This paper, entitled “The Expansion of Distance Education and the Initial
Formation of Mathematics Teachers at UFPA: Democratization with Social Quality?” Was
guided by the search to understand if, in the context of neoliberal politics, the expansion of
the formation courses of distance learning teachers at UFPA expresses a democratization
process with social quality.
Thus, we had as general objective to investigate how democratization and social
quality are related to the Distance Education modality, having the Degree in Mathematics
Distance Education at UFPA as the focus of analysis. Specifically, the research aimed to:
1. Analyze the concept of DE in the expansion of higher education, amid the reform of the
neoliberal state; 2. To investigate the conception of democratization and quality, amidst the
legal framework, that the modality expressed in higher education, especially in teacher
training courses; and 3. To identify if in UFPA, the Mathematics Degree Course presents
characteristics of a democratization process with social quality.
The proposed methodological option was designed for a case study with a
qualitative approach. As data collection instruments, a documental and bibliographical
analysis was performed as a way to deepen the knowledge about the researched object.
From the theoretical foundations that guide this research and data analysis, we
present as main results: a) distance education is in a broad process of growth in the
country, both public and private, but more intensely in the latter, demonstrating that it
would be more incisively serving the “mercantilist” interests advocated by the state
apparatus reform policy and constituting itself as a strategy of advancement of the
capitalist system that transforms the education of the social public good into a product for
the commercial market; b) Through this mode of education, the government adjusts teacher
education to the demands of the capital system and weakens the social and political
dimension of individual education; c) Within the UFPA, it appears that, although timidly,
there was also an expansion of supply in this modality, but against this expansion there was
no guarantee of successful permanence until the conclusion of the teacher training course
in Mathematics. ; d) The democratization of education with social quality, in the course of
Mathematics in the distance education modality, at UFPA, is not yet a concrete reality and
presents itself as a huge challenge, given the high dropout rate.
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