Business in the expansion of distance learning in Pedagogy courses

Abstract

The Pedagogy course is among the undergraduate courses with the highest enrollment in the country, especially in the private sector and in the distance learning modality. These private institutions are responsible for training the majority of pedagogues in Brazil and, in general, offer short-term undergraduate courses. This study is bibliographic in nature and aims to analyze the phenomenon of expansion of distance learning (EAD) in the Pedagogy course, seeking to understand to what extent this process is in line with a project of educational hegemony led by the business class. The State has encouraged this expansion through deregulation and relaxation of the rules for opening centers and courses, thus serving the business sector that sees EAD as a business alternative for the economic crisis faced by Brazil in the last decade. The economic rationale that seeks to associate rapid training with lower tuition costs in institutions is imposed on workers, who are subjected to the deepening process of exploitation and dismantling of the structures of social protection of labor. There is evidence of massive and expansive action by the private system in the training of pedagogues, through a project of mass training of the working class, through distance learning in private-commercial Higher Education Institutions (HEIs), whose long-term developments are uncertain and demand the continuity of studies.