Os desafios da institucionalização do ensino superior na modalidade a distância: a visão dos gestores de uma universidade federal

Abstract

This research presents the specifics of Distance Education that constitute challenges for this type of education is institutionalized in Higher Education Institutions. The study is conducted in two phases: first carried out a survey of academic managers associated with undergraduate courses on offer at the Federal University of Rio Grande do Norte (Brazilian State), establishing a profile of these through the identification of their roles, units of capacity and service time. The second stage is operationalized by applying in situ interviews with managers, selected from their units and stocking supplies available; and further analysis of these speech, considering the theoretical premises of Foucault (1996) and Porto (2010), pointing in the speeches of the participants aspects that challenge the stability of distance education. Therefore, this study assumes a qualitative nature, through participatory research, considering that it was intentional non-probabilistic sample. In parallel, from bibliographical and documentary research, conceptual elements of institutional theory are presented, based mainly on the approaches of Dimaggio and Powell (1983), Meyer and Rowan (1997), among other experts; whose scope is configured on the fact that institutions establish actions that legitimize the collective yearning of its agents, based on accepted social behavior in the environment and in addressing the existing uncertainties in the global universe. The same reasoning is exposed the operating system of distance education in the current Brazilian scenario, especially since the ideas of Belloni (2003), Assman (2005), Novais and Fernandes (2011); confronting them with the policies established in government programs that shape and foster the kind of education at institutions, and how these interfere with institutional guidelines. The results of this study indicate that the process of institutionalization is still in an embryonic stage, although they acknowledge the efforts of academic managers to understand the importance of distance education at the present time, with the inclusion of information and communication technologies. From this perspective, it is essential to rethink aspects that ensure the continuity of actions, procedures and redesigning academic and administrative processes, so that adequate quality standards that affect the consolidation of Distance Education.