Assessing Advances and Challenges in Technical Education in Brazil

Assessing Advances and Challenges in Technical Education in Brazil
Author: Rita Almeida
Publisher: World Bank Publications
Total Pages: 115
Release: 2015-10-22
Genre: Education
ISBN: 1464806438

As Brazil is massively investing in a scale-up of in vocational education and training (VET) through the national flagship program, PRONATEC, this report assesses institutions and policies in VET taking an in depth critical view of upcoming opportunities. It shares international best practices on selected operational issues identified as strategic bottlenecks for the delivery of technical education. The report explores multiple sources of information including a desk review of existing reports and papers, inputs/data provided by the Ministry of Education and interviews with multiple stakeholders and practitioners at the federal and state level. The report highlights the need of promoting a better alignment between the supply and demand of skills at the sub national level and of promoting better a solid monitoring and evaluation system, including the monitoring of student learning and of the trajectories into the labor market or into higher educational degrees. Issues of student career guidance and teacher quality also emerge as areas of strategic importance to the Brazilian VET system in the years ahead. We conclude with specific policy recommendations for PRONATEC.

States of Grace

States of Grace
Author: Patrícia I. Vieira
Publisher: State University of New York Press
Total Pages: 236
Release: 2018-03-19
Genre: Literary Criticism
ISBN: 143846925X

States of Grace offers a novel approach to the study of Brazilian culture through the lens of utopianism. Patrícia I. Vieira explores religious and political writings, journalistic texts, sociological studies, and literary works that portray Brazil as a utopian "land of the future," where dreams of a coming messianic age and of social and political emancipation would come true. The book discusses crucial utopian moments such as the theological-political utopia proposed by Jesuit Priest Antônio Vieira; matriarchal utopias, like the egalitarian society of the Amazons; work-free utopias that abolished the boundaries separating toil and play; and ecological utopias, where humans and nonhumans coexist harmoniously. The uniqueness of the book's approach lies in rethinking the link between messianic and utopian texts, as well as the alliances forged between progressive religious, socioeconomic, political, and ecological ideas.

The Challenges of Education in Brazil

The Challenges of Education in Brazil
Author: Colin Brock
Publisher: Symposium Books Ltd
Total Pages: 238
Release: 2004-05-10
Genre: Education
ISBN: 1873927894

Education in Brazil has changed intensely over the last several years. Access to basic education is nearly universal, secondary education has been expanding very rapidly, and so too has higher education at both the undergraduate and graduate levels. However, serious issues remain related to quality, equity and inappropriate use of resources. Some of these problems are related to the fact that Brazil started to develop its education institutions very late, and did not build strong teaching and academic professions that could provide the necessary support for education policies committed to equity, quality and efficiency. This book, written by leading experts, is the first English-language text to provide a comprehensive analysis of the challenges facing Brazilian education at all levels, including issues such as the quality of basic education, the establishment of standards for higher education, the experiences of technical and vocational schools, teacher education, regulation and financing of public and private higher education, and the growing role of graduate education and research.

Technology of the Oppressed

Technology of the Oppressed
Author: David Nemer
Publisher: MIT Press
Total Pages: 231
Release: 2022-02-15
Genre: Social Science
ISBN: 0262543346

How Brazilian favela residents engage with and appropriate technologies, both to fight the oppression in their lives and to represent themselves in the world. Brazilian favelas are impoverished settlements usually located on hillsides or the outskirts of a city. In Technology of the Oppressed, David Nemer draws on extensive ethnographic fieldwork to provide a rich account of how favela residents engage with technology in community technology centers and in their everyday lives. Their stories reveal the structural violence of the information age. But they also show how those oppressed by technology don’t just reject it, but consciously resist and appropriate it, and how their experiences with digital technologies enable them to navigate both digital and nondigital sources of oppression—and even, at times, to flourish. Nemer uses a decolonial and intersectional framework called Mundane Technology as an analytical tool to understand how digital technologies can simultaneously be sites of oppression and tools in the fight for freedom. Building on the work of the Brazilian educator and philosopher Paulo Freire, he shows how the favela residents appropriate everyday technologies—technological artifacts (cell phones, Facebook), operations (repair), and spaces (Telecenters and Lan Houses)—and use them to alleviate the oppression in their everyday lives. He also addresses the relationship of misinformation to radicalization and the rise of the new far right. Contrary to the simplistic techno-optimistic belief that technology will save the poor, even with access to technology these marginalized people face numerous sources of oppression, including technological biases, racism, classism, sexism, and censorship. Yet the spirit, love, community, resilience, and resistance of favela residents make possible their pursuit of freedom.

