Cooperative Agreement for Training Professionals for the Educational System:

With the objective of qualifying and training 21 (twenty-one) Faculty and Technical-Administrative Staff from the Federal Institute of Education, Science and Technology of Northern Minas Gerais – IFNMG in the Postgraduate Course – at the Master’s level, of the Postgraduate Program in Education at UESB, a Cooperative Agreement was established between IFNMG and PPGED/UESB. The need for professional qualification through stricto sensu graduate programs has led professionals to develop their training processes individually, not always counting on the support of the institutions in which they work professionally. Such gaps have caused a significant contingent of professionals, interested in improving their training, to seek programs whose objectives do not meet their needs, as these programs were designed to serve a different target audience, in this case, the training of researchers or research faculty. From this clash of interests and objectives results an inadequate formation, generating distortions in the system. Both parties lose in this case: the program that does not achieve its objectives and the candidates who submit to an inadequate model that does not equip them to continue and develop their activities upon returning to their institutions of origin.

Observing such a situation and assuming that the need for teacher qualification is an institutional demand rather than an individual one, some higher education institutions have been seeking to establish cooperative agreements with Postgraduate Programs to promote the training of their teaching staff. From this perspective, IFNMG, noting the possibility of improving the quality of education it offers to the population it serves, sought to establish a cooperative agreement with the Postgraduate Program in Education at UESB, in order to provide 21 faculty members from its various campuses the opportunity for Master’s level training in Education, from March 2014 to February 2016. On the other hand, the Postgraduate Program in Education (PPGEd) at the State University of Southwest Bahia (UESB) has as one of its objectives to qualify professionals for research and teaching, aiming at the advancement of knowledge in the field of Education in order to guarantee graduate students access to a broad, substantial, and articulated body of knowledge as a foundation for studying socio-educational issues. Additionally, there is interest in strengthening the Program with the Coordination for the Improvement of Higher Education Personnel (Capes), creating the possibility of establishing a Doctoral program, which is of interest to the proponents of this cooperative agreement and to the PPGEd. Thus, actions involving the publication of three books with texts produced by graduate students in partnership with their respective advisors and the structuring of a Sectoral Library of Education are fundamental to the quality of the Program’s academic activities and consequently to the quality of the training of the students under the cooperative agreement, with a view to their complete formation, not only at the master’s level but also, prospectively, at the doctoral level. The quality of training involves: Reinforcing pedagogical competencies; Improving technical-scientific training; Exercising autonomy in evaluation, judgment, and permanent updating; Seeking critical formation centered on interdisciplinary teaching and research; Systematizing and synthesizing cultural content, seeking to solve problems, re-elaborate concepts, and develop proactive attitudes; Understanding the school universe in its social and emancipatory function and in the diversity of cultural expressions; Being a participant in local and regional development by integrating the School into the social whole; among others. We understand that to develop such competencies, it is necessary to use updated bibliography that is consistent with the training area, which justifies the structuring/installation of a library, acquisition of books/updated bibliography relevant to the area, as well as the publication of works developed in the master’s research. The PPGEd has 21 professors working in the Master’s in Education program. In this sense, the PPGEd/UESB and IFNMG cooperative agreement includes 21 places for the Master’s in Education course, corresponding to one advisee for each advisor. The course will operate in conjunction with the regular classes, with the master’s students from IFNMG enrolled in the courses without any distinction from the master’s students from the regular selection process.

Thus, all master’s students will have equal access to all resources available in the Program, such as the central library, sectoral library, research groups, and events promoted by the Program. Created and operating since March 2013, according to Resolution No. 30/2012 of CONSEPE/UESB, accredited by CAPES on 9/27/12.