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Presentation
The Program Major Area is: The Curriculum. Its activities include Master's and Doctorate courses, supervision of Post-Doctoral research projects, and various external actions, linked to other Programs, other universities, civil society institutions, and governmental organizations, both in Brazil and abroad.
For the Program, the Curriculum concept is not reduced to a set of formal school prescriptions. Rather, it is considered in its historical perspective, therefore conflicting, penetrated by economic, social, scientific, technological, and cultural interests and rights, amidst the diversity of subjects, groups, and actions, through which it takes place. The Program remains critically alert to the challenges and risks of the curricular paradigm focusing on competences, which has been assumed in many countries as the normative principle of their national education systems.
History
The Post-Graduate Program in Education: Curriculum, was created as a Master's Degree Program in 1975, accredited in 1982; in 1990, it implemented its Doctorate Degree Program. It was one of the pioneering Post-Graduate Programs in the country. For more than 45 years, about 1,500 Dissertations and Theses have been completed and defended. Throughout its history, renowned Brazilian educators have been acting as Professors of the Program, especially Paulo Freire. All in all, the Program is a history of a strong commitment to issues and themes of strategic importance for Brazilian education from the point of view of the Curriculum.
Research Lines
The Research Lines of the Program comprise thematic axes, which guide and cooperate for the development of the research activities of Professors and Students, in a theme of interest. As a result of this profile and objective, each Research Line develops its specific teaching activities, seminars, systematic readings, debates on topics, text production, reports, and collective critical analysis on the progress of the Postgraduate students' Dissertation and Thesis projects. The following is a list of each Research Line in the Program.
- Curriculum, Knowledge and Culture
It focuses on the epistemological and cultural foundations of the Curriculum, considering it as a component of culture, that is, as an institution of knowledge that reproduces and recreates meanings and powers.
- Formation of Educators
It focuses on the formation of educators in broad terms, inside and outside the school context, in a transdisciplinary approach and in close relationship with the social context in which this process occurs, within new educational paradigms, methodologically oriented towards a close relationship between theory and practice.
- New Technologies in Education
It focuses on the fundamentals, uses, impacts, and perspectives of the web and collaborative learning networks, at different levels of teaching and educational modalities (face-to-face, distance, or hybrid, enhanced by online education) in the learning environments structured on the World Wide Web.
- Public Policies and Educational and Curricular Reforms
It examines Curriculum policies in the Brazilian reality, focusing on innovative projects, having the concept of participatory critical Curriculum as a reference point.
Post-Doctor’s Degree
Besides the Master's degree and the Doctor’s degree, the Program hosts and supervises Post-Doctoral Research Projects in its area of concentration, in a theme linked to the Research Line, to the Professor’s Research Project, and the Research Group to which he/she belongs. As a rule, the applicant directly seeks the intended supervisor, to align a research project by common agreement. The Post-Doctorate has no financial cost for the researcher: the professors carry out the supervision by academic volunteering. It is of great interest to the Research Lines and the Program to carry out Post-Doctoral research, due to the value of its academic maturity.
Research Groups
Every Professor in the Program belongs to one or more Research Groups registered at the National Council for Scientific and Technological Development – CNPq, as Leader, Vice-Leader, or Participant.
Research Projects
A Research Project is a research activity on a circumscribed theme or object, developed individually by a member of the Faculty in the Program to which the Master or Doctorate projects guided by that Professor are linked. Every Research Project in the Program is simultaneously linked to the Research Line in which the Professor works and to the Research Group (registered at the National Council for Scientific and Technological Development - CNPq) to which the Professor belongs.
Disciplines and Seminars
Every term, the Program offers a list of Disciplines (mandatory, elective, and optional) and Seminars. Each graduate student decides, in advance, in agreement with his/her Advisor, the Disciplines and Seminars that he/she will follow, according to his/her study plan.
Official Program Scientific Events
Institutionally, the Program promotes two scientific events, both biennial, which alternate annually:
Scholarships for Post-Graduate Students
There are three types of scholarships, currently awarded to postgraduate students by federal government funding agencies, managed by the Program:
- CAPES Scholarships Modality 1. This is a full scholarship, that is: it covers the payment of university tuition fees and adds an amount to cover the basic expenses of the researcher. As it is full, it requires total dedication from the part of the researcher.
- CAPES Grant Modality 2. This is the cost of tuition fees charged by the university.
- CNPq Scholarship: full scholarship, approximately equivalent to the CAPES Scholarship Modality 1. The Program has a limited quota of scholarships to distribute. This quota has been strenuously accumulated by the Program's merits over the years.
International Cooperation Projects of the Program
The Program keeps collaborative partnerships with other universities from other countries, for research and / or teaching visiting projects, reciprocally, mainly for the purpose of joint research development. These cooperation projects or agreements are also opportunities for the development of International Research Internships (the so called “sandwich internships”) of our postdoctoral students abroad.
These are some of the universities abroad the Program has developed partnership with throughout its history:
- Université de Genève, Suisse
- Université de Sherbrooke, Québec, Canada
- Universidade Pedagógica de Maputo, Moçambique
- Universidad Metropolitana de Chile
- Universidad Catolica del Norte de Chile
These are the universities abroad the Program is presently developing partnership with:
- Universidade do Minho - Portugal
- Universitat de Barcelona - Spain
- Open University - United Kingdom
Selection Process for Admission to the Program
The selection process for applicants to the Program (Master’s Degree and Doctor’s Degree) is semiannual. The dates for registration are published every six months on this website. Candidates are selected in three phases:
- in the first phase, the documentation required for registration is analyzed and pre-validated
- in the second phase, an interview is held with each of the candidates selected in the first phase. The interview aims to analyze the project, ascertaining the applicant's scientific interest and evaluating his/her conditions to carry out a Dissertation or Thesis.
- In the third phase, after the interview, the applicant writes a text about a topic indicated by the interview panel.
Final approval of applicants is given by the Program Board.
Links of interest
- CAPES – Coordenating Office for the Advancement of Higher Education: www.capes.gov.br
- CNPq – National Council for Scientific and Technological Development: www.cnpq.br
- FAPESP - São Paulo State Research Support Foundation: www.fapesp.br
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