Intercultural Communication and Science and Technology Studies

Intercultural Communication and Science and Technology Studies
Author: Luis Reyes-Galindo
Publisher: Springer
Total Pages: 244
Release: 2017-08-18
Genre: Social Science
ISBN: 3319583654

This timely and engaging book addresses communicative issues that arise when science and technology travel across socio-cultural boundaries. The authors discuss interactions between different scientific communities; scientists and policy-makers; science and the public; scientists and artists; and other situations where science clashes with other socio-cultural domains. The volume includes theoretical proposals of how to deal with intercultural communication related to science and technology, as well as rich case studies that illustrate the challenges and strategies deployed in these situations. Individual studies explore Europe, Latin America, and Africa, thus including diverse Global North and South contexts.

Area Studies (Regional Sustainable Development Review) Brazil

Area Studies (Regional Sustainable Development Review) Brazil
Author: Luis Enrique Sanchez
Publisher: EOLSS Publications
Total Pages: 424
Release: 2009-12-30
Genre: Sustainable development
ISBN: 1848261713

Area Studies - Brazil Regional Sustainable Development Review is a component of Encyclopedia of Area Studies - Regional Sustainable Development Review in the global Encyclopedia of Life Support Systems (EOLSS), which is an integrated compendium of twenty one Encyclopedias. This volume reviews initiatives and activities towards sustainable development in Brazil such as: Perspectives on Sustainable Development in Brazil; Demographic Dynamics and Sustainability in Brazil; The Impacts of Industrial Development in Brazil; Archeological Heritage and Cultural Resources in Brazil; Women's Perspectives On Sustainable Development In Brazil; Education, Public Awareness and Training Processes for Sustainability in Brazil: from history to perspectives; Implementation of the Convention on Biological Diversity in Brazil; Integrating the Environment and Development in the Decision-Making Process; Territorial Settlement, Regional Development and Environmental Problems in the Brazilian Midwest; Fragile Ecosystem: The Brazilian Pantanal Wetland. Although these presentations are with specific referenceto Brazil, they provide potentially useful lessons for other regions as well. This volume is aimed at the following five major target audiences: University and College students Educators, Professional practitioners, Research personnel and Policy analysts, managers, and decision makers and NGOs.

Skills and Jobs in Brazil

Skills and Jobs in Brazil
Author: Rita K. Almeida
Publisher: World Bank Publications
Total Pages: 213
Release: 2018-07-19
Genre: Business & Economics
ISBN: 1464812934

Skills and Jobs in Brazil: An Agenda for Youth is a new report focusing on the challenge of economic engagement among the Brazilian youth. In the context of a fast aging population, Brazil’s greatest economic opportunity is to increase its labor productivity, especially that of youth. This report documents important new facts about the extent of the youth economic disengagement, while at school and at work. Today, close to half of the Brazilian youth aged 15-29 years old is not fully economically engaged, because they are neither working nor studying, are studying in schools of poor quality, or are working in informal and precarious jobs. The report shows how the youth prospects in the labor market are dimmed by policies favoring existing workers over new entrants; in addition, it shows how youth are often ill equipped to meet an increasingly challenging labor market. The report suggests new education, skills, and jobs policy changes that Brazil could prioritize moving forward, so that it can take advantage of the last wave of its demographic transition. The report discusses in particular depth policies aiming to increase learning and reduce school dropouts in upper secondary education, and labor market policies that aim to support more effective and faster youth transitions from school to work.