful experience of post-graduate studies in our country,
which is threatened by pressure to reduce deadlines, exercised in a special way
on the master's degree by the requirement of productivity. Such pressures put
us in the face of a real dilemma when we strive to seek quality in graduate
school. We must therefore consider what this dilemma is and how this dilemma is
manifested.
4. The productivity-quality dilemma in graduate school[3]
Considering the character of scientific activity and
education as non-material production modalities whose product is not parted from
the act of production; that research, as a scientific activity, and the
training of the researcher, as an educational activity, participate in this
characteristic; that the compatibility between the search for productivity and
the pursuit of quality presupposes the full objectification of the work
process; that non-material production is not susceptible to full
objectification, it follows that, under the conditions of non-material
production, the search for productivity is in contradiction with the quality of
the results of this production. There is the root of the productivity-quality
dilemma in graduate programs, that is, in the development of research and in
the training of the researcher.
Dilemma is a term derived from the Greek (διλημμα) that has the
meaning of an argumentation with two contradictory conclusions equally possible,
logically generalizing the meaning of dilemma as an embarrassing situation with
two equally difficult exits. It can be seen, therefore, that when we talk about
the productivity-quality dilemma in graduate school we are talking about an
embarrassing situation, because the increase in productivity negatively
interferes in quality and vice versa. Thus, both paths are equally difficult, because
quality cannot be given up, but productivity cannot be neglected either. It
happens that this feeling focuses on that "bourgeois mental
narrowness", referred to by Marx, who is content to consider productive
all work that produces something, which is nothing but a tautology, because it
leads to the conclusion that unproductive work is the one that produces
nothing. Thus, it is evident that graduate programs cannot give up productivity
because this would mean admitting that they would become unproductive, it is
worth saying, without producing anything. Hence, the tautological
classifications of evaluation processes that reach conclusions of the following
type: a given Program is very productive because it produces a lot; another is
unproductive because it produces little; a third is very unproductive because
it produces very little, and so on. But, productive work, in the capitalist
society in which we live is the one that generates added value;; and
unproductive work is what does not generate added value which, of course, does
not mean that nothing produces.
As Marx explains, the productive work corresponds to the M-C-M'
circuit, that is, a situation in which you exchange goods for money as capital,
that is, the commodity is a means to increase capital, to add value to it;
whereas the unproductive work corresponds to the C-M-C circuit
(Commodity-Money-Commodity) in which goods are exchanged for money as money,
that is, the money obtained from the sale of finished goods is a means to
acquire another commodity that will satisfy a certain need for consumption of
the buyer, not entering the capital circuit.
Hence, the tautological classifications of evaluation
processes that reach conclusions of the following type: a given Program is very
productive because it produces a lot; another is unproductive because it
produces little; a third is very unproductive because it produces very little,
and so on. But, productive work, in the capitalist society in which we live is
the one that generates added value;; and unproductive work is what does not
generate added value which, of course, does not mean that nothing produces.
In the light of the considerations made it is clear the
management of the concept of productivity in the field of research and graduate
studies means placing them under the orbit of capital. And this is
understandable, because "capital is the economic force of the bourgeois
society that dominates everything" (MARX, 1973, p. 236) which causes
everything, in this type of society, to fall under the logic of capital.
Despite this finding, it cannot be disregarded that it is
a contradictory process that, in the case on screen, places in opposite fields
the productivity and quality of research and postgraduate training: the
requirement of productivity hinders the realization of quality and the emphasis
on quality does not fit the criteria for measuring productivity.
The dilemma is that it is admitted that the two aspects,
productivity and quality, should integrate the process of research and training
of researchers, but we do not know how to articulate them or what specific
weight each of them should have in the said process. And when we see some
prospect of a solution at the institutional level, we face two equally
embarrassing exits. In fact, we could give precedence to the first aspect and,
in this case, we would endeavor to meet the criteria of CAPES and the agencies
supporting research and graduate studies. Thus, all the energies of
coordination and faculty of graduate programs and research groups linked to
them would be directed, on the one hand, to increase the number of research
reports, to find mechanisms to transform them into works presented in
scientific events or published in articles, books and book chapters and, on the
other hand, to reduce the time allocated to the production of dissertations and
theses. With this, the relevance, relevance and
consistency of the work produced would be used in the background.
