Contradictions in the institutionalization of the uab system at a brazilian public university

Abstract

This article presents partial results of a study on the Pedagogy undergraduate program at the Federal Rural University of Pernambuco (UFRPE), offered within the Open University of Brazil (UAB). The study aims to analyze how distance education policies, guided by neoliberal rationalities, reconfigure teaching work in public higher education. A qualitative approach was adopted, including document analysis and a semi-structured interview with the program coordinator. The text is organized into three analytical axes: the relationship between neoliberalism and the theoretical-methodological framework; distance education policies in Brazil; and the institutional context of UFRPE. Drawing on the contributions of Stephen Ball and collaborators, the study discusses the production of subjectivities and its effects on educational policies and local contexts. The results indicate that the global agenda shapes rationalities and modes of operation in education, consolidating policies that reorganize teaching work through control, auditing, precarization, and intensification. The institutionalization of distance education and the UAB System introduced polydocence, fragmenting teaching work across different functions. Although this model expands access to higher education, the study highlights contradictions, including precarious employment conditions and the difficulties students face in following the semi-presential course, while the private sector remains predominant in the provision of distance education in the country.