Reformas no Sistema de Ensino Superior: a rerregulação dos docentes das universidades públicas de Portugal

Abstract

This thesis was originated from the understanding that the analysis of broad reforms that have taken place in higher education presupposed the historical and organic understanding of how came within the context of ongoing changes in capitalism. Portugal was chosen as the subject of research, in order that their subordination to the guidelines of international agencies has promoted the implementation of reforms that modify the feature of their universities. The central hypothesis of this thesis was that reforms were processed by producing new ways of being a teacher at this level of education. Therefore, we sought to identify what are the main characteristics of the work modes and subjective contributions of teachers of public universities in Portugal. As an extension of the central hypothesis, it was argued that hegemony of neoliberal policies in the system reforms would have as assets: the weakening of the autonomy of teachers and the lack of collective mobilization of these. In addition to the corroboration of the initial hypotheses, the thesis reveals that this situation, although more dramatic in the country due to the serious economic and financial crisis that experiences, seems to be observed in greater or lesser degree in other countries. In general, this work has been guided by the materialist and historical dialectic approach, from the expectation of obtaining an understanding of the reforms as a synthesis of multiple determinations, as a contradictory procedure directly related to a whole more widely. As fundamental methodology was adopted a methodological triangulation, through the combination of the following data collection methods: bibliographical research, documentary research, observation and interviews. In addition to the partial conclusions presented throughout the text, it have been identified some trends for higher education at a global level, guarding the specificities of the Portuguese scene, which are: 1) The capitalist state has thickened increasingly as driving to the higher education policies show; 2) This thickening is due to the expectation that the neoliberal logic has about the role of the university in society; 3) It arises new forms of management of the systems from the recommendations of international organizations; 4) The broad legal and structural reforms in national higher education systems to promote the implementation of supranational policies have in weakening the teaching autonomy its greatest asset 5) The reforms are converging toward the privatization of higher education; 6) the teacher in higher education is a worker, therefore, is under the same process of precariousness that any other workers; 7) The reforms in higher education reach the subjectivities of teachers. From these results, we can infer that the university teachers have turned into goods and capital agents. The 'organic intellectual' has turned into 'intellectual' manager, skeptical and pragmatic, who have abandoned principles, beliefs and vision of the whole. From the study performed in Portugal, this thesis proposes a reflection on how the teachers of the Brazilian higher education will be able to meet the challenges and the recurring attacks suffered, in order to defend the project of a public, free, high quality, secular and socially well ranked university