The consequence would be the increasing fall in the
quality of graduate programs. Or, on the other hand, we could, giving
precedence to the second aspect, return all attention and care to the
improvement of quality, a situation in which the productivity requirements put
by the evaluation and financing bodies would be subordinated. Here, the
consequence would be the reduction of financial support and scholarships, which
would result in a decrease in productivity, also reflecting the quality of
graduate studies.
The two exits are therefore equally problematic, thus
remaining embarrassing. How to solve the problem? How to get out of the
dilemma? I believe that the argument sparked throughout this exhibition already
indicates, in a certain way, the possible outputs.
In radical terms, the exit lies in the break with the
logic of capital. This implies the transformation of the production
relationships themselves, giving rise to a new type of society. However, even
assuming that this is the goal to be achieved, we know that it is not present
in our immediate horizon. Thus, it is about resisting the dominant logic by
reacting to pressures through actions whose strategies must be triggered
according to the correlation of forces detected in the light of the analysis of
the situations faced.
In this direction we can, if we
conclude that the correlation of forces is favorable, challenge the reasons for
the modification of the master's degree, show the negative implications of the
proposed changes and, turning the game, make it clear that it is the official
bodies that depend on the Programs and not the other way around, since it is in
the Graduate Programs that the end-activities are carried out and that is also
where the members of the evaluation committees and the leaders of the official
bodies are provided.
However, it should be evaluated that the correlation of
forces is not favorable to the strategy indicated above, it should be necessary
to trigger other types of strategy. For example, if it is not feasible to
change the criteria that require the reduction of the deadlines for the
completion of master's dissertations, it can be articulated with specialization
courses, understood as a deepening of studies in the area in which the student
will perform the master's degree. With this, even taking into account the time
limits defined by the agencies for the master's degree, there is a time that,
in addition to specialization, can guarantee the quality that resulted in the
reduction of the master's degree.
The consequence would be the increasing fall in the
quality of graduate programs. Or, on the other hand, we could, giving
precedence to the second aspect, return all attention and care to the
improvement of quality, a situation in which the productivity requirements put
by the evaluation and financing bodies would be subordinated. Here, the
consequence would be the reduction of financial support and scholarships, which
would result in a decrease in productivity, also reflecting the quality of
graduate studies.
The two exits are therefore equally problematic, thus
remaining embarrassing. How to solve the problem? How to get out of the
dilemma? I believe that the argument sparked throughout this exhibition already
indicates, in a certain way, the possible outputs.
In radical terms, the exit lies in the break with the
logic of capital. This implies the transformation of the production
relationships themselves, giving rise to a new type of society. However, even
assuming that this is the goal to be achieved, we know that it is not present
in our immediate horizon. Thus, it is about resisting the dominant logic by
reacting to pressures through actions whose strategies must be triggered
according to the correlation of forces detected in the light of the analysis of
the situations faced.
In this direction we can, if we
conclude that the correlation of forces is favorable, challenge the reasons for
the modification of the master's degree, show the negative implications of the
proposed changes and, turning the game, make it clear that it is the official
bodies that depend on the Programs and not the other way around, since it is in
the Graduate Programs that the end-activities are carried out and that is also
where the members of the evaluation committees and the leaders of the official
bodies are provided.
However, it should be evaluated that the correlation of
forces is not favorable to the strategy indicated above, it should be necessary
to trigger other types of strategy. For example, if it is not feasible to
change the criteria that require the reduction of the deadlines for the
completion of master's dissertations, it can be articulated with specialization
courses, understood as a deepening of studies in the area in which the student
will perform the master's degree. With this, even taking into account the time
limits defined by the agencies for the master's degree, there is a time that,
in addition to specialization, can guarantee the quality that resulted in the
reduction of the master's degree.
In this case it is necessary
to consider that what was implanted in Brazil was the Stricto Sensu Graduate Program. In Legal Opinion
nº 977/65 Sucupira acknowledges the difference
between lato sensu
graduate studies and stricto sensu,but
did not bother with its regulation.. Thus, just as he considered that
"regulation is necessary under penalty of the inevitable subordinating of
the degrees of Master and Doctor", we can consider that, not being
regulated, the "inevitable subordination" of the post lato sensu was
provoked. Focused on the improvement, specialization and professional updating,
the post lato sensu was
occurring more or less randomly, on the margin of the effective graduate
policy that was restricted to stricto sensu..
