Expansion and Commercialization of Pedagogy Courses: Large-Scale Deformation of Future Pedagogues

Abstract

This paper brings the analysis of characteristics of the expansion of Pedagogy courses in Brazil, especially in the last decade, based on data from the Higher Education Census and the National Student Performance Exam (known by the acronym ENADE, in Portuguese), from the National Institute of Educational Studies and Research Anísio Teixeira (INEP), updated until 2021. The process of expansion of the Pedagogy course follows two trends: at a macro level, there is the process of growth in private Higher Education, especially concentrated in a few financialized groups; at the micro level, there is a set of legal inductions for teacher education to take place at a higher level and the consolidation of the Pedagogy course as a privileged place for teacher education for Early Childhood Education and early grades of Elementary School as opposed to other courses like the course of Normal Colleges (Teacher training colleges which prepare teachers for Elementary School). The results presented by this work point to what was here called “large-scale deformation”, considering the increasing concentration of enrollments in private universities focused almost exclusively on teaching (with little articulation with research and extension), in distance learning courses, with high dropout rates and low scores in ENADE compared to federal and state public institutions.