Políticas de assistência ao estudante: formulação e implementação no instituto federal do Paraná (2008-2014)

Abstract

This research investigates the student aid policies in federal institutions of education, having as its locus the Federal Institute of Paraná (Instituto Federal do Paraná – IFPR). Our main objective is to analyze the meaning of the student aid policies in the Federal Institutes from their foundation in 2008, particularly in IFPR, taking into account the contradictions and the disputes regarding the relations between education and work. We also aim at characterizing the political debates in the formulation of the student policy in its historical context of education in the 2000s; characterizing the documents that guided the student aid policy in Brazil and the establishment of the IFs; and analyzing the student aid programs in IFPR. Therefore, we raise the following questions: what are the meanings of these policies? Do they really promote an emancipatory education for the students? This issue is investigated by the method of political economy in the Marxist perspective, as formulated by Marx and Engels. We used the Policy Cycle approach, which makes up the method by analyzing the documents drawn up since the 90s regarding the formulation of student aid policy. This study was based on the work of Jefferson Mainardes, Eneida Otto Shiroma, Gaudencio Frigotto, Marise Nogueira Ramos, Marilena Chauí, Ricardo Antunes, Dermeval Saviani, among other authors. The analysis of the documents suggests that this policy united the Pro-rectors in defense of a public university with a policy within a historic project that took a long time to be formulated – and still is in its maturation process, especially at IFPR. It becomes clear that this formulation and implementation have secured access to education for disadvantaged people. The polytechnic education through historical-critical pedagogy, as seen in its entirety, is likely to be effective within IFPR's student aid policy, and as such becomes an educational practice for the transformation of society, which is one of its goals.