In view of
the non-regulation, the universities that
decided to act in the scope of the lato sensu graduate program
took the form of specialization, improvement and extension courses creating
specific bodies for their organization and management of the type of the
General Coordination of Specialization, Improvement and Extension
(COGEAEs).) With this, what should be
articulated as two modalities of the same academic sector, graduate studies,
resulted in two initiatives entirely separated from each other, materialized,
including two totally separate bodies.
Considering,
furthermore, that the prominence of stricto sensu level regulation by the Federal Council of
Education led institutions with some research experience to devote themselves
only to stricto sensu,
the lato
senso ended up being circumscribed to the initiative of institutions that
were dominantly dedicated to teaching without, further, a consolidated research
structure. Thus, the lato
sensu courses were being organized horizontally,
according to the prevailing model in the undergraduate course, with several
subjects attended at the same time, when they should, as in the case of stricto sensu,be organized in a vertical form
with two or three disciplines, at most, per semester, thus enabling the
deepening. This discrepancy was so evident that even in the case of
institutions, such as PUC São Paulo, which dedicated themselves to both levels,
this occurred entirely separately, with stricto sensu Programs
located in a Graduate Department entirely separated from the lato sensu courses
allocated at COGEAE.
In the face of this situation, the role of lato sensu Graduate
Courses to ensure, in fact, the specialization, improvement and updating of
professionals trained in undergraduate courses resulted in the aggravating of
the image of a lower status with which lato
sensu courses were stigmatized in the face of stricto sensu programs.
Given this picture,
as I indicated earlier, there would be no place in Brazil to reproduce the
distinction existing in the United States between Academic Masters and
Professional Masters. What would be necessary to do, effectively, would be to articulate the lato
sensu with the
stricto sensu by inserting the Specialization, Improvement
and Updating Courses in the Graduate Sector itself, subjecting them to the
decisions of the Graduate Commissions within the university units and the
Central Graduate Commission within the university, giving them the same status
and ensuring them the same quality. This is what I tried to do when I took
over, between 1989 and 1992, the
coordination of the Graduate Program in Education of UNICAMP and
formulated a proposal to organize Specialization Courses articulated with the Master's degree. The fact, however, is that, as the
"Bologna Process" attests, the American model tends to impose itself
and we end up having no alternative but to assume, also here in Brazil, the
distinction between academic and professional master's degrees, bowing to the
requirement of the creation of professional masters.
Conclusion
Aware of the problems faced, graduate programs must
choose their priorities and firmly pursue the objective that justifies them,
that is, the training of researchers. The issue of productivity should be
clearly subordinated to this objective and not the other way around, as has
been the case today, as a matter of pressure from investment and accreditation
policies. That is, it is only worth increasing the productivity aimed at
research reports; in the publications of articles and books; in the works
presented in the most different types of events that have multiplied in the
area of education; and in the dissertations and theses, if the products in
reference configure results of relevant research on the priority problems faced
by Brazilian education.
On the
other hand, it is observed that the graduate program walked towards the
opposite of graduation, in a divorce that also manifested itself within the
post-graduation between lato sensu and stricto sensu, that
is between courses (teaching) and programs (research). This divorce was
accentuated with the reforms of the 1990s and with the new LDB that were headed
for the diversification of higher education models, aggravating the phenomenon
of fragmentation.
Instead of this tendency it is necessary to walk in the
opposite direction, that of integration, articulating the graduation with
the lato and stricto sensu graduate studies, which is nothing other than the
realization of the proclaimed indissociably between teaching and research. It
would then be up to the university's units to welcome young people and place
them in an environment of intense and demanding intellectuals’ stimulation. His
training would begin with the undergraduate course articulating the teaching of
theoretical and practical foundations with the research provided by the
insertion of students in the projects developed by the teachers, through
programs of scientific initiation; would continue with the post lato sensu, that is, with
specialization courses articulated with the master's degree where, as it turned
out, it would give its full initiation in the research courses, completing with
the doctorate.
Here we
can, finally, not only preserve the new model of training of researchers built
in Brazil. The analyses, although limited to the limited space of a simple
article, sought to go further, proposing strategies conducive to the
improvement and consolidation of the successful experience of Brazilian
graduate studies.
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ABOUT THE AUTHOR
DERMEVAL
SAVIANI is Professor Emeritus of the State University of Campinas (UNICAMP), Emeritus
Researcher of CNPq and Permanent Full Professor of
the Graduate Program in Education of UNICAMP.
E-mail:
dermevalsaviani@yahoo.com.br
Received: 10.08.2020
Accepted: 21.10.2020